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Are EMI’s fortunes looking up?

By | Published on Wednesday 23 September 2009

Despite the continued fast turnover of senior execs at EMI, and owner Guy Hands’ previously reported down-beat assessment of his 2007 acquisition of the music major, some reckon that things are finally looking up at the London-based music firm. The Financial News says that it reckons EMI’s financial position has improved to an extent that the major is no longer completely reliant on extra cash from Guy Hand’s Terra Firma or a radical restructure of its debt commitments to Citibank in order continue to be a viable business. So that’s nice.

This month’s big Beatles venture has probably had a role in lifting the major’s short term fortunes. EMI have said the much previously reported release of the remastered Beatles catalogue shifted 2.25 million units worldwide in just the first week, more than a million in the US alone. While the share of revenues between EMI and Beatles company Apple Corps is unknown, such big sales will be very helpful for the major in both cashflow and profit terms. Though EMI bosses could do still do with the new Robbie album doing well also – partly to bring in extra revenues, and partly to convince investment types that there is still a value to investing in new releases even though its mainly catalogue that’s propping up the major just at the moment.



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