MCD buys 16% stake in Mean Fiddler

MCD, the concert promoter owned by Denis Desmond, has today secured a 16.21 per cent share in the Mean Fiddler Music Group.

Vince Power, who owns Mean Fiddler, sold 10 million of his shares to MCD with a sale that totalled £4.23 million sterling - effectively cutting Power's own stake by around one-third, to 35 per cent.

In a statement released this morning, Mr Desmond announced that he will join the board of Mean Fiddler as soon as the ink has dried on the deal: "This is tremendous news for both MCD and Mean Fiddler as we will be able to scale our businesses to take advantage of the significant opportunities in the live music market. As a committed long term investor, we will have the ability to cross market our various leading venues and festivals."

In the same statement, Vince Power welcomed MCD as a major shareholder in Mean Fiddler: "I have known Denis for over twenty years and have always respected him as a competitor. Together we can work to deliver value to Mean Fiddler shareholders through increased bargaining power with both artists and suppliers.

Power continued: "I have thought long and hard about giving up majority control of the Group that I founded, but this deal is unquestionably the right one for the future of Mean Fiddler."

MCD has a significant presence in the British live music industry, including interests in the Shepherds Bush Empire, Brixton Academy and the V festivals. For its part, Mean Fiddler is a major player in the international promotions market, owning the Astoria, Forum and Reading, as well as interests in the Leeds and Glastonbury festivals.

More recently in an Irish context, Mean Fiddler was responsible for bringing Metallica's Summer Sanatorium World Tour to the RDS during the summer. At the time the one-day event was described by the company as a 'curtain raiser' for a full-scale Reading festival in Ireland:

"It will grow in the next few years to become a two to three-day, five-stage camping festival at the stunning Stradbally Hall estate in Stradbally, County Laois. The festival will twin itself with the world renowned Reading Festivals in England and grow to become Reading Ireland."

At this stage, it is not clear if or how MCD's purchase of shares will impact on this and other Mean Fiddler interests.

Stay tuned to hotpress.com for further updates as we get them.