Warner Music Group Has Been Africori Limited’s Controlling Shareholder Since 20 December 2021, 23 Days Before It Announced the Stake. Warner’s Own SEC Exhibits Called the Company Mauritian for Two More Years.

The UK register dates Warner Music Group control of Africori Limited to 20 December 2021, 23 days before the announcement. Warner SEC exhibits called the company Mauritian until fiscal 2024.

Yewande Coker

September 26, 2026 1 min read

Deal sheet

Status

Control of AFRICORI LIMITED, a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales on 25 November 2011, company number 07860646, passed to Warner Music Group Corp. on 20 December 2021 according to the UK register of persons with significant control. The PSC entry for Warner Music Group Corp. records governing law "Us Law", legal form "Us Corporation", place registered "Division Of Corporations – Delaware", registration number 3731133, correspondence address 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, DE 19801, and nature of control as ownership of shares of 75 per cent or more, ownership of voting rights of 75 per cent or more, and the right to appoint or remove directors. It is shown as active and has no cessation date. The preceding entry, recorded as "Ceo Joel Kenan", French nationality, place of residence South Africa, date of birth September 1966, with the same three categories of control, was notified on 6 April 2016 and ceased on 20 December 2021.

The filing history for the same company records a statement of capital following an allotment of shares on 20 December 2021 of GBP 26.67, filed on 10 January 2022. It records the cessation of Joel Kenan as a person with significant control, event dated 20 December 2021, filed on 17 April 2022, 118 days later. It records the notification of Warner Music Group Corp. as a person with significant control, event dated 20 December 2021, filed on 4 November 2022, 319 days later. Warner Music Group's press release announcing a majority stake in Africori is dated 12 January 2022, 23 days after the event date on the register.

Three earlier register events line up with the publicly described stages of the relationship without any document stating that they are connected. Hameedat Temilade Adeniji, American nationality, place of residence South Africa, was appointed a director on 30 March 2020, in the period Warner has described as its first investment in Africori in early 2020. New Memorandum and Articles of Association were adopted and filed on 24 April 2020. The company's accounting reference date was shortened from 28 November 2021 to 30 September 2021 in a filing of 23 November 2021, aligning the company's financial year end with Warner Music Group's 30 September fiscal year end, one month before the control allotment.

Board composition has since moved entirely to Warner-side names. Alfonso Javier Perez Soto was appointed a director on 12 November 2024 and terminated on 29 August 2025. Adeniji's appointment terminated on 31 October 2025. Simon Kenneth Geoffrey Robson was appointed on 10 November 2025 and Alen Torosyan on 18 November 2025. Joel Kenan, a director from incorporation on 25 November 2011, was terminated on 3 April 2026. As at the confirmation statement dated 17 April 2026, filed 21 April 2026 with no updates, the two serving directors are Robson and Torosyan.

Type

Acquisition

Parties

Africori, Warner Music Group

Amount

Not disclosed Not disclosed

Rights covered

Equity and voting control in AFRICORI LIMITED (UK company number 07860646), the England and Wales company that sits at the top of the Africori distribution, rights-management and label-services business. The register records the holding only as a band: ownership of shares of 75 per cent or more and ownership of voting rights of 75 per cent or more, together with the right to appoint or remove directors. It does not state a precise percentage, and because the top PSC band is 75 per cent or more, a move from a majority stake to full ownership requires no new entry. The UK register therefore cannot confirm or deny the 100 per cent figure Warner and Africori used when they announced completion of a full acquisition in February 2025.

This record covers corporate control only. It does not cover master recordings. No document read for this record assigns, licenses or otherwise moves rights in any sound recording. Artists and labels that distribute through Africori retain ownership of their own masters unless a separate agreement between them and Africori says otherwise, and no such agreement was read for this record. The distinction is between owning the distributor and owning the catalogue that passes through it, and only the first is documented here.

Territory

AFRICORI LIMITED is incorporated in England and Wales, registered office Cannon Place, 78 Cannon Street, London EC4N 6AF since 4 November 2022, previously Ground Floor 31, Kentish Town Road, London NW1 8NL from 7 August 2019, and 25 Horsell Road, London N5 1XL before that. Its SIC code is 59200, sound recording and music publishing activities.

The corporate control recorded here is not territorially limited: a controlling shareholding in a holding company is held over the company, not over a market. The operating business it sits above is described by the company and by Warner as pan-African, headquartered in Johannesburg with offices in Lagos and London. No document read for this record states which operating subsidiaries sit beneath the UK company or in what shareholding chain. Warner's Exhibit 21.1 separately lists Africori SA PTY LTD as a South African subsidiary of Warner Music Group, but the exhibit is a flat list and does not show which entity holds which.

Announced

2022-01-12

Primary document

Regulatory filing

Sources

Read this before citing: NO CONSIDERATION HAS EVER BEEN DISCLOSED. No price, valuation, advance or earn-out appears in any document read for this record, for the 2020 investment, the December 2021 allotment, or the February 2025 completion. The GBP 26.67 figure in the statement of capital filed on 10 January 2022 is the company's total issued share capital after the allotment. It is a nominal capital figure, not a purchase price, and it must not be read as one.

THE REGISTER DOES NOT GIVE A PERCENTAGE. UK persons-with-significant-control bands top out at "75% or more". Warner Music Group Corp. has sat in that band since 20 December 2021 and no entry has changed since. That is consistent with a majority stake and equally consistent with 100 per cent ownership. The register cannot distinguish the two, so it neither confirms nor contradicts the "full acquisition" language used in February 2025.

THE JURISDICTION CONFLICT IS UNRESOLVED. Warner Music Group's Form 10-K Exhibit 21.1 lists "Africori Limited" against Mauritius in the fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023 exhibits and against United Kingdom in the fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 exhibits. The UK register shows a continuously active AFRICORI LIMITED incorporated in England and Wales on 25 November 2011 with Warner as its controlling party since December 2021. Three readings are possible: two separate companies of the same name in two jurisdictions, with the exhibit switching which one it lists; a redomiciliation; or a corrected data entry. This desk could not establish which. The Mauritius Corporate and Business Registration Department online search was reached and found to be a JavaScript application behind a challenge page that could not be queried programmatically from this server, and Mauritius publishes no open company API. No Mauritius filing was read. Warner has published no statement on the change, and none was found.

THE PSC FILINGS WERE LATE ON THEIR FACE. The notification of Warner Music Group Corp., event dated 20 December 2021, was filed on 4 November 2022. The cessation of Joel Kenan, same event date, was filed on 17 April 2022. Those are gaps of 319 and 118 days respectively. This record states the dates and the arithmetic. It does not allege a breach of any statutory deadline, because no statutory provision was fetched and read for this record.

NAME MATCHING BETWEEN THE REGISTER AND PUBLIC ROLES IS AN INFERENCE. The register records "Ceo Joel Kenan"; Africori's founder is publicly named Yoel Kenan. It records "ADENIJI, Hameedat Temilade"; Warner's February 2025 release names Temi Adeniji as Managing Director of Warner Music Africa. It records "PEREZ SOTO, Alfonso Javier"; Warner's January 2022 release names Alfonso Perez-Soto as Warner Recorded Music's president of emerging markets. It records "ROBSON, Simon Kenneth Geoffrey"; Simon Robson is publicly named as Warner's president of EMEA recorded music. Nationality, residence and date alignment make each match highly likely, but no single document states that the register entry and the named executive are the same person. Alen Torosyan could not be matched to any public role and this desk asserts none.

THE FOUNDING DATE DOES NOT MATCH THE INCORPORATION DATE. Africori is publicly described, including in Warner's own announcement material, as founded in 2009. AFRICORI LIMITED was incorporated at Companies House on 25 November 2011. Those are different facts about potentially different things, a business and a company, and no document read for this record reconciles them.

THE COMPANY WAS ONCE FACING STRIKE-OFF. The filing history records a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off on 2 December 2014. The company was not struck off and remains active. No document read explains what prompted the notice or what resolved it.

THE UK ACCOUNTS ARE FILED UNDER EXEMPTION. Every set of accounts in the filing history, up to and including those made up to 30 September 2025 and filed on 30 June 2026, is described as "total exemption full accounts". That means abbreviated small-company filing, so the UK company's turnover, profit and intra-group balances are not on the public record. Nothing about the financial size of the Africori business can be read off this register.

ONE DATING DIVERGENCE ON THE COMPLETION ANNOUNCEMENT. The press-release text of Warner's completion announcement was read on a wire page dated 12 February 2025. Contemporaneous trade coverage, and this site's own earlier record, date the completion announcement to 11 February 2025. The divergence is one day and this record does not resolve it.

AN EARLIER RECORD ON THIS SITE SAYS MAURITIUS. This desk's existing deal record on Warner's completion of the Africori acquisition describes the acquired holding company as "Africori Limited (registered in Mauritius)", following Warner's fiscal 2022 exhibit. Warner's two most recent exhibits say United Kingdom. That earlier record has been annotated accordingly.

The UK register of persons with significant control for AFRICORI LIMITED, company number 07860646, records Warner Music Group Corp. as holding 75 per cent or more of the shares, 75 per cent or more of the voting rights, and the right to appoint or remove directors, notified on 20 December 2021. The same register records the cessation of Joel Kenan as a person with significant control on the same date. Warner announced a majority stake on 12 January 2022, 23 days later. No consideration has been disclosed at any stage.

This record fixes three things the announcements did not. First, a date: control changed on 20 December 2021, and a statement of capital filed on 10 January 2022 records an allotment of shares on that date, leaving issued capital of GBP 26.67. Second, a jurisdiction problem: Warner’s Form 10-K Exhibit 21.1 lists “Africori Limited” as incorporated in Mauritius for fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023, then as incorporated in the United Kingdom for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025. This desk could not establish whether that reflects two separate companies of the same name, a redomiciliation, or a corrected entry. Third, a filing gap: the notification of Warner Music Group Corp. as a person with significant control was filed at Companies House on 4 November 2022, 319 days after the date it records.

What is recorded is control of a company. It is not ownership of any recording. Artists and labels distributed by Africori keep their own masters unless a separate agreement says otherwise, and no document read for this record transfers a single master.

Deal sheet

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