Reservoir and PopArabia acquire Cairo label 100COPIES
Reservoir Media and PopArabia acquired Egyptian label 100COPIES in 2022. A Reservoir SEC filing reports a 51% interest in PopArabia, a controlling stake usually described only as a partnership.
Deal sheet
- Type
- Acquisition
- Parties
- Reservoir Media, PopArabia, 100COPIES
- Rights covered
- label catalogue and a joint venture for Egyptian signings
- Territory
- Egypt
- Announced
- 2022-05-01
- Primary document
- Regulatory filing
- Sources
- Reservoir Exhibit 21.1 · Reservoir Exhibit 21.1 FY2026, now 56.23% · Music Business Worldwide · Music In Africa · Music Week
Read this before citing: 100COPIES is absent from Reservoir Exhibit 21.1. Do NOT read that as evidence about the acquisition structure: the schedule is hierarchical, an acquisition may be of catalogue rather than a corporate entity, and small holdings need not be listed. The filing establishes a 51 per cent interest in PopArabia, held through the Reservoir chain, and nothing more.
Reservoir Media and PopArabia acquired the Cairo label 100COPIES in May 2022 and formed a joint venture with it to sign and develop Egyptian talent. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Who owns whom
The ownership behind this deal is documented in a filing rather than inferred. Reservoir Media’s Exhibit 21.1, the subsidiary schedule filed with its annual report for the year ended 31 March 2025, lists PopArabia FZ-LLC as organised in the Abu Dhabi Media Free Zone, United Arab Emirates, and reports a 51.00% interest in it.
Stated precisely, because the exhibit is hierarchical: the schedule notes that each percentage relates to the entity directly above it, with indentation marking intermediary levels of ownership. The interest is therefore held through Reservoir’s corporate chain rather than necessarily by the listed parent directly, and the exact chain cannot be named from the document because indentation is lost when the filing is read as text. It does not change the figure. Every intermediate Reservoir entity in the schedule is held at 100%, so the effective interest is 51% however the chain runs.
Position since: that 51.00% is the figure as at 31 March 2025. Reservoir’s schedule for the year ended 31 March 2026 reports 56.23%. The 2022 acquisition described here was made by a vehicle Reservoir held a smaller share of than it holds today.
That matters for how this deal is usually described. PopArabia is routinely referred to as Reservoir’s partner in the region, which understates the relationship: a 51% interest is control, not partnership. A New York listed company holds a controlling interest in the vehicle that acquired an Egyptian label.
What the filing does not say
100COPIES does not appear by name in Reservoir’s subsidiary schedule. That absence is not evidence about the structure of the acquisition. The schedule is hierarchical and reports holdings relative to the entity above, an acquisition may be of catalogue rather than of a corporate entity, and small holdings are not necessarily listed. What the document establishes is a 51% interest in PopArabia, and nothing further should be read into it.
Background
100COPIES was founded in 2006 by the Cairo producer Mahmoud Refaat and invested early in Mahraganat, the street sound built from Arabic rap, electronic production and Egyptian traditional elements. Its roster included El Sawareekh.
The deal is one of a series through which Reservoir and PopArabia have built a North African and Middle Eastern rights position, alongside the acquisition of the catalogue of Egyptian artist Omar Kamal and further transactions in the region.
