BMG Owns the World Circuit Catalogue of African Masters and Publishing. The UK Register Dates Control to 5 October 2018, Ten Days Before the Announcement

Deal sheet

Status

COMPLETED AND STILL IN FORCE AS AT 8 OCTOBER 2026. BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited remains the sole active person with significant control of World Circuit Limited on the UK register, with no cessation date recorded. World Circuit Limited is active and filed audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025 on 10 July 2026.

THE DATELINE. The register dates control to 5 October 2018. BMG announced the acquisition on 15 October 2018. On that same 5 October, three things are recorded: BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited was notified as controller; Nicola O'Donnell ceased as a person with significant control and resigned as company secretary; and Nicholas David Gold, a director since before 11 December 1991, resigned as a director. Four BMG-side directors were appointed the same day: Hartwig Masuch, Peter Stack, Paul Jonathan Wilson and Dr Maximilian Dressendoerfer. The announcement followed ten days later.

NICK GOLD. BMG's announcement states that "the label's creative mastermind Nick Gold will join BMG to help further develop the catalogue with new projects." The register separately records his resignation as a director of World Circuit Limited on 5 October 2018. These are not in conflict: leaving the board of the acquired company and taking a role on the buyer side can both be true. No document reviewed states what his BMG role was, or whether he still holds it.

THE CHAIN TODAY. World Circuit Limited, 02072285, is wholly owned by BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, 06705101. Note 17 of the FY2025 accounts names Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA as the ultimate controlling party and parent company. On 1 September 2026 BMG and Concord completed a combination, first announced 28 April 2026, with the combined company owned 67 per cent by Bertelsmann and 33 per cent by affiliates of Great Mountain Partners, operating under the BMG name, global headquarters Nashville and European headquarters Berlin. Affiliates of Great Mountain Partners received a one-time cash payment of 1.16 billion US dollars. None of that is a transaction in the World Circuit catalogue; it is a change in the ownership of the group above it.

Type

Acquisition

Parties

World Circuit, BMG, Bertelsmann

Amount

Not disclosed

Rights covered

MASTER RECORDINGS AND PUBLISHING COPYRIGHTS, BY ACQUISITION OF THE COMPANY THAT HOLDS THEM. BMG's own announcement of 15 October 2018 states: "Following the acquisition BMG will take over World Circuit's unique catalogue of recordings and publishing copyrights." Both layers are therefore in scope: the recorded-music side and the song side.

OWNS AND ADMINISTERS, NOT DISTRIBUTES. World Circuit Limited's FY2025 audited accounts state that the company "owns and administers rights to all forms of recorded music, exploits and markets these compositions and receives royalties or fees for their use", and define royalty licensing income as arising from "the use by a third party of the copyrights and masters rights on musical works owned or administered by the Company". The accounts separate royalty licensing income of GBP 2,137,000 from synchronisation licensing income of GBP 37,000. No document reviewed names a distributor, an aggregator or a direct DSP relationship for this catalogue, and none is asserted here.

STRUCTURE. This is a share-level acquisition, not an asset purchase of individual copyrights. World Circuit Limited was not dissolved or merged. It remains an active company, number 02072285, filing its own audited accounts, with the rights sitting inside it and BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited above it.

AFRICAN CONTENT OF THE CATALOGUE. BMG's announcement named artists "from countries including Cuba, Colombia, Spain, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal", that is four African countries. MusicBrainz, browsed on 8 October 2026, catalogues 217 World Circuit releases and 62 distinct credited artists, of which 22 resolve to African areas across ten countries: Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Mauritania, Sudan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Algeria and Guinea. The registry therefore shows six African countries that the announcement did not name.

CARRYING VALUE. The acquired catalogue is carried at nil in World Circuit Limited's own balance sheet. The only intangible asset recognised at 31 December 2025 is GBP 11,000 of development expenditure, defined in the accounts as ancillary content and graphic design with a useful life of 1.5 to 2 years. The accounts therefore place no value on the catalogue itself.

Territory

NOT STATED IN THE ANNOUNCEMENT. BMG's 15 October 2018 release gives no territorial limit and no term. Because the transaction was an acquisition of the company rather than a licence of the rights, a territorial grant would not be expected to appear, and its absence is not treated here as evidence of a worldwide grant.

WHERE THE MONEY IS BOOKED. World Circuit Limited's FY2025 accounts analyse revenue by country of destination: United Kingdom GBP 214,000, North America GBP 582,000, Europe GBP 1,374,000, Rest of the World GBP 4,000, total GBP 2,174,000. The 2024 comparatives are United Kingdom GBP 934,000, North America GBP 401,000, Europe GBP 780,000, Rest of the World GBP 4,000, total GBP 2,119,000. Country of destination records where the paying customer or licensee sits. It is not a statement about where artists live and it is not a statement of what any artist was paid.

TERM. Indefinite. Ownership of a company does not expire. No reversion, reassignment or buy-back provision appears in any document reviewed.

Announced

2018-10-15

Primary document

Regulatory filing

Sources

UK Companies House persons with significant control register for World Circuit Limited, company number 02072285. Fetched and read in full from this server on 8 October 2026; HTTP 200. This is the statutory record of who controls the company and it is preferred here over the announcement because it carries a date of control rather than a date of publicity. It records BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, registration 06705101, notified on 5 October 2018 with more than 75 per cent of shares, more than 75 per cent of voting rights and the right to appoint and remove directors, and it records the previous controller Nicola O'Donnell ceasing on the same date. · Archived capture, 5 August 2021, of BMG's own newsroom announcement of 15 October 2018. Read in full. Source of the acquisition wording, the statement that BMG would take over the catalogue of recordings and publishing copyrights, the list of countries including Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal, the Fatoumata Diawara and Mbongwana Star signings, and the Nick Gold and Peter Stack quotes. The live bmg.com URL returned HTTP 404 on 8 October 2026 · World Circuit Limited audited annual report and financial statements, year ended 31 December 2025. 36 pages, approved by the board 22 June 2026, filed 10 July 2026, audit opinion signed by Paul Brown for Grant Thornton UK LLP. Read in full. Source of every GBP figure in this record, the owns-and-administers wording, the wholly-owned subsidiary statement, the nil carrying value of the catalogue, the note 3 cash-generating unit judgement, the note 14 post balance sheet events statement, the note 15 prior year adjustment and the note 17 controlling party identification · UK Companies House officers list for World Circuit Limited, 02072285. Read in full. Source of the 5 October 2018 resignation of Nicholas David Gold, the same-day appointment of Hartwig Masuch, Peter Stack, Paul Jonathan Wilson and Dr Maximilian Dressendoerfer, and the current directors David John D'Urbano and Alistair Mark Norbury · UK Companies House register page for World Circuit Limited. Read in full. Source of the 10 November 1986 incorporation, the Griffinsong Limited previous name, active status and SIC 90030 · UK Companies House persons with significant control register for BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, 06705101. Read in full. Source of the 15 June 2026 cessation of Bertelsmann UK Limited and the same-date notification of Christoph Mohn · BMG official newsroom, 1 September 2026. Read in full, HTTP 200 on 8 October 2026. Source of the 67/33 Bertelsmann and Great Mountain Partners split, the 1.16 billion US dollar one-time cash payment, the 28 April 2026 announcement date, the Nashville and Berlin headquarters and the four million works figure · Bertelsmann official newsroom, 1 September 2026. Read in full, HTTP 200 on 8 October 2026. Corroborates the 67/33 split and the completion date, and adds the approximately 1.1 billion euro Apollo equity investment into a minority interest in part of BMG's rights portfolio. It does not state the 1.16 billion US dollar payment, which appears in BMG's own release · MusicBrainz label browse for World Circuit, MBID ad3947c8-2a1e-45b7-a41b-fd0f4d1065bc, 8 October 2026. 217 releases, 62 distinct credited artists. Artist areas resolved individually via the MusicBrainz artist endpoint at one request per second

Read this before citing: CONSIDERATION NOT DISCLOSED AND NOT RECOVERABLE. BMG's announcement states no price. World Circuit Limited's own accounts do not disclose one, because the purchase happened above it: the shares changed hands, the company did not buy anything. No filing reviewed discloses what BMG paid. Nothing is asserted.

THE PRIMARY ANNOUNCEMENT IS NO LONGER LIVE. The URL https://www.bmg.com/uk/news/bmg-acquires-world-circuit-records.html returned HTTP 404 from this server on 8 October 2026. The text relied on here is an archived capture of 5 August 2021, which returned HTTP 200. This is the acquiring party's own wording, preserved, but it is no longer published by the acquiring party. A previous pass of this desk recorded the 2018 acquisition as unsourceable first-party for exactly this reason; the archived capture closes that gap.

NO POST BALANCE SHEET EVENT DISCLOSED. The FY2025 accounts and directors' report were approved on 22 June 2026 and state, at note 14 and in the directors' report: "There were no significant post balance sheet events which have happened since the year end effecting the Company." The 28 April 2026 announcement of the Concord combination preceded that approval date, as did the 15 June 2026 change on the persons with significant control register of the immediate parent. Whether the directors were required to disclose either as a post balance sheet event of this subsidiary is a judgement for the directors and their auditor, and no view is taken here. The sequence is recorded because it is on the public record.

PSC POSITION AT THE PARENT NOT RECONCILED. The persons with significant control register for BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, 06705101, records Bertelsmann UK Limited ceasing on 15 June 2026 and Christoph Mohn notified on the same date with more than 75 per cent of shares and voting rights. That sits at a different corporate level from the 67/33 split announced for the combined company, and the two documents cannot be reconciled from the public record alone. No contradiction is alleged and no group role is asserted for Christoph Mohn.

PRIOR YEAR RESTATEMENT. Note 15 records a prior period adjustment increasing artist advances by GBP 1,073,000 and the associated provision by GBP 855,000 at 31 December 2024, and increasing net shareholders' funds by GBP 218,000 at both 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024, with no impact on previously reported profit. Artist and writer advances stand at GBP 1,364,000 at 31 December 2025 after a provision of GBP 830,000. The accounts do not break advances down by artist, so nothing can be said about any individual artist.

NO SONG-LEVEL OR CATALOGUE-LEVEL REPORTING EXISTS. Note 3 records management's judgement that "separately identifiable cash flows can only be reliably measured at the Company level", not at individual song level or individual catalogue level. It is therefore not possible, from the filed accounts, to say what any single African recording earns.

UK REVENUE MOVEMENT NOT EXPLAINED. Revenue booked to the United Kingdom fell from GBP 934,000 to GBP 214,000 while Europe rose from GBP 780,000 to GBP 1,374,000. The accounts give no explanation for the movement between those two lines. A reclassification is plausible but is not stated, and is not asserted here.

NOT AN SEC REGISTRANT. Neither World Circuit Limited nor BMG files with the SEC, so no regulatory filing in that jurisdiction was available to corroborate any of this.