NETHERLANDS - APG, the recently-launched manager of the €217bn Dutch pension fund ABP, has made an additional investment of £126m (€157.2m) in music rights.

The fund manager announced today it has bought British music publisher Boosey & Hawkes and its music catalogue -  the largest classical music rights catalogue in the world, according to APG - with its new investment fund Imagem Music.

This investment follows APG's first foray into music rights in February, when it bought €140m worth of European publishing rights from Universal Music Group.

In a joint venture with the Dutch-based indie music publisher CP Masters (CPM), the fund announced it had bought the catalogues of Rondor UK, Zomba UK, 19 Music, 19 Songs and the BBC Catalogue, comprising some 90,000 copyright entitlements.

ABP and CPM created the new investment fund Image, to hold music acquisitions.

Ronald Wuijster, head of strategy and research at APG, commented today: "This acquisition causes a wider spread in our portfolio for the purpose of diversification and strengthens our position."

He added: "Intellectual property rights, among which are music publishing rights, are a lucrative new investment category for us, with attractive returns for a long-term investor focused on getting real, absolute returns."

A spokesman for APG told IPE in February the investment manager expects to have a return of 8% from this investment class.

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