The man handling the landmark sale of 10% of Led Zeppelin has revealed to LedZepNews in his first interview about the sale why it’s being carried out in public.

Ian Penman is a solicitor in the UK who is representing Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant’s daughter Helen as she seeks a buyer for her 10% stake in Led Zeppelin, including a share of the band’s music as well its trademarks and merchandising.

Grant is publicly seeking buyers for her stake through Penman, an unusual strategy in a world where deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars are typically negotiated privately and only then announced to the world once the deals are complete.

The planned sale of Grant’s 10% stake was revealed on the morning of July 10, and we spoke to Penman hours later over the phone.

Penman told LedZepNews that publicly advertising the sale isn’t happening because any private negotiations have broken down. “Not at all, no. That’s not the case,” he said. “There have been a lot of companies interested, a lot of private individuals interested and they are all still interested and we are still in negotiations.”

“I felt that we hadn’t necessarily reached all the parts that we need to reach so I suggested to Helen that going public might make sure that if there is a potential custodian of her rights in the future that may not be aware that she’s selling, on a worldwide basis, that we should try to find them,” Penman continued.

“So it was my idea that she went public, rather reluctantly. She wasn’t initially stunned at the idea but I think she saw sense and I think you yourself know that it is starting to bear fruit because people that weren’t aware of the sale are now aware.”

“But it’s not at all that any negotiations have broken down,” he added. “There have been several companies that heard about it on the grapevine and we haven’t gone out of our way to push this. There’s no advert on my website or anything like that. It’s been word of mouth and there have been a number of companies that have started to show interest and take it further and I felt that we should make sure that the net is as wide as possible.”