LedZepNews has confirmed that a deal has been signed to buy Helen Grant’s 10% stake in royalties from Led Zeppelin’s catalogue, but one possible buyer has publicly ruled out purchasing it.

Ian Penman, a lawyer representing Helen Grant, has publicly confirmed for the first time LedZepNews’ September report that a deal has been reached for Grant’s stake.

“Helen’s shares are currently under binding/signed offer,” Penman told LedZepNews. “In due course, we will be making an announcement about the deal.”

LedZepNews revealed in September that an £8.5 million offer had been received for Grant’s stake in Led Zeppelin’s royalties. At the time, Grant’s lawyer declined to comment on our reporting.

Now, Penman has confirmed a deal has been signed but declined to comment when asked the value of the transaction and whether it’s the same deal worth £8.5 million that we revealed last year.

Corporate filings published earlier this year showed that no deal has closed and the shares haven’t yet changed hands.

The deal could result in an outsider owning a stake of Led Zeppelin’s music for the first time, potentially pressuring the surviving band members to release more material to increase the royalties received by the buyer.

Irving Azoff says he isn’t the buyer

The only investor identified so far as being interested in Grant’s stake was music mogul Irving Azoff. But he has now ruled himself out of the sale process, denying that talks are in progress between his companies and Grant.

Speaking exclusively to LedZepNews, Azoff said he has “no knowledge” of any talks currently taking place to acquire Grant’s stake, which she has been publicly seeking to sell for the past year.

A source close to Grant previously told LedZepNews and music industry publication Music Business Worldwide that Azoff’s business Iconic Artists Group had expressed an interest in purchasing Grant’s stake.

Iconic Artists Group has been a prolific acquirer of catalogues of legacy artists, buying up catalogues including The Beach Boys, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart and Bryan Ferry.

Azoff, who also manages artists including U2, The Eagles and Bon Jovi through his business Full Stop Management, told LedZepNews that no talks with him regarding a stake in Led Zeppelin’s catalogue are ongoing.

The music manager and businessman also told LedZepNews he “loved Peter Grant,” Helen Grant’s father, and had “huge respect” for him.

The management styles of the two men has previously been compared, with the Chicago Tribune noting that “Grant came from the Irving Azoff school of music management” due to his lack of meddling in the musical output of Led Zeppelin.

Penman confirmed to LedZepNews that the deal for Grant’s shares “is not related in any way to Irving or his company.”

Who is the buyer?

This raises the question of who the deal has been reached with. It’s possible that Jimmy Page may be seeking to increase his ownership of Led Zeppelin’s royalties, something he has done in the past.

For decades, Page owned 50% of Superhype Tapes, the company he established in 1968 to manage Led Zeppelin’s royalties, with the band’s manager Peter Grant owning the other 50% of the business. 

Corporate filings show that between July 2002 and July 2003, Page seemingly reached a deal with Grant’s two children to purchase a further 30% of Superhype Tapes from them, increasing Page’s ownership of the business to 80% and leaving them each with 10% of the business.

This transaction occurred around the time of the May 2003 release of Led Zeppelin’s “DVD” and the live album “How The West Was Won”, giving Page a larger share of the royalties from these releases.

The assets up for sale

LedZepNews previously revealed that Grant is selling her 10% stake in Superhype Tapes along with 10% of United Blag Productions, another business in the UK that controls parts of Led Zeppelin’s catalogue.

The other assets offered for sale are 10% of Bad Company Entertainment, a UK business that controls parts of Bad Company’s catalogue along with an unspecified stake in Swan Song, a US business also used for Bad Company’s music.

An unidentified person sought to sell a 10% stake in Swan Song through the website Royalty Exchange in 2022, reaching a deal to sell their portion of the business for $390,000.

Sources tell LedZepNews that Grant’s stake in these companies likely results in thousands of pounds of revenue every month, but has no power to control Led Zeppelin releases and she owns no stake in the band’s merchandising business Mythgem.

We previously detailed the band’s corporate empire which includes more than 50 businesses encompassing the band’s operations as well as personal companies controlled by the band members.

A public appeal for buyers

Grant has taken the unusual approach of publicly seeking buyers for her stake in Led Zeppelin’s catalogue, announcing her intention to sell the assets in an interview with The Times on July 10, 2023.

“I’d much rather have Dad back, but I know I’m bloody lucky,” Grant said in the interview, with the newspaper referring to “her coming windfall.”

Speaking to LedZepNews on the day the planned sale was announced, Penman explained that Grant had gone public because “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.”

Days later, he told LedZepNews that the public announcement had caused Grant to be “deluged with offers”.

Valuing Led Zeppelin’s catalogue

An £8.5 million deal to buy Grant’s 10% stake in Led Zeppelin’s catalogue royalties would value the overall Led Zeppelin royalties business at £85 million.

Many well-known artists have sold their catalogues in recent years for far higher sums, causing confusion among some readers when the £85 million valuation emerged last year.

Bob Dylan sold his catalogue to Sony Music Entertainment in a deal rumoured to be worth between $150 million and $200 million. Similar deals include Bruce Springsteen selling his catalogue to Sony Music Entertainment for a rumoured $550 million, Mötley Crüe selling its catalogue to BMG for $90 million and David Bowie’s music publishing being bought by Warner Chappell Music for more than $250 million.

The lower £85 million valuation for Led Zeppelin royalties is likely because Grant doesn’t own a share of the band’s music publishing, nor does she have any control over the release of music.

LedZepNews understands that this means her stake is less compelling to music investors who typically seek to own majority stakes in catalogues.

Could band disagreements reduce the price of Led Zeppelin’s catalogue?

A reduced valuation could also be connected to rumours of ongoing disagreements between the surviving members of Led Zeppelin on whether to release material, making it less likely that a buyer of Grant’s stake would see their royalty income increase in the future following the release of previously unheard music.

Pink Floyd has been attempting to sell the band’s music catalogue for $500 million but the sale is “basically dead”, Variety reported last year, because the surviving band members “just can’t get along”.

Page has claimed there have been disagreements between the surviving members of Led Zeppelin on whether to release music, suggesting Robert Plant and John Paul Jones may be blocking material emerging.

“Obviously, there is source material that could come out – but it seems the band don’t all agree so there’s no point,” Page said in an interview published in the May 2022 issue of Uncut Magazine.

Photographer Ross Halfin, a friend of Page, made a similar claim in an episode of The Vinyl Guide podcast released in August 2021.

“It has to be agreed by all of them. It’s the same as Pink Floyd, it’s a band agreement and you’ve got certain band members that think it interferes in their solo career,” he said, seemingly suggesting that Plant has been blocking Led Zeppelin releases due to his continuing solo career.

Jones, by contrast, has limited his solo career to occasional performances in recent years and told Mojo Magazine in its December 2018 issue that he “can’t be arsed” to record a new solo album.