Cherry Lane Music Publishing, home to song catalogs from Elvis Presley, Quincy Jones and the Black Eyed Peas, is exploring strategic alternatives that include a possible sale, The Post has learned.
The privately held New York-based company has hired boutique investment bank Centerview Partners primarily to shop for strategic financing to fund its acquisition plans, but a possible sale of the entire catalog has not been ruled out, sources said.
According to people familiar with the matter, a sale of Cherry Lane could fetch between $100 million and $150 million.
Officials from Cherry Lane declined to comment.
Several sources said the publishing arms of Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony all are expected to kick the tires, mainly with an interest toward buying the entire company.
Concord Music Group, coffee giant Starbucks’ partner in the music business, and the Dutch pension fund ABP are also seen as potentially having interest in the catalog.
Cherry Lane was founded in 1960 by music producer/arranger Milt Okun and is now led by CEO Peter Primont.
The company last year was said to be interested in UK publishing business Chrysalis – another highly-sought-after catalog that was pulled off the market this past spring when the owners couldn’t get a deal to their liking.
Investors continue to place a high value on music publishing assets, driven by the emergence of private-equity investors and other institutional funds as potential buyers of publishing catalogs in recent years.
ABP, which has more than $300 billion in assets under management, has been particularly active in the last year, outbidding the major music companies for desired copyrights.
It acquired the European publishing rights to Rondor UK, Zomba UK, 19 Music, 19 Songs and the BBC Catalog from Universal in February for just under $150 million – twice its original value.
ABP also snapped up classical music catalog Boosey & Hawkes in April for a reported $239 million, a 70 percent premium over what its last owner paid.
Ronald Wuijster, head of strategy and research at ABP, has said the firm, which administers its catalogs through ImageMusic in the Netherlands, will look to continue expanding into the music market through acquisitions.
In addition to catalogs it owns or administers, Cherry Lane claims joint venture deals with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, hip-hop entrepreneur Damon Dash, NASCAR, Sanrio-Hello Kitty and Professional Bull Riders Association.
It also provides publishing, and film and television consulting services to DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks Animation SKG, The Weinstein Co. and Lakeshore Entertainment.