EMI sale may fetch more than $4 billion: report

Troubled British music company EMI that was put for sale by its current owner Citigroup, may fetch more than $4 billion, the Financial Times yesterday has reported.

The $4 billion plus price tag would be as much as double the $2-billion to $2.8-billion value Fitch Ratings estimated in January, a week before Citigroup seized EMI in and wrote off 65 per cent of its loan, leaving EMI with a manageable debt of $1.9 billion.

The first round of bidding attracted more than 10 bidders, who have made an offer from a range from just over $3 billion to nearly $4 billion, said the paper citing people familiar with deal.

But fetching more than $4 billion would depend on whether EMI was sold as one, or split between publishing and recorded music.

Between four and six offers were for the whole company, while the rest split between bidders wanting only the recorded music business, and others seeking just EMI Music Publishing, said the paper.

As expected, the early suitors were from rivals including Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment, ­Universal, Warner Music and private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which has a music-publishing joint-venture with Bertelsmann AG,