Simon Cowell has sold a stake in his entertainment empire for £86 million.
He signed a new deal giving Sony a share in Syco, which owns the rights to the hugely lucrative X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent brands, as well as a number of successful recording artists including Little Mix, Susan Boyle and Fifth Harmony
Sony paid £52.4m in cash in 2015 and will pay a further £33.4 by 2021, newly released accounts show.
The deal means Simon now only has a 20 per cent stake in the entertainment firm he set up in 2002.
Simon first teamed up with Sony in 2010, setting up a joint venture called Syco Entertainment - in a deal which was said to have earned him an estimated £27 million. Its first project was launch of a US version of The X Factor.
Accounts filed this week for Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd state that in July 2015, ‘the company acquired a 50% in Syco Holdings Ltd’ – one of a number of companies controlled by Cowell – ‘for a total consideration of £86,456,000’.
Of this, £52,405,000 ‘was paid in cash’, with the rest to be paid by 2021.
In conclusion: Sony now has a 75% stake; Simon Cowell 20% and Sir Philip Green, 5%.
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