Warner Music Group (WMG) has acquired a majority stake in Africori, a prominent African music distribution, rights management, and artiste development company.
The multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate confirmed the acquisition in a statement on Wednesday.
Africori caters to music rights management and artist development and also serves about 7,000 artists and 850 clients.
In 2021, the firm said its artistes generated hundreds of millions of audio streams and billions of YouTube views.
Warner, in its statement, said the decision to take a majority stake in Africori could see it become the foremost distributor in Africa and open up more opportunities for African artistes to tap into the WMG’s global network.
It said Africori will continue to operate as an independent firm, with Yoel Kenan, the CEO, remaining in post.
WMG first invested in Africori in 2020 in an original deal that gave the American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate access to Africa’s largest catalogue and A&R network, enabling the US company to establish a presence in many African markets for the first time.
On the latest acquisition, Alfonso Perez-Soto, president for emerging markets at Warner Recorded Music, said: “Since partnering with Africori, we have established a collaborative and strategic partnership.
“[This] has resulted in some impressive results on a global level. Yoel Kenan and his team have done an incredible job building a company that is a real force of nature in Africa.
“By bringing them into the Warner Music ecosystem, we believe we can give them deeper support as we aim to take African music even more global.”
Yoel Kenan, CEO of Africori, added: “African music is booming all around the world and some of our artists are right at the heart of the explosion.
“Through our partnership, Warner Music has proven that it is the perfect home for Africori and our artists going forward. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them as we break more artists on a global scale.”
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