Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization Sold to European Publisher

Imagem Music Group has signed an agreement to purchase the Rodgers& Hammerstein Organization, the licensing agency that owns the rights to works such South Pacific, The Sound of Music, The King and I, Carousel and Oklahoma! R&H also handles licensing for the works of Irving Berlin, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Kurt Weill, among other composers. No purchase price was disclosed, but Variety quoted an estimated price tag of as much as $200 million.

R&H is the latest rights acquisition for Imagem, which is owned by the Dutch pension fund ABP and the European media company CP Masters BV. Imagem recently has purchased pop catalogs from Universal Music Group and BBC Music, as well as classical music publisher Boosey & Hawkes.

Imagem said it would retain the current R&H management, including its president and executive director, Theodore S. Chapin. R&H said it is in “friendly and constructive discussions” with Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group about continuing to represent the rights for his musicals, including Cats and Evita, in North America.

Mary Rodgers Guettel, daughter of Richard Rodgers and composer of Once Upon a Mattress, said in a statement, “My father always believed in moving forward. This is a big and wonderful step, and I am thrilled by the new opportunities that André [de Raaff, CEO of Imagem] and his team bring to my father’s songs and shows. The Rodgers family is committed to this phenomenal organization, which will continue to represent the shows my father wrote with Larry Hart, as well as a few shows I wrote, and my son Adam’s shows.”

Guettel and Alice Hammerstein Mathias, daughter of Oscar Hammerstein II, will serve as consultants to Imagem after the sale.