BMG Rights, Universal Music May Jointly Bid for EMI Group, Telegraph Says

BMG Rights Management, jointly owned by Bertelsmann AG and KKR & Co., and Universal Music Group may make joint bids for EMI Group Ltd. and Warner Music Group, the Daily Telegraph reported, without saying where it got the information.

BMG Rights and Universal have agreed on plans to divide up the catalogs of Warner and EMI so as to avoid regulatory difficulties, the newspaper said.

Billionaire Len Blavatnik and a group of companies led by the Gores Brothers will make binding offers for Warner Music this week and are the likeliest buyers of the company; EMI will probably be put up for sale by Citigroup Inc. (C) in the next two months, the Telegraph said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Purkiss in London on apurkiss@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net.