Blackstone has increased its offer for Hipgnosis Songs Fund by a cent per share, taking its proposal to $1.58bn (£1.24bn).

As part of the new offer, Blackstone will now pay $1.31 (£1.02) per share for the music rights owner, which includes artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and Blondie in its song portfolio.

The move comes after the firm beat Concord’s offer by $0.05 (£0.04) per share in April, meaning that over 65,000 songs will now move over to Blackstone.

Concord withdrew its £1.51bn offer for Hipgnosis last month, meaning that the deal with Blackstone is set to complete later this month.

Head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, Susannah Streeter, said: "The offer price of $1.31 per share is a small increase on the agreement reached in April and represents a 49% premium to the closing price of 71p a share, prior to the agreed offer from competitor Concord.

"Although there may be a little disappointment that another suitor had not charged in with a much higher offer following the bidding war, the deal still marks a turn up for the books for investors. It follows a volatile run which saw shares sink to a low after the value of the fund’s music portfolio was slashed by more than 25%."

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