Lloyd Webber eyes Time Warner

LORD Lloyd Webber, the composer and impresario, is considering a £550m bid for the music publishing arm of Time Warner, the record company sold only this week to tycoon Edgar Bronfman Jnr.

The plan would be for Lloyd Webber to merge the Warner Music publishing rights business with his own lucrative back catalogue based on his hugely successful string of musicals including Cats, Evita and Phantom of the Opera.

A spokesman for Lloyd Webber said: 'Really Useful Group (Lloyd Webber's trading company) is interested in buying Warner Chappell, the music publishing arm of Warner Music. Really Useful Group owns probably the greatest and most valuable catalogue of musicals in the world. Unlike much of the rest of the music business, there is no way these musical publishing catalogues can be pirated. There could be fantastic synergies if RUG got together with Warner Chappell.'

Lloyd Webber believes Bronfman could be a willing seller of the publishing arm after he and his venture capital backers snatched Warner Music from under the nose of EMI in a $2.6bn (£1.5bn) deal. Though fabulously wealthy in his own right, it is understood Lloyd Webber would aim to get a consortium together to launch a bid for Warner Chappell.