Blackstone, the American private equity behemoth, is this weekend finalising a revised offer to buy the company which owns the music catalogues of Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Sky News has learnt that Blackstone is preparing to lodge an improved bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) as early as Monday.

Its offer will trump one recommended by HSF’s board last Thursday of $1.25-a-share from Concord Music, a larger rival, according to insiders.

The latest salvo in an intensifying bidding war will underline the growing determination of the two bidders to triumph in a battle for some of the global industry’s best-known assets.

HSF also owns songs performed by artists Blondie and the Kaiser Chiefs.

Sky News revealed last weekend that Blackstone had already tabled three offers to buy the London-listed music rights investment company, with a fourth following immediately after.

It was then outbid just days later by Concord, which is backed by Apollo Global Management.

Sources said Blackstone was contemplating what they described as a significant improvement on the Concord bid, although the exact level of the offer under consideration was unclear.

A takeover of the company would crystallise value for Hipgnosis shareholders, who saw the shares slump to a record low in March of about 56p in the wake of a reduction in the value of its portfolio and a suspension of dividend payments.

HSF’s troubles have been played out for months in the public arena, culminating last October in a decision by shareholders to reject its board’s goal of securing their backing for its continuation.

The company has been mired in bitter recriminations and legal arguments over its performance and governance.

A review conducted by Shot Tower Capital, a specialist adviser, concluded in March that SONG’s assets were worth a fifth less than Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM), its investment adviser, had reported last September.

Blackstone is already deeply immersed in HSF’s future because it owns a 51% stake in HSM, which has a contract to manage the SONG assets.

HSM has a call option in its management agreement with HSF which allows it to acquire the portfolio of music assets even if Concord Chorus is successful, at the same price it pays.

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The call option would be annulled if the management contract is terminated for cause, however.

The remainder of HSM is owned by Merck Mercuriadis, a former manager of Beyonce and Sir Elton John, who launched Hipgnosis in 2018 with the aim of turning music royalties into a mainstream asset class.

He struck a $1bn deal three years later for Blackstone to provide firepower for buying music rights and managing catalogues.

In February, Mr Mercuriadis moved from becoming CEO of HSM to the chairman’s role, with Ben Katovsky taking over as CEO.

Blackstone’s interest in acquiring HSF is on a standalone basis and independent of Mr Mercuriadis.

That approach may cast doubt about the buyout giant’s ongoing relationship with the Hipgnosis founder.

Blackstone is being advised by investment bankers at Jefferies, while JP Morgan is among the investment banks advising Concord.

Shares in HSF closed on Friday at 103.8p, giving it a market capitalisation of just over £1.25bn.

On Sunday, Blackstone and HSF both declined to comment.

Monzo, the fintech which has become one of Britain’s biggest consumer banking groups, is this weekend putting the finishing touches to an expanded fundraising involving one of the world’s best-known technology investors.

Sky News has learnt that Monzo has agreed terms with Hedosophia, an early backer of Airbnb and Uber, for it to become a shareholder in the bank.

City sources said on Sunday that Monzo could announce as soon as this week that Hedosophia and Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation (GIC) were participating in an overall fundraising worth close to £500m.

The larger-than-expected round makes it one of the largest ever achieved by a British tech company.

One insider said that GIC was investing over £50m, with Hedosophia also committing tens of millions of pounds.

Hedosophia, which declined to comment, is an early-growth investor founded by Ian Osborne, who has backed some of the world’s biggest tech names over the last 15 years.

Among the British tech companies it has backed include Wise, the London-listed money transfer business, and Marshmallow, the insurance group.

Monzo’s expanded fundraising is likely to mean that it will not require any further capital if it decides, as expected, to go public in the next couple of years.

The digital bank, which has millions of customers in Britain, recently secured a valuation in excess of £4bn after concluding the initial phase of its funding round.

Founded in 2015, it is now profitable and has diversified into investments and instant access savings accounts.

It now ranks as the seventh-biggest bank in Britain by number of customers.

The new fundraising was led by Capital G, the independent growth fund of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

The company is among a new generation of banks which have emerged since the last financial crisis and begun to accumulate a significant share of the UK retail banking market.

Rivals include Starling Bank, which recently named a permanent chief executive to replace its founder, Anne Boden.

Revolut, which was valued at $33bn (£26.5bn) in a funding round in 2021, has yet to receive a UK banking licence despite more than a year of talks with regulators.

Monzo has recovered spectacularly from a difficult period two years ago, when it emerged that the City watchdog was investigating it for potential breaches of anti-money laundering and financial crime rules.

It has historically been loss-making, in common with most start-ups, reporting a loss of £116m in the year to the end of February, but is expected to be profitable this year – a major milestone for a standalone digital bank.

Monzo recently revamped its corporate structure as it pursues an international expansion strategy that will serve as the prelude to a stock market listing.

Monzo Bank Holding Group was established to avoid the company facing punitive capital treatment by British regulators as it launches in new overseas markets.

Existing Monzo investors include the Chinese group Tencent, Passion Capital, Accel and General Catalyst.

Monzo is run by TS Anil, its chief executive, and chaired by Gary Hoffman, one of Britain’s most prominent bank executives.

On Sunday, Monzo declined to comment.

Jeremy Hunt is convening a summit aimed at enticing more companies to London’s stock market amid an accelerating exodus of businesses being picked off by overseas and financial predators.

Sky News has learnt that the Treasury has invited the bosses of some of Britain’s most prominent private companies to attend a meeting next month at Dorneywood, the chancellor’s weekend country residence.

Sources said the day-long event on 16 May would target entrepreneurs behind potential flotation candidates from the fintech and biotech sectors.

Bim Afolami, the City minister, and Lord Petitgas, the prime minister’s chief business adviser, will also be present, alongside key government officials and executives from the London Stock Exchange, the sources added.

In the invitation, a copy of which has been seen by Sky News, the Treasury said attendees and the chancellor would “discuss the UK’s capital markets and how they can support innovative, high-growth companies such as yours to achieve your growth ambitions”.

“The UK’s capital markets play a key role in our economy: driving growth, creating jobs and facilitating investment.

“The government is committed to ensuring that the UK remains the best place for companies to grow, and is already taking forward an ambitious programme of reforms to improve the competitiveness of the UK.”

Dozens of companies, including the likes of digital banks Monzo and Starling Bank, are understood to have been on the invitation list.

The Dorneywood summit has been planned for several months, according to officials, who denied that it was being staged in response to a glut of companies which have announced in recent weeks that they are in receipt of takeover bids or that they would unilaterally delist from the London market.

Approaches this week for Anglo American, the £30bn mining giant, and Darktrace, the cybersecurity company, have exacerbated the impression of a growing ‘de-equitisation’ of the UK stock market.

Although neither of those deals have yet to be formally agreed, a string of others have, including International Paper’s bid for DS Smith, the FTSE-100 paper and packaging group, which was revealed by Sky News last month.

Other companies which have agreed deals with suitors include Virgin Money, which is set to be bought by Nationwide in a £3bn deal.

Yet more, such as the Royal Mail parent International Distributions Services and the music royalties company Hipgnosis Songs Fund, are in receipt of serious takeover approaches.

While frenetic periods of mergers and acquisitions are far from uncommon, bankers and investors point to a dearth of attractive new opportunities to deploy capital because the flow of initial public offerings has been so slow.

Many of the companies that London would have hoped to attract, including the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and the chip designer ARM Holdings, opted to list in Amsterdam and New York respectively.

The perception of London’s decline is being heightened by the decisions of boards to move their existing UK listings to other international exchanges, with TUI Travel and Flutter Entertainment, the gambling group behind Paddy Power, among those to relegate their London market presence.

Bosses of companies as large as Shell, the oil behemoth, have also begun to acknowledge publicly their frustration at what they perceive to be a gulf between their intrinsic valuation and that which the public markets are attaching to them.

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Earlier this month, the boss of E-Therapeutics, a fast-growing but loss-making biotech company, described the London stock market as “broken and closed” as he announced plans to delist it and pursue a New York flotation at a future date.

This weekend, one government insider said the Dorneywood meeting would be important because it would highlight to fast-growing British companies that listing overseas “is not all milk and honey”.

A number of the UK-based businesses – such as Arrival, Cazoo and Benevolent AI – which went public in Europe and the US during the now-faded boom for special purpose acquisition companies – have seen their valuations crash, with some subsequently cancelling their listings.

“We need to explain to companies why London’s capital markets are the right place for these businesses to go public,” said one government source.

A Treasury spokesperson said: “The chancellor is meeting with a number of firms to hear their reflections on UK markets and what more the government and regulators can do to support their growth.”