If you’re ever feeling self conscious, remember you have the greatest quality of all: creating shareholder value. After a hard day of work, you get home, put on some music and, thanks to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, even then you’re looking out for the shareholders. I’m so proud of you.

The lowdown

• 💊 Drug store Rite Aid files for bankruptcy amid opioid lawsuits.

• 🇨🇳 China’s central bank adds almost $39 billion to the country’s economy, the biggest boost since 2020.

• 🥖 French supermarket chain Casino is selling its stake in Latin American chain Exito for $556 million.

Featured story

Hipgnosis scraps dividend after hit to US music royalties

The Hipgnosis Songs Fund does something pretty cool. It uses investor money to buy the rights to songs by artists including Justin Bieber, 50 Cent, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, then pays out returns when those songs earn royalties.

The bet is that hit songs aren’t affected by economic cycles and will increase in value as the global music streaming market grows. Except that’s not quite what’s happening. Hipgnosis has scrapped its dividend, saying it expects lower royalties from its US catalogue ($) as a result of a decision by the US Copyright Royalty Board to recalculate payments. The London-listed stock slumped.

The dividend cut builds on existing disquiet among investors. One top-ten shareholder has hit out at Hipgnosis for selling off almost a fifth of its portfolio on the cheap ($), and the Chair recently stepped down ahead of a vote to decide whether to keep the fund going.

The content we're consuming today

• WSJ: Accounting graduates drop by highest percentage in years ($)

• Washington Post: How much is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour adding to the US economy? ($)

• Switch On Business: The company each country most wants to work for

Off-balance sheet items

• If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s that video of a guy trying Indian food for the first time as a grown adult.

The bottom line