Rock bible NME bought by son of Singapore palm oil billionaire

THE remnants of New Musical Express (NME), the magazine that ceased printing last year, have been sold to a Singapore tech start-up owned by the scion of the world’s richest palm oil dynasty.

Bandlab, which provides music composition software and once owned a 49pc stake in US music magazine Rolling Stone, bought the NME brand and its depleted editorial operation from private equity-backed publisher TI Media.

Its founder Kuok Meng Ru is the son of Kuok Khoon Hong, billionaire cofounder of Wilmar International, one of the biggest traders in palm oil. The agribusiness giant has recently been criticised by environmental groups.

The deal, on undisclosed terms, with TI Media includes classic rock magazine Uncut; last year Bandlab bought UK music titles including Musictech.

Kuok Meng Ru said: “These brands occupy a treasured place in the UK music landscape and increasing relevance to the global music scene, which we are looking to enhance. These two media brands will play an important role in continuing our vision to create a connected world of music.”

Bandlab aims to build a “major global music media business” on top of its composition software, which it calls an easy way to create and share music online. Mr Kuok failed to acquire full control of Rolling Stone two years ago, then sold his stake.

NME had suffered falling circulation for years – selling below 16,000 copies a week in 2014 – before it was relaunched as a free magazine in 2015, later going online-only.