Universal Music shares jump as subscription growth beats expectations

By Jerome Terroy

Oct 30 (Reuters) - Universal Music Group shares jumped on Friday after the world's largest music company's third-quarter subscription revenue growth beat market expectations, as it said market share pressures had eased from the first half.

Investors had been looking for signs whether momentum could pick up after UMG, whose labels represent artists including Taylor Swift and BTS, reported slower growth in the second quarter.

The shares jumped as much as 15% to the top of Europe's benchmark STOXX 600 index, but were still trading below their price in July after shedding a quarter of their value.

Recorded Music subscription revenue grew 9.5% at constant currency, excluding the impact of the recent Downtown acquisition, above the 8.2% growth expected by analysts according to an ING note published ahead of the results.

UMG said wholesale price increases and continued healthy subscriber growth contributed to the performance, while finance chief Matt Ellis said subscription revenue growth accelerated during the quarter.

Ahead of UMG's results, Spotify had reported continued growth in its premium subscription business and forecast subscriber additions above expectations, while Alphabet said YouTube's subscription revenue was growing faster than its advertising business.

"UMG may need to deliver another couple of quarters to convince investors, but Q3 was much improved," JPMorgan analysts said in a note.

(Reporting by Jerome Terroy in Gdansk, additional reporting by Hugo Lhomedet; editing by Anna Pruchnicka)