Modern Sky invests in UK amp-maker Orange

Chinese music powerhouse Modern Sky has bought into the Orange Music Electronic Company, the British manufacturer of the iconic Orange guitar amps and speaker cabinets.

Modern Sky – the owner of China’s largest music festivals, the multi-city Modern Sky and Strawberry events, as well as a spin-off event in New York and a host of record labels, management companies, venues and radio and TV stations – becomes the only external shareholder of the family owned UK business, which was established in London in 1968 by Clifford Cooper, who remains the company’s chairman.

The two companies will partner on a new joint venture in China, and jointly spearhead a move by Orange into the consumer electronics sector.

According to Music Business China, Cooper met Modern Sky founder Shen Lihui at the 2015 Shanghai Music Expo, where Shen saw parallels between the story of Orange – growing from a small second-hand audio dealership to one of the musical instrument industry’s most recognisable names – and his own experience in setting up Modern Sky.

Modern Sky acquired a stake in UK festival Liverpool Sound City in April 2016.

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