The story of Marshall, famous British guitar amplifier brand, born in West London in 1962 as a family business of Jim 'The Father of Loud' Marshall and his son Terry, takes another turn in 2025 as Chinese private equity fund HongShan Capital Group (HSG) announced purchase of the majority stake in Marshall Group AB.
Marshall guitar amps enjoyed a strong presence in the rock-n-roll and are associated with many of the electric guitar heroes. The business trajectory of the company passed a major landmark in 2010, when it licensed the Marshall brand to a Swedish tech company, Zounds International, which was developing and marketing headphones and bluetooth speakers. In 2023 Marshall Amplification went into a merger deal with Zounds International to form Marshall Group AB.
In less than a year Marshall GroupAB shareholders (Altor, Telia Company, Time for Growth, and Zenith VC) sell majority of stock to Chinese investment fund which reportedly manages more than 55 billion USD in assets. The Marshall family (Terry and Victoria Marshall, Joanne Marshall-Price, Paul Marshall and Marshall Charitable Trust) will still hold around 20% of shares.
Both Zounds International in 2022 and Marshall Group AG later secured growth of sales and increased profitability. Sales volume was driven by home audio with guitar amps reported to make up for only 5% of revenue.
The deal is to pass usual regulatory approval but is expected to be finalised soon for a total value of around €1.1 billion.

Jimmy Page on stage with Marshall amp stack