CTS Eventim completes See Tickets deal
CTS Eventim has completed its acquisition of Vivendi’s festival and international ticketing businesses in a €300 million deal.
The agreement includes See Tickets and a portfolio of 11 festivals including the UK’s Love Supreme and Kite, as well as Garorock in France. Vivendi concert halls including L’Olympia concert hall in Paris, plus See Tickets France and Brive Festival, are not part of the deal.
The French firm’s ticketing and festival activities acquired by CTS collectively produced €137 million in revenues in 2023. The ticketing division generated roughly €105m of that, with an EBITDA of €26m.
The UK market was responsible for the largest share of the revenues, followed by the US, while the festival business generated an additional €32m in revenues. Vivendi bought See Tickets for €96m in 2011. The UK-headquartered ticketing company, which operates in nine countries worldwide, sold around 44 million tickets in 2023.
The companies say the transaction offers new development opportunities to Vivendi’s festival portfolio and See Tickets’ international activities, while ensuring maximum continuity for all their partners. Both See Tickets and the festival business will retain their existing identities and management.
A put option agreement was signed on 2 April.
“The acquisition supports our internationalisation strategy and will also benefit artists and their managers, as we will be able to offer even more seamless services on a global scale”
“With See Tickets and its festival operations, Vivendi has established two notable players in the ticketing and live entertainment sector,” said CTS CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg at the time. “I’d like to thank Vivendi for the productive negotiations, which have created a strong foundation for success in an industry enjoying robust growth across Europe.
“The acquisition supports our internationalisation strategy and will also benefit artists and their managers, as we will be able to offer even more seamless services on a global scale. We look forward to collaborating with our new colleagues on shaping the future of live entertainment.”
Pan-European giant CTS’ share price currently sits at €80.45 and is up 28% for the year to-date. The German-headquartered company was among several parties to register interest in buying See Tickets, along with AEG.
In its recently published financial results for Q1 2024, CTS posted consolidated revenue of €408.7m, up 11.6% year-on-year. Ticketing revenue climbed by 23.3% year-on-year to €182.8m, while adjusted EBITDA rose by 24.9% to €83.3m. It acquired Punto Ticket and Teleticket, market leaders in Chile and Peru, respectively, in late 2023.
CTS, which recently confirmed its 18th record year of revenue since its IPO in 2000, also recently secured ticketing deals for several international handball tournaments and was appointed official ticketing service provider for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics in partnership with AEG’s AXS.
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Multiple bidders in running to acquire Garorock
Three potential buyers have emerged for France’s Garorock after the festival was put on the market.
The 50,000-cap event, which launched in Marmande in 1997, was acquired by French-headquartered media giant Vivendi five years ago through its Olympia Production subsidiary.
However, according to a report by Le Républicain, a new owner could be in place by the summer.
“We have received at least three very positive offers,” says a Vivendi spokesperson. “But no decision has been made. The various proposals are under study for several more weeks.”
Garorock 2024 will be held from 27-30 June, headlined by Calvin Harris, Sum 41, Swedish House Mafia and The Offspring. Acts such as Josman, Paul Kalkbrenner, PLK, Timmy Trumpet, Yungblud and Ayra Starr are also lined up to perform.
“To buy Vivendi Village, it can only be a player of this scale”
It was first revealed last September that Vivendi was exploring the sale of parts of its Vivendi Village subsidiary, including its entire festival division – also comprising brands such as Brive and ODP in France and the UK’s Love Supreme and Kite – along with its ticketing firm, See Tickets.
The company reportedly concluded the businesses were not of sufficient scale to compete with the likes of Live Nation and AEG.
AEG and fellow live entertainment giant CTS Eventim were rumoured to have entered the race to acquire See Tickets in late 2023. The Financial Times reported that Vivendi is seeking up to £300 million (€351m) for the company, which it bought for €96m in 2011, with AEG and CTS among the first round of indicative bids
“To buy Vivendi Village, it can only be a player of this scale,” says Garorock founder Ludovic Larbodie, as per Le Républicain.
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Vivendi completes acquisition of Garorock
Through its Olympia Production subsidiary, Vivendi has finalised its acquisition of Garorock, one of France’s most popular music festivals.
The deal was first reported by local media in late June, and sees Olympia Production add the 50,000-daily cap. event, held annually in Marmande in south-west France, to its portfolio of festivals, which also includes Festival les Déferlantes and Live au Campo in Perpignan and Brive Festival in Brive-la-Gaillarde.
According to Vivendi – the French parent company of See Tickets, Universal Music Group and Paylogic – each festival attracted record crowds in July, with audience sizes growing by 17%, 15% and 30%, respectively.
In addition to its festival business, Olympia Production – a sister company to the UK’s U-Live, which produces Love Supreme Jazz Festival and Sundown Festival, among others – produces and promotes a number of concerts, comedy shows and musicals.
Garorock, established in 1997, is one of France’s largest festivals, held annually over four days at the end of June. The 2018 event, headlined by Indochine, Marilyn Manson, DJ Snake and Macklemore, attracted more than 145,000 people. Its 2019 line-up will be released in December.
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See Tickets parent Vivendi ‘to acquire Garorock’
Vivendi, the parent company of See Tickets, Digitick and Universal Music Group, is in talks to acquire Garorock festival, according to French media.
Le Républicain reports the French media giant, majority owned by Vincent Bolloré’s Bolloré group, is set to finalise the acquisition of the 50,000-daily cap. festival this weekend. Vivendi already owns Brive Festival in Corrèze and Festival des Déferlantes in in Argelès-sur-Mer.
Garorock 2018, scheduled to wrap up on Sunday, was headlined by Indochine, Marilyn Manson, DJ Snake and Macklemore. The fourth and final day, Sunday 1 July, was partially cancelled after the Marmande site was evacuated owing to inclement weather.
Vivendi acquired ticketing technology platform Paylogic earlier this year, in a deal that it said forms part of plans to create a “global ticketing network spanning Europe and US”.
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