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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CTS Eventim is set to acquire See Tickets and a portfolio of festivals from the French-headquartered media group Vivendi.

The German live entertainment behemoth was among several parties to register interest in buying See Tickets, along with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

However, CTS today announced it has signed a put option agreement on Vivendi’s festival and international ticketing activities, which form part of its Vivendi Village subsidiary.

The transaction is expected to be complete in the coming months and both See Tickets and the festival business will retain their existing identities and management.

While the price of the acquisition was not revealed, the Financial Times reported that Vivendi was seeking up to £300 million (€351m) for See Tickets, which the French firm bought for €96m in 2011.

The UK-headquartered ticketing company, which operates in nine countries worldwide, sold around 44 million tickets in 2023.

Also included in the CTS deal is Vivendi’s festival arm, which includes 11 events such as the UK’s Love Supreme and Kite, and Garorock in France.

The ticketing and festival activities that CTS Eventim is set to acquire from Vivendi collectively produced €137 million in revenues in 2023.

“CTS Eventim will be the right company to bring our ticketing and festival activities to new heights”

The ticketing business generated roughly €105 million of that, with the UK market responsible for the largest share, followed by its US market. The festival business that is part of the current deal generated an additional €32 million.

Vivendi’s performance hall activities, including L’Olympia in Paris, as well as See Tickets France and Brive Festival, are not part of the agreement.

“With See Tickets and its festival operations, Vivendi has established two notable players in the ticketing and live entertainment sector,” says Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO, CTS Eventim.

“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.”

Hala Bavière, CEO of Vivendi Village and member of the Executive Committee of Vivendi: “I am proud of what has been accomplished over more than a decade and extremely grateful for the strong dedication of all the teams involved. We at Vivendi are convinced that CTS Eventim will be the right company to bring our ticketing and festival activities to new heights, supporting See Tickets to remain a state-of-the-art company in services and technology, while fostering the growth of the festivals and preserving their unique identities and audience.”

CTS Eventim recently confirmed its 18th record year of revenue since its IPO in 2000. The pan-European ticketing and live entertainment giant’s annual revenue was up 22% in 2023, surpassing €2 billion for the first time to reach €2.359bn, while normalised EBITDA increased at 32% to reach €501.4 million.

Meanwhile, the firm’s share price has increased by 11.20% in the past five days, reaching an all-time high of €83.60 this morning.

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Vivendi Village, Vivendi’s live entertainment/ticketing unit, grew turnover more than 55% in the first six months of 2019, according to the French media giant’s recent half-year (H1) financial report.

Vivendi Village – which includes Vivendi Ticketing (See Tickets UK and US, France’s Digitick and the Netherlands’ Paylogic, acquired last April), live event producers Olympia Production (France) and U Live (UK), and several music venues across France and Africa – had revenues of €66 million H1 2019, up 55.1% on a constant-currency basis year on year.

Live entertainment brought in revenues of €31m, almost reaching 2018’s year total of €34m. Vivendi puts this growth down to the acquisition of French festival Garorock, which saw a 10% increase in attendance this year, with 160,000 fans descending on the four-day festival.

Live entertainment brought in revenues of €31m, almost reaching 2018’s year total of €34m

The company continues to expand its presence across Africa, with CanalOlympia opening its thirteenth venue on 19 July in Madagascar, following the unveiling of another new venue in the Republic of Congo in April.

Following record ticket sales in 2018, ticketing revenues amounted to €33m for the first half of 2019, an increase of 30.2% compared to H1 2018. Vivendi Village now has a ticketing network of 14 offices in eight countries across Europe and the Unites States.

Vivendi’s group revenues increased by almost 14% to €7.4m during the first six months of 2019, fuelled by the growth of Universal Music Group (UMG). UMG revenues were up 18.6% to $3.7 billion in H1 2019, with music by artists including Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Queen performing well across streaming and physical sales.

Vivendi confirmed its intention to move forward with plans to sell up to 50% of UMG.

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Vivendi Village (VV), the division of French media giant Vivendi related to live entertainment, has recorded a strong first financial quarter for 2019, with particular growth in ticketing revenues.

The Vivendi subsidiary includes ticketing operations See Tickets, Digitick and Paylogic, as well as live event producers Vivendi Talents & Live and promoter Olympia Production, which owns festivals and venues in France, the UK and Africa.

Overall VV revenues were up 0.4% from the first quarter of 2018 and 16.4% at constant currency and perimeter, which reflects the impact of the acquisition of ticketing technology platform Paylogic in April last year.

Ticketing revenues amounted to €15m, an increase of 38.3% compared to the first quarter of 2018. The company attributes the success to the acquisition of Paylogic, which enabled further expansion throughout Europe and access to Paylogic clients including Tomorrowland, ID&T, Amsterdam Dance Event and Awakenings.

In 2018, Vivendi’s ticketing platforms turned over €58m, selling a record 20m tickets.

The company’s live activities recorded revenues of €7m, an increase of 57.4% at constant currency and perimeter as compared to the same period of last year.

Overall, Vivendi’s group revenue saw an increase of 10.7% as compared to Q1 of last year

In February 2019, Olympia Production signed an agreement for the co-production, ticketing and communication of the ODP Talence festival in southwest France, in line with its policy to develop regional festivals in France. The festival, which celebrated its fourth edition last year, received 17,000 visitors over three days.

Olympia Production acquired popular French music festival Garorock (50,000-cap.) in October last year.

CanalOlympia is expected to open its twelfth venue on April 17 in Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo, adding to existing venues in Guinea, Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Benin, Togo and Gabon.

Overall, Vivendi’s group revenue saw an increase of 10.7% as compared to Q1 of last year, amounting €3,459m.

The French media conglomerate mainly attributes this to the growth of Universal Music Group, which grew revenue to €1,502m, up 18.8% at constant currency and perimeter and 22.9% on an actual basis.

New releases from Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish, as well as continued sales of the A Star is Born soundtrack and Queen albums contributed to UMG’s first quarter success.

Vivendi is aiming to sell up to 50% of UMG’s share capital to one or more partners “likely to accelerate UMG’s development and increase its value”.

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Vivendi Village, the Vivendi business unit which includes the French media giant’s live entertainment and ticketing holdings, grew turnover 12.6%, to €123 million, in 2018, amid a strong year for the group as a whole.

Vivendi Village includes Vivendi Ticketing – See Tickets (UK and US), Digitick and Paylogic – live event producers Vivendi Talents&Live and Olympia Production, and several music venues and festivals in France and Africa.

Ticketing revenues were €58m, up 9.9% year on year, boosted by the acquisition of Paylogic in April 2018. In 2018, for the first time, Vivendi Ticketing sold more than 20 million tickets in the UK, continental Europe and the United States.

Ticketing revenues were €58m, up 9.9% year on year

Elsewhere, live entertainment posted revenues of €34m – a huge rise of 94.9% on 2017. Olympia Production recorded strong growth, with more than 1,100 shows by 32 music artists and comedians, as well as four regional festivals in France, including the 50,000-capacity Garorock, acquired last year.

The Olympia (1,996-cap.) in Paris also enjoyed a strong year with 280 shows, its level of activity prior to the Bataclan attack in November 2015.

Vivendi’s group revenues, meanwhile, soared to €13.9 billion, up 11.3% on 2018, with earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation climbing 33%, to €1.29bn – boosted by a huge quarter for Universal Music Group, whose revenues grew to over €6bn, €2.6bn of it from streaming alone.

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While most of the column inches dedicated to Vivendi’s H1 2018 results have centred on its plans to sell up to 50% of Universal Music Group “to one or more strategic partners” and not via an IPO, the French conglomerate’s latest financials also underline the strength of its many live businesses, with record festival crowds and a powerful ticketing unit incorporating the recently acquired Paylogic.

Vivendi Village – which includes Vivendi Ticketing (See Tickets UK and US, Digitick and Paylogic, acquired in April) live event producers Vivendi Talents&Live and Olympia Production, and several music venues and festivals – turned over €52 million in the first six months of 2018. While that’s a slight decline on the €56m seen in H1 2017, the 2018 figure includes the cost of the acquisitions of Paylogic and ad agency Havas.

Following the Paylogic deal, ticketing accounts for half of Vivendi Village’s revenues, giving Vivendi a “strong and complementary presence in three major markets: it is a leading player in the United Kingdom, it offers significant opportunities for synergies in Continental Europe and it is strongly growing as challenger in the United States”, according to the financial report.

Beyond ticketing, Vivendi’s festivals also saw success in the first half of the year. France’s Les Déferlantes, Brive Festival and Live au Campo – all managed by Vivendi Village – saw their attendance rates grow by 17%, 30% and 15%, respectively, and the company is plotting further expansion in the French festival market with the rumoured acquisition of Garorock and the launch of a new event in Limoges in 2019.

Total live revenues grew 36.7% year on year.

Outside of Europe and North America, meanwhile, a strong performance in Africa, and intentions to expand these operations, has also proved fruitful. An additional CanalOlympia venue was opened on 1 June 2018 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – Vivendi’s second in the city and the ninth in its growing west African live venue/cinema network.

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Universal Music Group (UMG) has this week announced it will be expanding current operations in French-speaking Africa. The move will see a new Universal Music Africa division in Ivory Coast, as well as a significant expansion of live music operations throughout the continent in partnership with parent company Vivendi and CanalOlympia.

The expansion aims to discover new and local music talent in French-speaking Africa and provide support for artists in worldwide endeavours. A statement from UMG says the expansion will “provide pan-African talent the best possible launch pad for wider international success.” The team will headed by Moussa Soumbounou, an experienced music industry exec and live promoter.

Olivier Nusse, CEO of Universal Music France comments that the appointment of Soumbounou, “will not only help us to discover and release new talent throughout Africa and other French-speaking markets around the world, but will also increase the creative, commercial, digital and live opportunities available for these artists locally, in France and now globally.”

The expansion will “provide pan-African talent the best possible launch pad for wider international success.”

In recent months, Universal Music Africa has been active in live music scenes across French-speaking Africa. Tours organised include French rapper Niska and Cameroon-born rapper Tenor. Their focus on African live music has also seen them work closely with parent company Vivendi and several of its divisions, including CanalOlympia, Vivendi Village, Canal+ and Havas.

Vivendi has had a sharp focus on developing the ‘live music industry ecosystem’ throughout Africa for some years now. In 2017, the French media conglomerate opened a host of venues across the continent as part of its CanalOlympia network. The media giant reported a ‘dynamic performance’  from its Vivendi Village division in 2017, thanks to a growth in ticketing revenue and more venues opening in West Africa.

Live music throughout Africa continues to grow after a particularly successful few years. As Chin Okeke, of Nigeria’s Gidi Culture Fest explained recently to IQ, a generation of young, passionate promoters are transforming the market across the continent. Universal Music Africa’s new move aims to further push this success.

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Vivendi’s ticketing businesses continued to display what the company calls a “dynamic performance” in H1 2017, earning the French media giant €27 million in the first six months of the year.

That’s a 16.5% increase on the same period in 2016, and comes amid strong growth for the company’s Vivendi Village subsidiary – which includes Vivendi Ticketing (See Tickets UK, See Tickets US and France’s Digitick); events producers Vivendi Talents&Live, Olympia Production and Festival Production; and Vivendi’s music and entertainment venues – as a whole.

Vivendi Village’s H1 2017 revenues topped €56m – up 7.9% – although EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation) fell to -€9m, from -€4m in H1 2016, due to “investment costs”, according to its latest balance sheets.

These investment costs include opening more venues in Africa: its sixth entertainment and film venue in Senegal launched in May, while two more, in Togo and Benin, are due to open their doors in September.

Recorded-music revenue, from Universal Music Group, climbed 7.8% to €5.44bn – helped along by ‘Despacito’, by UMG Latin America artist Luis Fonsi, which last month became the most-streamed song of all time, clocking up 4.6bn streams in six months.

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Vivendi has rebranded Flavorus, the ticketing company it acquired from then-bankrupt SFX Entertainment for US$4 million in June, as See Tickets, bringing it into line with its US ticketing operation.

Along with See Tickets UK and French company Digitick, See Tickets North America – of which Flavorus’s clients is now part – collectively comprise Vivendi Ticketing, part of the French multinational’s Vivendi Village division.

The deal will, says Vivendi, “fully leverage the global assets” of the See brand.

“The merger of our two companies brings a list of large and sophisticated clients under the same brand”

“The merger of our two companies brings a list of large and sophisticated clients under the same brand,” says Boris Patronoff, CEO of See Tickets North America. “With nearly 40 years of business between the two companies, See Tickets will continue to specialise in coveted events in all verticals. We are confident in the company’s roadmap for the coming years, and we remain dedicated to delivering outstanding service to our clients and customers.”

Vivendi increased revenues by 5.9% in the third quarter of 2016, with Vivendi Village growing 12.1% on a constant-currency basis compared to 2015.

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Strong growth from its live and ticketing operations helped Vivendi increase turnover by 5.9% in the three months ending 30 September, its third-quarter (Q3) results reveal.

Revenues from Vivendi Village – the subsidiary that includes the French multinational’s ticketing operations (See Tickets and Digitick), live event producer Vivendi Talents&Live and the 1,772-cap. Olympia venue in Paris – grew from €22 million in Q3 2015 to €24m; an increase of 5.8%, or 12.1% on a constant-currency basis (eliminating the effects of exchange-rate fluctuations).

Vivendi’s Q3 financial report also reveals its €159m acquisition in April of a 15% stake in French retail group Fnac will serve as the basis for “increased co-operation in live events […] and in ticketing in certain countries by teaming up with Vivendi Ticketing”.

Revenues from Vivendi Village grew from €22 million to €24m – an increase of 12.1% on a constant-currency basis

Unlike in Q2, however – when Vivendi Village vastly outgrew recorded music giant Universal Music Group (UMG) – it was UMG’s time to shine in Q3, with impressive 10.8% growth to €1.308 billion.

This can be attributed to new “agreements with streaming players ranging from Pandora to iHeartMedia to Amazon” and the “expansion of streaming [into] a number of emerging markets, including China, Russia, Brazil and Africa”.

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