Schwenkow’s Wizard Move

Hoppe quit DEAG to set up Wizard in 2004, citing “more flexibility” as one reason for not renewing his contract, although his company has since been inextricably woven into Schwenkow’s corporate structure.

DEAG retained an interest in the sense that Wizard was 60 percent owned by Marcel Avram’s Entertainment One, which was in turn 70 percent owned by DEAG. Avram had founded Entertainment One in 1999 and had held 30 percent of the company shares since DEAG bought the rest from him a couple of years later.

Six months after Hoppe left DEAG, Schwenkow sold off about one-third of his company’s shares in Entertainment One, thereby reducing its holding in Wizard. The following year (2005), Avram took Entertainment One out of DEAG, thereby ending Schwenkow’s proxy stake in Hoppe’s company. The most significant of many pieces of background to the most recent deal came at the German Live Entertainment Awards in 2007, when Hoppe told Pollstar he was about to sell 51 percent of Wizard to one of the country’s richest families.

He revealed that the new majority shareholder would be the father and son partnership of Gunter and Daniel Reimann-Dubbers, part of the wealthy Reimann family. The Reimanns are the billionaire owners of the Benckiser GmbH group, which markets products ranging from washing powders like Calgon and scents and aftershaves such as Joop, Jil, Sander and Davidoff.

Financial details of Schwenkow’s takeover of three-quarters of Wizard, which has promoted major acts including U2, Metallica, Neil Young and Iron Maiden, haven’t been disclosed.

However, an announcement on Nasdaq suggests Schwenkow didn’t need to reach for his wallet. It says the Wizard shareholders were paid with 1.24 million DEAG shares, valued at euro 3.25 apiece.

The Reimanns now own 3 percent of DEAG, which has a market value of euro 40 million. Schwenkow says he’s pleased with the deal because it brings Hoppe, who won last year’s LEA award for best arena tour with Lady Gaga, back in the DEAG fold. He says it also helps secure the company’s future as Hoppe’s son, Oliver, is a promoter Schwenkow clearly admires and is also on board retaining a little under 5 percent of Wizard. His father and Avram have about 10 percent each. It wasn’t possible to get comment from Hoppe at press time.