ATG Eyes Stage Entertainment

Ambassador Theatre Group, which runs 40 UK venues, would need to stump up about $560 million to acquire the Dutch-based firm that van den Ende and John de Mol established in 1998.

The Sunday paper says ATG, which is run by the husband-and-wife team of Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire and has former BBC boss Greg Dyke as its chairman, is among bidders still in the ring, along with U.S. private equity firm CVC. U.S. buyout firm Providence paid $615 million for a majority stake in ATG in 2013.

The Observer’s source reckons Providence wants to combine the two theatre groups. In 2009 ATG bought Live Nation’s 17 theatre venues for $160 million.