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Live Nation Reportedly Bidding On SMG
Live Nation Entertainment is reportedly bidding to buy facility management goliath SMG.
Bids were due Nov. 28 and Richmond, Va.-based investment bank Harris Williams & Co. is handling the process, according to the Baltimore Business Journal. A purchase would add 200 facilities to Live Nation’s existing portfolio of approximately 40 amphitheatres.
– SMG
SMG is the largest facility management firm in world – with AEG Facilities, Spectra and Pollstar’s parent company, OVG, among the others. Northlane Capital Partners obtained the assets of American Capital Equity III, which includes SMG, in January, according to IQ Magazine.
It is not known if federal regulators would accept the alleged bid.
A Nov. 6th report in the Sports Business Journal estimated the venue management company’s potential worth at $750 million based on its EBITDA.
Live Nation and SMG already have several ticketing and management agreements between them, including co-managing Baltimore’s Pier Six Pavilion.
SMG had 33 arenas on Pollstar‘s mid-year list of the Top 200 Arena Venues. This included 16 theaters on the Top 100 Theaters as well one amphitheater, the iconic Greek Theatre in Los Angeles that ranked in the Top 50 Amphitheaters.
Manchester Arena was SMG’s highest ranked arena it manages and third in the world with more than 622,000 tickets sold. The Coliseo de Puerto Rico, which ranked 31st in the world with more than 243,000 tickets sold, was its highest managed arena N. America. DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan with 102,000 attendees was No.35 on the Theater chart.
Live Nation, the world’s largest promoter, is having a banner year. For its Nov. 2 quarterly earnings, which President/CEO Michael Rapino called the company’s “best quarter ever, Live Nation reported earnings of $136.4 million, or 53 cents on a per-share basis compared with $111.03 million the previous year while posting revenue of $3.56 billion in the quarter, up from $3.17 billion a year a year earlier. It’s stock price also hit a record high of $46.32 on Nov. 14.
Live Nation declined comment to Pollstar while an SMG representative was unavailable at press time.
Additional reporting by Andy Gensler.