Features
Ticketing & Festival Deal Between CTS Eventim & Vivendi Completed
CTS Eventim and Vivendi today announced the completion of the sale of Vivendi’s
festival and international ticketing activities (See Tickets Group), first reported in April, when a put option agreement was signed.
The total value of the transaction is approximately €300 million ($326 million).
Vivendi’s ticketing and festival activities acquired by CTS Eventim collectively produced €137 million ($149 million) in revenues in 2023, of which some €105 million ($114 million) were generated through ticket sales through See Tickets.
Vivendi’s EBITDA generated with ticketing in 2023 stood at €26 million ($28 million). To put that into perspective: CTS Eventim’s normalised EBITDA in the ticketing segment came to €382.4 million ($410.9 million) in 2023, up 46.6% from €260.8 million ($280.2 million in the previous year.
See: CTS Eventim Posts Record 2023 Results
The UK market was responsible for the largest share of Vivendi’s ticketing revenues, followed by the U.S. market. The festival business part of the current deal
generated an additional €32 million ($35 million) in revenues.
Pollstar recently interviewed Rob Wilmshurst, CEO of the See Tickets group, for our inaugural UK Focus. He briefly touched on what the CTS Eventim deal meant for See Tickets.
“The Eventim deal is exciting,” he said, “and I think at our stage of development they are the right buyers for the business. We, and I, look forward to the adventure when the deal finally closes over the coming weeks. It’s hard not to admire the size and scale of their business across Europe, and from a UK perspective we fill an important gap for them. That said, Vivendi were great shareholders and very supportive – we entered 10 countries in 12 years.”
According to the press release announcing the finalizing of the deal, “This transaction offers new development opportunities to Vivendi’s festival portfolio and See Tickets’ international activities while ensuring maximum continuity for all their partners. It supports CTS Eventim’s internationalization strategy and will benefit artists and their managers by offering even more seamless services on a global scale.”
Vivendi’s performance hall activities, including L’Olympia in Paris, as well as See Tickets France and Brive Festival, are not part of this agreement.