Live entertainment is “really well positioned” for the next five to ten 10 years, Christopher Belcher, director at Barron International Group, told PE Hub. The sector is becoming ever-more fertile ground for private equity, with a deal in the subsector already announced in 2025. The segment has caught the eyes of Allied Industrial Partners, KKR and CVC and this morning, we start with a listicle covering 10 live entertainment deals.
Next, we move over to look at analysis on private equity-backed megadeals, courtesy of a new S&P Market Intelligence report.
To finish today, we have a deal by KKR, as the firm has made an investment in an agri-tech business, alongside Highland Europe.
On stage
The live entertainment sector boomed in 2024 with events like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which topped $2 billion in revenues, grabbing headlines. The year also saw soccer’s European Championships, as well as the annual Superbowl, which both gathered crowds.
“The whole out-of-home experience is becoming more and more accepted, more and more sought out by institutional investors as an asset class,” Lisbeth Barron, CEO and chairman of Barron International Group, told PE Hub.
“There are high barriers to entry. There are a finite number of, for example, theaters on Broadway and/or on the West End. There’s the opportunity to scale the sector globally. Therefore, private equity now sees this as a very real sector that has strong IRR generation potential, and the top PE firms have significant capital to spend. If they can consolidate it, there always appear to be a limitless number of interesting buyers for exit strategies who want to enter the field, both private equity and strategic players.”
The attraction of live entertainment is unsurprising, considering it was just a couple of years ago when fans were deprived of live events during the covid-19 pandemic. But the pandemic was just a blip in already strong growth.
“Live entertainment has always been a very dynamic sector that has experienced over the last 10-15 years a significant amount of high growth,” Christopher Belcher, director at Barron, told PE Hub. “Right now, a number of different factors have gotten private equity’s attention. It’s really well positioned for the next five to 10 years, primarily driven by a number of catalysts such as technology. Technology has been fairly important from both a demand and a supply standpoint.”
I rounded up 10 deals from the last 12 months that reflect PE’s attraction to live entertainment. Here are two snippets from the story:
Kicking off 2025, Providence Equity Partners-backed ATG Entertainment acquired Som Produce, a theater producer, operator and distributor in Spain. The deal was announced in early January.
Madrid-based Som sells over 750,000 tickets annually and is one of the largest global producers and distributors of musicals and plays in the Spanish language, according to a release. It has produced over 20 shows including Matilda, Mamma Mia!, Billy Elliot, The Book of Mormon, West Side Story, Grease, Chicago, Cabaret and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It also produces and tours a range of theater titles throughout Spain.
In October, CVC Capital Partners invested alongside KKR to support Superstruct, a premier live entertainment group.
Superstruct owns and operates over 80 music festivals across 10 countries in Europe and Australia. It owns European events such as Wacken Open Air, Defqon.1, Parookaville, Tinderbox, Zwarte Cross and Sónar.
Check out the full listicle to read about eight more deals.
Big deals back
Switching from megastars to megadeals. Private equity megadeals surged in 2024 as firms took advantage of improving M&A conditions, S&P Market Intelligence’s latest report found.
PE firms announced or completed 18 megadeals valued at $5 billion or above in 2024, more than double the prior-year total and the fourth-highest annual tally of PE-backed megadeals since at least 2000, the report said.
The technology, media and telecommunications sector (TMT) produced seven of private equity’s 2024 megadeals, more than any other sector, according to the report.
Dairy deal
Let’s finish today with a deal in the dairy industry. KKR and Highland Europe have made an investment in SmaXtec.
Founded in 2009 in Graz, Austria, SmaXtec is an agri-tech provider for the global dairy industry.
SmaXtec’s product enables early disease detection, monitors fertility with heat detection, and reduces birth-related complications, all contributing to improved cow welfare and farm productivity.
Existing shareholder Sophora Unternehmerkapital has retained a minority stake in the business.
The investment is to fuel SmaXtec’s product innovation and accelerate its international growth as the global dairy industry increasingly adopts digital tools to improve animal health, a statement read.