Private Equity News & Analysis

Parcom buys into entertainment business

Dutch billionaire media mogul ‘Joop’ van den Ende has sold 60 percent of his theatre company’s ticketing business to ING’s captive private equity arm Parcom in a transaction that will create Europe’s largest independent ticket retailer.

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European mid-market buyout group Parcom Capital has acquired a majority stake in an international ticketing company from theatrical production company Stage Entertainment.

The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but a statement from Stage Entertainment said that the newly carved-out business would be the largest independent ticketing company in Europe and the third largest in the world.

See Tickets: sells tickets
for acts like The Kooks

A source close to the situation confirmed to PEO that Parcom has acquired approximately 60 percent of the new business. Stage Entertainment will keep the remaining 40 percent stake in the new business, which will operate under the name See Tickets International. 

The company employs more than 900 staff across all major European countries, handling ticket sales for theatrical productions, rock and pop concerts, sports, dance and other events. 

Earlier this year, the then ticketing arm of Stage Entertainment acquired UK ticketing company See Tickets. It also incorporates TopTicketLine in the Netherlands, Spain and France, Ticket Online in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Austria and Sherpa.be in Belgium.

Bart van Schriek, a board member at Stage Entertainment for ten years, will head up See Tickets International as chief executive.

Parcom Capital began life as in independent private equity firm in 1982 and was bought by Dutch banking group ING in 1993. Since then it has been run as a ‘greenfield’ operation – reinvesting capital without actively having to raise funds. See Tickets International is Parcom’s first investment in the entertainment space.

Stage Entertainment was built by Johannes “Joop” Adrianus van den Ende, a well-known Dutch businessman who amongst other ventures co-founded television company Endemol, which owns TV formats such as “Big Brother”.