Ticketek owner TEG buys promoter giant Dainty

Image: INXS
Source:Dainty Group

Paul Dainty has sold his decades-old promoter company to live events and ticketing business TEG.

As the owner of Ticketek, TEG Live, Softix, Eventopia and Sydney’s Qudos Arena, TEG has been on the hunt for acquisitions through its Hong Kong-based owner Affinity. Now, it’s made its most notable purchase since it boughtNine Live from Nine Entertainment for $640m last April.

Dainty’s Dainty Group, which has toured big-name acts like The Rolling Stones, Katy Perry, Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, Queen and ABBA in Australia and New Zealand, will now sit under the TEG umbrella as TEG-Dainty.

In the 1970’s UK-born Paul Dainty was considered Australia’s top promoter. Having promoted music and entertainment shows across Australia and New Zealand, Britain, Southeast Asia and South Africa, Dainty is now ranked in the top five global promoters by Billboard.

Geoff Jones, Chief Executive Officer of TEG, said: “Paul Dainty has been recognised globally by peers as both influential and innovative in the live entertainment space. We are very excited about the potential for TEG-Dainty, and TEG as a whole, now that we have one of the world’s leading promoters at the heart of our business.”

Jones told TMN this morning all Dainty Group staff members have retained their positions and will now work under TEG-Dainty.

TEG-Dainty is expected to do more top-tier tours with a diversified program across music, sporting and entertainment.

Paul Dainty, founder and Executive Chairman of Dainty Group toldThe Australian: “The deals are just so big now and I think being part of a large combination we will see one and one equalling three.”

TEG’s owner Affinity is already the sole investor in Virgin Australia’s Velocity frequent flyer program with a 35% stake that cost it $336 million in 2014. It’s also a joint-lead investor in Korean apparel brand TBH Global, and the sole investor in Korea’s only digital satellite TV broadcaster Korea Digital Satellite Broadcasting and in Korea’s largest vertically-integrated music company, Loen Entertainment (formerly Seoul Records).

TEG’s companyTEG Analytics uses Ticketek’s data to create marketing campaigns for the entertainment sector. It hascreated campaigns for the NRL, AFL, as well as for music and theatre promoters.

TEG CEO, Geoff Jones said: “The acquisition of the Dainty Group is one of our most critical acquisitions to date and we look forward to harnessing the knowledge, experience and expertise that Paul and his team will bring to our whole business.”

TEG was behind One Direction’s 2015 stadium tour and will look after Keith Urban’s next tour with Carrie Underwood this December, in support of his ARIA #1 albumRipcord. Urban’s last Australian tour in 2014 was co-promoted by Chugg Entertainment and TEG (when it was Nine Live), it sold over 53,200 tickets and generated over $6.73m in gross revenue.

In December last year Dainty bought a significant minority stake in Telstra’s sponsorship and ticketing specialist BangTango, however the company is no longer operating and according to ASICis under external administration.