TEG Group Owners Preparing High-Roller Auction: Reports

TEG Group’s owners are reportedly testing the waters for an auction which, if the money is right, would see the Australian business change hands for the second time in four years.

The live entertainment, data and tech giant’s private equity owners are expected to launch a sale process for TEG this April, sources tell The Australian, with investment bank Jefferies tapped to facilitate.

“It is logical for private equity firms to be the most likely buyers,” reads the report, noting opportunity abounds “for a strategy player to be competitive in an auction.”

A separate story published last month in the Australian Financial Review suggests TEG is being pitched to big global buyout funds as “a unique business worldwide,” one that has grown its footprint significantly since its takeover by Silver Lake.

Those organisations without the capacity to spend north of $2 billion need not apply, the AFR notes.

Recent history would suggest an equity partner is a possible suitor, while a partnership with a deep-pocketed music company would create obvious synergies, it’d also likely trigger a probe by competition authorities.

Private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners bought Ticketek from Nine Entertainment for $640 million in 2015 and, in that time, TEG beefed-up the content, data and analytics sides of its business.

Then, in 2019, Silver Lake, a U.S.-based private equity company which specialises in technology investing, swooped in to buy TEG Group for upwards of $1 billion.

TMN reached out to TEG reps for comment on those auction reports.

Based in Sydney, TEG’s interests also include TEG Live, Qudos Bank Arena, SXSW Sydney, TEG Van Egmond, Laneway Festival, Handsome Tours, Eventopia, and TEG Dainty, Paul Dainty’s concert and events promotion company which it acquired in 2016.

Its Ticketek business, one of the two big players in Australia’s ticketing space, claims upwards of 23 million ticket sales to more than 20,000 events each year, providing ticketing services to such venues as ANZ Stadium, Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Cricket Ground, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena.

TEG also bought into the traveling Laneway Festival in 2021; the latest edition featured performances from Haim, Joji, Phoebe Bridgers, Finneas, Fontaines D.C., Fred Again and more.

Led by CEO Geoff Jones, TEG has built on its European ambitions in recent years.

The vertically-integrated business got its foothold in the U.K. in 2019, with the acquisition of U.K.-based MJR Group, which had produced shows for Sia, 50 Cent, and Hans Zimmer, and operated and promoted tours across Dubai, South Africa, Japan and China.

Ticketek rolled out into the U.K. in 2020.