US sports, media-focused GP backs Australia's PMY Group
Bluestone Equity Partners, a US private equity firm specialising in sports and media, has made an investment of undisclosed size in Australia’s PMY Group, an IT provider for stadiums and arenas.
This is Bluestone’s first investment. The New York-based GP, which has significant ties with global sporting organisations, closed its debut growth fund in February on USD 300m claiming “major institutional backing.” It also marks PMY’s first institutional capital raise since its inception in 2009.
PMY designs and manages IT-related systems for venues and events, including crowd intelligence, digital scoreboards and billboards, acoustics and noise control, experiential lighting, security and surveillance, and control room and production technologies.
The offering, which includes a wholly owned design firm called WJHW, is said to help venues of all types deliver a safe, secure, and engaging experience, while optimising operations and driving revenue growth. The company describes the infrastructure technology market as fast-growing and has moved to expand its model beyond sports and entertainment to public facilities such as airports and universities.
PMY claims to have delivered more than USD 1bn worth of technology services to more than 1,000 venues and events globally. In the US alone, it has done technical design work for most of the major professional sports venue developments, including 29 of the 30 most recent projects for the National Football League (NFL), 28 of 30 for Major League Baseball (MLB), and most of the work required by Major League Soccer (MLS).
The company has been active in 14 countries; headquarters in Melbourne are supported by bases in the US and UK. Asian activity includes signing on as the end-to-end technology delivery partner for Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Sport Park, a multi-purpose venue currently under construction.
PMY plans to leverage Bluestone’s strategic connections in a mixed organic and inorganic expansion driver, relocating headquarters from Australia to the US. Its existing US base is outside of Dallas. Basketball, an area of strength at Bluestone, appears to be a growth area.
Bluestone is led by Bobby Sharma, a sports and media industry veteran who spent nine years in senior roles at the NBA. He has also worked in e-sports and served as head of basketball at sports talent management company IMG.
Sharma’s private equity experience includes setting up generalist VC firm NextGen Venture Partners and investing as a partner at specialist buyout and growth investor GACP Sports. He sits on the board of several US sporting organisations.
“Through hard work, strategic and accretive M&A, and great leadership, [PMY founder Paul Yeomans] and his management team have built an incredible business with a massive addressable market,” Sharma said in a statement. “PMY’s value-add has become more relevant and impactful in the sports, media & entertainment industry over time, and now serves critical needs for a wide variety of infrastructure.”
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