Affinity to buy Nine's Australia events business for $496m

The business, Nine Live, owns Ticketek, which is responsible for ticketing at nine of Australia's top 10 venues. It has more than 135 exclusive contracts with venues and promoters and Australia and New Zealand and issues more than 22 million tickets per year. Nine Live's other assets include the Allphones Arena in Sydney Olympic Park and a sports and entertainment touring and events business.

Nine Live posted revenue of A$102.5 million for the first six months of the 2015 financial year, down 23.9% year-on-year, while EBITDA fell 10.2% to A$36 million. The fall in revenue was primarily due to a smaller number of events during the period compared to 2014. Ticketek, which accounts for approximately 70% of total revenue, weakened slightly.

"Nine Live is an excellent company with strong management and has the capacity for significant growth throughout the region, which aligns with Affinity's investment strategy," Brett Sutton, Affinity's head of Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement.

Following the sale, Nine Entertainment will retain a commercial relationship with Nine Live. It is divesting the asset in order to focus on its free-to-air television, digital and subscription streaming businesses. The company's flagship asset is Channel Nine, which is complemented by digital channels GO! and GEM.

Nine Entertainment will use the proceeds of the sale to increase returns to shareholders through an ongoing share buyback program and bolster its balance sheet. Its stock jumped as much as 9.8% in response to the announcement, although the gain has since receded to 3.7%.

Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital are the largest individual shareholders in Nine Entertainment, with 21.82% and 14.21% respectively as of September 2014. They assumed control of the business in early 2013 through a debt-for-equity swap worth nearly $3 billion, which wiped out CVC Capital Partners' equity interest.

The company was recapitalized and went public in December 2013, raising A$631 million through its IPO.

Affinity is currently investing its fourth pan-Asian buyout fund, which closed at $3.8 billion in early 2014. Last September the PE firm acquired a 35% interest in Virgin Australia's frequent flyer program for A$336 million. It also recently sold deli meats producer Primo Group to Brazil's JBS for A$1.45 billion.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Australasia
• Media
• Consumer
• Consumer
• Media
• Australia
• buyout
• Affinity Equity Partners