Morning all, Craig McGlashan here on Europe Wire duty from the London newsroom.
I’m excited to have tickets for the Stranger Things stage show this week – and in perfect timing, we’ve got a story about the company whose theaters host the play.
We speak to Providence Equity Partners’ Andrew Tisdale and Robert Sudo about the firm’s exit from ATG, a theater company that covers venue operations, production and ticketing. It operates 70 venues that host shows such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Paddington the Musical.
Providence has also been doing deals in the B2B events business this year – Hyve and CloserStill. Tisdale and Sudo walk us through the similarities in the investment playbooks for entertainment and B2B events.
In fresh deal news, Brookfield has agreed to a take-private of Reliance Worldwide, a global manufacturer of plumbing and heating products.
To finish, Eurazeo has completed a majority investment in Netco Group, a European provider of critical maintenance services for conveyor systems used in vital industries. The stake was acquired from Ardian and Netco’s management team, with Netco’s founders making a significant reinvestment alongside Eurazeo.
Symmetry
Squeezing into theater seats to see the Harry Potter stage show may seem a world away from pressing the flesh at a B2B conference in a cavernous exhibition arena. But for private equity firms that back the businesses behind such events, there are more similarities than differences.
Providence Equity Partners has been on a run of deals in the sector. It agreed in August to sell ATG Entertainment, a theater company that covers venue operations, production and ticketing. It operates 70 venues that host shows such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Paddington the Musical and Stranger Things: The First Shadow. The sale was around £4.5 billion ($6.1 billion) versus an entry of roughly £350 million, PE Hub understands.
In the B2B world, alongside co-owner Searchlight Capital Partners the firm agreed in June to sell Hyve for £1.3 billion. In May, it reinvested in CloserStill Media as Searchlight became a co-owner at a valuation of £1.3 billion.
In its last 12 sale exits, Providence increased the enterprise value of the sold asset by 7x on average, while it has generated distributions representing an average of 24 percent of prior year NAV per year to LPs since the beginning of 2024, PE Hub understands.
Andrew Tisdale, vice-chairman, and Robert Sudo, senior managing director, talked PE Hub through the similarities between entertainment and B2B events investing: the importance of category leaders; underwriting through disruption; tech investment; global expansion; and exit timing.
Here’s two of those factors:
In showbiz terms, the product has got to be a showstopper. The Harry Potter stage show won a series of design awards, for instance.
“What you can see on stage nowadays compared to 10 or 20 years ago is just jaw-dropping,” said Sudo.
And just as dusty old productions won’t cut it in the age of high-end theater effects, B2B events must also be premium for private equity firms to be interested.
“There are many businesses that we’ve said ‘no’ to in this space,” said Tisdale. “You must have shows that are really important for the ecosystem that they serve. You’ve got to have a really good understanding of that dynamic. And not just the number-two or -three, but the number-one shows in the verticals addressed.”
CloserStill fit that mold for Providence. It operates across four sectors: technology, healthcare, learning and HR, and future transport and infrastructure. Its flagship events include Ai4, the London Vet Show and Data Centre World.
Since Providence acquired a majority stake from Inflexion, NVM Private Equity and management in 2018, CloserStill has expanded from three to four verticals, through a combination of organic growth, new event launches and targeted M&A.
At investment, the company’s EBITDA was around £20 million, but in the 2025 calendar year adjusted EBITDA had grown to £78 million, according to a Companies House filing.
ATG and CloserStill were on Providence’s books when covid-19 hit. In B2B, “everyone told Robert and me that this business model is dead – it’s all going to be on Zoom,” said Tisdale.
Making the case that the model was very much alive, Sudo gave the example of a company selling large products like MRI machines to hospitals. “There’s no way to digitize that on Zoom. You can’t really carry it around. There is no better place to go than to a trade show because it’s a complicated product. There you have the opportunity within three days to meet 25 serious buyers.”
Hyve, whose portfolio covers healthcare, e-commerce, edtech, supply chain and martech, with brands including HLTH, Shoptalk and Bett, was also hit by covid-19. Providence and Searchlight took it private in 2023 “before the business had recovered,” said Sudo.
“We paid a significant premium on the unaffected share price. It was 70p when we started looking into it. And in the end, we took it private for 121p. People asked us, what have you done there?”
And as some theater business owners sought to exit during the shutdown, ATG made “significant acquisitions in the US,” said Sudo.
Providence underwrote ATG four times, including during the pandemic in 2020. The other times were when buying the business in 2013 from Exponent, buying Exponent’s minority share in 2016, and running a continuation vehicle in 2021.
“Our original IC memo back in 2012-13 was remarkably consistent,” said Tisdale.
“Everyone thought that the new live entertainment world would look so different once covid-19 is over – everyone will be working from home and playing Roblox with their Meta glasses,” added Sudo. Taking the alternate view was, “with hindsight, a wise decision.”
Check out the full article for the other similarities: tech investment; global expansion; and exit timing.
Going private
Brookfield has agreed to acquire Reliance Worldwide, a global manufacturer of plumbing and heating products listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Reliance’s board has unanimously recommended the all-cash proposal of $3.38 per share, which values the company at an enterprise value of approximately $2.8 billion. Reliance is headquartered in the US, with operations across the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Brookfield said Reliance is the market leader in push-to-connect fittings for plumbing systems and has an established model for expanding non-PTC products to existing customers through major retailers and the wholesale channel.
Finishing up
Eurazeo has completed a majority investment in Netco Group, a European provider of critical maintenance services for conveyor systems used in vital industries. The stake was acquired from Ardian and Netco’s management team, with Netco’s founders making a significant reinvestment alongside Eurazeo.
The transaction was first announced in April. Since then, Netco has completed three add-on acquisitions: MLT, a France-based designer and manufacturer of conveyor belt splicing systems; Maferdi, a Portugal-based specialist in conveyor system maintenance services; and Arcabelt, an Italian supplier of PVC and polyurethane conveyor belts.
That’s a wrap. Rafael Canton is in the US chair later today and I’ll write to you again from Europe tomorrow.
Cheers,
Craig