SOM Produce theatre Nuevo Teatro Alcalá in Madrid. Photo Credit: MaGrc
Providence Equity Partners’ ATG Entertainment has fired off another acquisition, this time by scooping up Madrid-headquartered theatre business SOM Produce.
Reps for London-based ATG (formerly the Ambassador Theatre Group) reached out today with word of the SOM Produce acquisition, less than one month following the purchase of touring Broadway presenter Celebrity Attractions.
Founded in 1983 and operating out of Tulsa, the latter company produces shows throughout the Southwest as well as the Midwest.
Evidently, though, ATG’s expansion ambitions aren’t confined to the States. The company opted against publicly disclosing the financials behind the SOM Produce deal, but it did tout the newly purchased business’s reach.
All told, SOM is said to sell north of 750,000 tickets annually to its plays, among them Spanish-language productions of West Side Story, Mamma Mia!, and the forthcoming Wicked.
On the venue side, SOM manages five Madrid theatres: Nuevo Teatro Alcalá, Teatro Rialto, Teatro Nuevo Apolo, Teatro Calderón, and Teatro Amaya. Those theatres house a combined 5,200 or so seats, according to the involved parties.
Per the same parties, collaborations are in the cards for ATG and SOM in light of the just-finalized buyout; Madrid, SOM CEO Marcos Cámara elaborated, is one of the largest theatre markets today.
“Madrid only follows the West End and Broadway in terms of global theatre demand as the appetite for theatre and live performances continues to grow throughout Spain,” Cámara said in part.
“This partnership with ATG will help us capture significant opportunities to satisfy this increased demand going forward,” the more than 11-year SOM head continued.
And in remarks of his own, ATG CEO Ted Stimpson described the deal as “an exciting opportunity to further build ATG’s European operations.” Of course, time will reveal exactly what else these buildout initiatives entail.
But Providence Equity isn’t alone in betting on theatre – and ATG in particular. Blackstone last year quietly took a minority stake in ATG, which operates close to 70 venues.
Also in 2024, Providence went ahead and cashed out of Superstruct Entertainment, selling the European live-music giant to KKR for a reported $1.4 billion. The owner and operator of some 80 festivals, Superstruct scored a subsequent investment from Luxembourg’s CVC in late October 2024.
In general – and despite the continued sales success of several mega-tours – the festival space isn’t riding high at present, to put it mildly. Organizers nixed over 170 festivals last year, DMN Pro noted, and even decidedly well-established players are grappling with sales slowdowns.