Impresario Festivals plc was established in 2012 with the simple aim of using EIS-qualifying capital to build a group of independent music festivals and events across the UK.
Impresario Festivals
Overview
Background
Over the course of two years, the company raised almost £10m of EIS capital, as well as £2.5m of senior debt, and used that to acquire four brands – Rewind Festival, Boardmasters, SW4 and Field Day. The management team, led by CEO David Heartfield, worked closely with the brands, providing sufficient investment and strategic direction to grow the events and to implement best practices across the group.
During this period various new festivals were launched including House of Common and Rewind North. Average attendance per day increased to over 25,000, international and licensing events tripled, and the group revenues grew to £21.4m generating an EBITDA of £3.3m by 2015.
What we did
The Edition team were instrumental from day one, with Paul Bedford becoming the CFO of the group and Harry Heartfield taking on the role of Head of Investments and Acquisitions.
With increasing demand for a premium portfolio of festivals, the Edition team worked with Impresario to look at potential options for the company, including exploring an AIM listing and taking on significant capital from a PE firm to expand internationally. However, several offers were made for the festival group, representing an exceptional return for the investors. The Edition team negotiated the sale of the assets to Global, owner of Europe’s largest commercial radio group, for c.£30m.
In Numbers
This represented a 2.33x return for the initial investors (before performance fees), and demonstrated the potential returns to be made within the leisure and entertainment sector for EIS Investors.
Get In Touch
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Call us on 020 3145 1851, or email [email protected]