Global private equity firm KKR will acquire a minority stake in online ticketing and event management platform BookMyShow, as the Indian company looks to scale its live entertainment business and deepen its full-stack entertainment offerings.
Neither KKR nor BookMyShow disclosed any financial terms of the transaction in a joint statement.
However, Reuters cited a source as saying that KKR will buy a stake of about 6% for $40 million to $50 million. It added that the deal implies an estimated valuation of $667 million to $833 million for BookMyShow.
BookMyShow, operated by Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, made early inroads into technology-enabled entertainment experiences in India when it began operations in 2007. Since then, it has evolved from a ticketing platform into a full-stack entertainment company with offerings across movies, live entertainment and experiences.
The company, which is backed by Jungle Ventures, TPG, Accel, Elevation Capital, and Reliance Industries unit Network18, is present in over 700 towns and cities in India with partnerships across the entertainment industry.
Akshay Tanna, partner and head of India private equity at KKR, said the PE firm would support BookMyShow in its next phase of growth in “India’s out-of-home entertainment sector”.
“We believe BookMyShow will play an important role in advancing India’s ambition to become a global entertainment hub and a premier destination for leading artists and acts from around the world,” Tanna said.
Ashish Hemrajani, founder and CEO, BookMyShow, cited KKR’s global perspective, deep expertise and strong understanding of consumer businesses as invaluable aspects for their next growth phase.
“The timing of this investment is particularly exciting, as we have significantly expanded our presence across the live entertainment landscape and are seeing the opportunity for India’s entertainment economy to grow like never before,” Hemrajani said.
Some of BookMyShow’s live entertainment experiential shows in the past few years include Lollapalooza India, U2’s The Joshua Tree Tour, NBA’s debut games in India, Disney’s Aladdin, Cirque du Soleil BAZZAR, shows by international artists such as Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott, Linkin’ Park, John Mayer, Guns N’ Roses, Post Malone, Def Leppard, Justin Bieber among others.
BookMyShow also offers cinema and live ticketing, organic reviews, and BookMyShow Stream (TVOD), a home-grown transactional video-on-demand platform.
For KKR, this marks an addition to its list of transactions so far in India, including Medicover India, Lighthouse Learning, Vini Cosmetics, Healthcare Global Enterprises, Darwinbox, and Rebel Foods.
KKR’s global media and entertainment investments include ByteDance, Epic Games, Simon & Schuster, Internet Brands, Chord Music Partners, PlayOnSports, OverDrive, and Superstruct.
The investment banking arm of Avendus was the financial adviser to the transaction. Trilegal acted as legal advisor. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals