Ambassador Theatre Group complete massive £90m takeover
By Ross Levy at 8:16 pm on November 2nd, 2009. Printer friendly version.
It was today confirmed that the Ambassador Theatre Group have completed the massive buy out of the Live Nation theatre empire in a deal that has reached £90million and has made the group Britain’s largest theatre operator.
It was back in June when details as to the fact Live Nation were putting their empire up for sale went to press, 17 theatres being the lucky buyers gift including some of the UK’s most prestigious venues not only in London’s West End but around the UK. Among these include the Edinburgh Playhouse, Birmingham Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool Empire, Sunderland Empire, Bristol Hippodrome and Manchester Palace Theatre. West End theatre’s also included in the buy out are the Lyceum Theatre, currently home to The Lion King which celebrated it’s tenth birthday at the theatre last month and Apollo Victoria, home to Wicked. Despite the Dominion Theatre also being partially owned by Live Nation, the Nederlander Group have taken Live Nation’s share in the venue which is currently housing We Will Rock You, the musical featuring the songs of rock band Queen.
11,000 seats are now owned by ATG in the West End whilst this is a figure that can have a further 38,000 seats out of the West End added to it. 37 theatres are now under-ownership by the ATG. HQ Theatre’s, who also produce Qdos Pantomimes which run up and down the nation’s theatres yearly, is now the second largest theatre company in the UK and the group continues to own it’s theatre such as Wycombe Swan and The Cliffs Pavillion, Southend.
The decision to sell Live Nation’s theatre empire has come to allow the company to further boost their live music operation yet it is not known as such when the theatre’s being taken over can expect the major and notable changes.
