AS Piletilevi Group to acquire majority stake in GoOut.net, largest ticket sales platform in the Czech Republic

The leading Baltic ticket sales company Piletilevi recently announced the acquisition one of the largest Romanian ticketing platform bilete.ro. Now Piletilevi continues its expansion and announces the acquisition of majority holding in GoOut.net, the Czech market leader. 

According to Piletilevi Group CEO Sven Nuutmann, the acquisition of GoOut.net is an important step in the company's strategy to expand to new markets, strengthen its position in the Baltics and take steps to achieve a leading position as a ticket sales platform in Central Europe as well. "GoOut.net has an excellent young and professional team with whom we can start implementing a common growth strategy. In addition, we can successfully combine the competencies and development activities of our companies' IT development teams," Nuutmann said.

Both acquisitions by Piletilevi Group were funded with the assistance of SEB Bank. "The expansion of Estonian companies into international markets revitalizes our economy, and as a financial partner, we fully support the ambitions of such companies," described Allan Parik, CEO of SEB.

Piletilevi Group acquires an 80% stake in GoOut.net, the Czech Republic's most visited ticketing platform. With this transaction Piletilevi gains a foothold also in Poland, Slovakia and Germany. The recent transactions in Romania and the Czech Republic increase Piletilevi’s volume of annually issued tickets to 15 million and the mediated ticket turnover to 210 million euros still this year. In the next three years, the company plans to increase ticket sales to 300 million euros.

According to Nuutmann, with nearly 11 million residents, the Czech Republic has a diverse cultural landscape, and the partnership with GoOut.net gives Piletilevi Group the opportunity to offer great events and experiences to a wide audience. “I am sincerely glad that Lukáš Jandač, continuing as the CEO of GoOut.net, did not seize the opportunity to sell his entire stake and will remain a significant shareholder. The GoOut.net team will continue their daily independent operations, and nothing will change for their existing clients and partners,” Nuutmann said.

According to Lukáš Jandač, who will continue as shareholder and managing director of GoOut.net, joining the Piletilevi Group is a very exciting opportunity for them. "Piletilevi Group is a well-known ticket mediation company with more than 26 years of experience, they already have existing relationships with international agents and artists. We highly appreciate the investment capacity of Piletilevi Group, including the nearly six million euros invested in the new ticket sales platform. Now we can also contribute to it," Jandač said.

The parties are not disclosing the price of the transaction. Nuutmann added that Piletilevi Group is not ruling out new transactions in markets where it has already established a foothold, and the company is also looking for opportunities to further expand geographically.

Piletilevi Group is owned by entrepreneur Sven Nuutmann's investment company EastCom Capital and the private equity investment firm BaltCap. Piletilevi is an international ticket sales company that owns Piletilevi in Estonia, Bilesu Serviss in Latvia, Bilietai.lt in Lithuania, Bilete.ro in Romania and the full-service ticketing environments operating under the GoOut.net brands in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Germany. Piletilevi Group celebrated 26 years of operation this year and is the largest and best-known ticket sales platform in the Baltic states, offering customers the opportunity to buy tickets for various events, including concerts, theater performances and sports events.

BaltCap is the largest and most experienced private venture capital company in the Baltics, operating in the Baltic and Nordic countries as well as in Poland. BaltCap focuses on buyouts, growth capital, venture capital and infrastructure investments. Since 1995, BaltCap has invested in more than 110 companies in various business areas and has raised more than 700 million euros of capital. BaltCap has a team of 40 investment professionals operating in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Helsinki and Stockholm.