BaltCap-backed Piletilevi Group expands to Romania
BaltCap portfolio company Piletilevi Group, the largest ticket sales platform in the Baltic states, is acquiring a majority stake in Bilete.ro, the leading ticketing company in Romania. Piletilevi Group is acquiring an 80.2% stake, with 19.8% retained by the current shareholders of Bilete.ro, Andreea Pop, Ion Stanciulea and Razvan-Teodor Opran. Pop will continue as the CEO of the company.
Bilete.ro has been operating in the Romanian market for 17 years, selling over 1.5 million tickets per year. With 40 employees, the company sells tickets in the online environment bilete.ro, which has 1 million visits a month at 1,600 partner sales points across the country, with more than 300 customers in all fields of events. The main areas served are sports, electronic music festivals, children’s entertainment, and theatre. Bilete.ro is also an official partner of the Romanian Football Federation.
According to Sven Nuutmann, the co-owner and CEO of Piletilevi Group, expanding the business outside the Baltic countries has been planned for some time, but the global COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine put the expansion on hold. Entering Romania, with a population of 20 million, now marks the beginning of Piletilevi Group’s geographical expansion.
“We see excellent cooperation opportunities with the founders and management of Bilete.ro for growing the business. We can create synergies and offer a better service to both Romanian and Baltic event organizers as well as ticket buyers,” Nuutmann said.
“We are thrilled to bring the latest software solutions of the ticketing world to the Romanian market. We plan to contribute to the development of organizers’ self-service environment and analytical reports and offer event organizers the best marketing opportunities based on our long-term experience,” Nuutmann said, adding that Piletilevi Group continues to seek further expansion opportunities both in Romania and the neighbouring countries.
Andreea Pop, the CEO of Bilete.ro said the 26-year experience of Piletilevi Group, which sells nearly 7.5 million tickets to more than 30,000 events a year, is invaluable. “Piletilevi is well-known among the largest organizers in Europe and the world. Its entry to the Romanian market will definitely improve the chances of local organizers in bringing an increasing number of concerts of well-known foreign artists to Romania,” Pop commented.
Pop emphasized the relevant experience of Piletilevi Group when mediating the world’s top artists such as Metallica, Rammstein, Ed Sheeran, Måneskin, Imagine Dragons, The Weeknd, Depeche Mode and many others. In addition, Piletilevi has been a partner to outstanding sports events such as the basketball EuroLeague Final Four tournament in Kaunas, the Rally Estonia WRC stage and the Biathlon World Cup stage held in Otepää, Estonia, last year.
The transaction will be completed following the approval of relevant authorities; the transaction value has not been disclosed.
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Photo credit: Silas Baisch/ Unsplash ; BaltCap