Skip to main content

Ambassador Theatre Group

The deal

Investing in the world’s largest theatre group 

£134m

Deal size, November 2009

Fund II

Realised investment

The teams

Management Team

Chair: Greg Dyke

CEO: Sir Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire

The story

Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) is the largest of its kind in the world, operating 40 venues across London’s West End, UK regional cities and New York’s Broadway which together welcome more than 8.5 million visitors each year.

Exponent formed ATG through the concurrent acquisition and merger of Ambassador Theatres, the second-largest theatre group in the UK, and LiveNation’s UK theatres. In May 2013, ATG acquired Foxwoods Theatre, the largest theatre on Broadway, and followed that with the acquisition of The Ticket Machine Group in December 2013, the largest theatre ticketing provider.

In these efforts, we worked closely with Chairperson Greg Dyke, former Director General of the BBC and Chair of the FA and BFI, alongside ATG’s founders and co-CEOs Sir Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire.

Not only does ATG benefit from strong long-term growth driven by the live entertainment trend, its distinctive vertically-integrated model - with operations spanning venue management, ticketing and production - ensures ATG is well-positioned to lead innovation within the industry.

In November 2013, Providence Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in ATG, with Exponent retaining a minority interest in the business. We sold the remainder of our interest to Providence in November 2016.