Piletilevi Group expanding to Romania

Piletilevi Group, the largest and best-known ticket sales platform in the Baltic states, is acquiring a majority stake in Bilete.ro, Romania's oldest and leading ticket sales company with a 30 percent market share.

Piletilevi Group partner and CEO Sven Nuutmann said that, according to an agreement signed in Bucharest on Wednesday evening, Piletilevi Group is acquiring an 80.2 percent stake in the Romanian company, with 19.8 percent retained by the current shareholders of Bilete.ro. Andreea Pop will continue as the CEO of the company.

According to Sven Nuutmann, Piletilevi Group has had expansion plans outside the Baltic countries for some time, but the global COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine that started last winter put these plans on hold. However, entering the Romanian market, which has a population of 20 million, marks the beginning of Piletilevi Group's geographical expansion.

“We see excellent cooperation opportunities with the founders and management of Bilete.ro for expanding the company and we can definitely be mutually beneficial to offer a better service to both Romanian and Baltic event organizers as well as ticket buyers,” Nuutmann said.

“We definitely want to bring the latest software solutions for the ticketing environment to the Romanian market, 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 is continuing to actively look for expansion opportunities both in Romania and in neighbouring countries.

Bilete.ro CEO Andreea Pop said that it is difficult to underestimate the 26-year experience of Piletilevi Group, which sells nearly 7.5 million tickets to more than 30,000 events a year. “The entry of a ticket sales company, which is well-known among the largest organizers in Europe and the world, into the Romanian market will definitely improve the chances of Romanian organizers in bringing concerts of more well-known foreign artists to Romania,” Pop expressed hope by saying.

Pop pointed out that over the years Piletilevi Group has acted as a mediator for the world's top artists such as Metallica, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Depeche Mode and many others, and of sports events, it has been a sales partner for 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 finalized after receiving the necessary approvals from the local authorities, the parties will not disclose the price of the transaction.

Bilete.ro has been operating on 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 sees one million monthly visits, and at 1,600 partner sales points across the country, having more than 300 customers in all fields of events. The main areas served are sports, electronic & live music concerts & festivals, children's entertainment, and theater.

The Piletilevi Group is owned by entrepreneur Sven Nuutmann's investment company EastCom Capital and BaltCap private equity funds. Piletilevi Group is an international ticket sales and event organization company that owns Piletilevi in Estonia, Bilesu Serviss in Latvia and Bilietai.lt in Lithuania, as well as ticket sales environments operating under the Bilete.ro brands in Romania after the transaction enters into force. Piletilevi Group celebrated 26 years of operation this year, offering a professional service to event organizers in the Baltic countries as well as other countries.

BaltCap is the largest and most experienced private equity firm in the Baltics, operating in the Baltic and Nordic countries as well as in Poland. Investors of the current BaltCap buyout fund include the European Investment Fund (EIF), the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD), the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) as well as leading local pension funds, asset managers and family offices.