Alfa-Bank buys a stake in Kassir.ru

Alfa-Bank plans to receive a blocking stake in the ticket aggregator for Kassir.ru events: the amount of the transaction, according to unofficial data, may exceed 1 billion rubles. The service was already co-owned by Tinkoff Bank, but its structures withdrew from the company’s capital in 2021. Market participants and experts note that Alfa-Bank is not new to the entertainment segment, but there is no specialized service in its ecosystem. The integration of Kassir.ru, in their opinion, will allow the bank to attract a new audience.

Kommersant’s sources said that Alfa-Bank intends to acquire a stake in Kassir.ru – National Ticket Operator LLC. We are talking about the purchase of a “blocking stake”, the amount of the transaction exceeds 1 billion rubles, says the interlocutor of Kommersant, who is familiar with the negotiations. Kassir.ru has already been named among the partners in the Alfa-Bank mobile application. The CEO and beneficiary of the company Evgeny Finkelstein declined to comment. Alfa Bank declined to comment.

Alfa-Bank is not the first financial institution that is interested in the segment of ticket operators. In 2018, the parent company of Tinkoff Bank TCS Group acquired 40% in the same Kassir.ru. In February 2019, the group’s share decreased to 17.5%, then increased to 35%, and in August decreased again to 29.13%. In July 2021, TCS Group withdrew from Kassir.ru, returning the share to Mr. Finkelstein.

In 2022, against the backdrop of the cancellation of concerts by foreign and some Russian performers due to hostilities in Ukraine, consolidation intensified in the Russian market of ticket operators. Kassir.ru bought one of the oldest aggregators Parter.ru from the German CTS Eventim. “It is likely that the value of the company is assessed not by current indicators and multipliers, but by predicted ones, taking into account previous transactions,” says Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst at FG Finam. “The multiplier for public companies that sell tickets is less than 1.5. The blocking stake is 25% in the campaign capital, so the entire Kassir.ru can be valued at 4 billion rubles.”

The total turnover of ticket sales to theaters, circuses, concerts and sporting events in 2022 amounted to 70–120 billion rubles, says Yevgeny Safronov, editor-in-chief of the InterMedia news agency, specifying that the industry “has not developed a unified calculation methodology.” According to his forecast, in 2023 the market will reach 100-150 billion rubles. Kassir.ru “occupies a large share,” so Alfa-Bank’s decision to acquire a stake in this particular company looks logical, says Ticketscloud CEO Egor Egerev. Kassir.ru’s competitors include Yandex Afisha, Ticketscloud, Ticketland, Afisha, MTS Live (Ticketland and Ponominalu), etc.

Companies from the telecommunications segment and banks are actively entering the entertainment market, Yegor Yegerev notes: “Basically, this is necessary to gain access to the audience. Alfa-Bank has been looking at the events market for a long time, the company has done many sponsorship integrations with artists and musicians.” In March, Kommersant’s sources said that MTS Entertainment wanted to buy the Ticketscloud ticket operator (see Kommersant dated March 6).

Personal connections played a role in the deal, the source of Kommersant in the event organization market believes: “Alfa-Bank cooperated with the Planet Plus promotion company 15 years ago (by 50%, according to Kartoteka.rubelongs to Mr. Finkelstein.— “b”) to bring major artists to Russia, such as Scorpions. Kommersant’s source emphasizes that now the bank does not have its own entertainment products: “But in 2014-2021, it held the Alfa Future People electronic music and technology festival and even developed ticket software for this.” Another interlocutor of Kommersant adds that the deal will allow the bank to integrate the ticketing platform into its mobile application and attract the audience to the ecosystem by selling tickets for exclusive concerts.

Yulia Yurasova, Nikita Korolev