Kassir.ru took a place in Parter – Newspaper Kommersant No. 156 (7357) dated 08/26/2022

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. The latter’s business in Russia became unprofitable even against the backdrop of the pandemic, as it was focused on Western stars. Experts and market participants allow new mergers in the segment.

The main beneficiary and CEO of Kassir.ru, Yevgeny Finkelstein, told Kommersant that the company had acquired Parter.ru from the German holding CTS Eventim (headquartered in Bremen, has the largest ticket network in Europe). The deal will be closed shortly. The businessman did not disclose its conditions, noting only that the company will improve the expertise at the expense of the Parter.ru team and audience coverage at the expense of its base.

According to one of Kommersant’s sources on the market, in the future the Kassir.ru and Parter.ru brands will be merged, but both showcases will remain at the first stage. Another source of Kommersant clarified that the deal was “virtually cashless”, CTS Eventim had long intended to exit the local asset, which became unprofitable during the pandemic: “Parter.ru focused on foreign artists, but because of the pandemic they were gone, and with the outbreak of hostilities, even those concerts that were postponed were canceled.

Kassir.ru also acquired 60% of the Radario ticketing platform and marketing service in 2021, agreeing to receive the remaining share within three years (see Kommersant dated August 12, 2021). Evgeny Finkelstein specified that the company has not yet increased its share. In July 2021, the businessman bought out 29.13% of Kassir.ru from TCS Group (the parent company of Tinkoff Bank). Now he owns 85% of the company, and 15% belongs to the head of SAV Entertainment, Nadezhda Solovieva.

According to SPARK-Interfax, the revenue of Kassir.ru National Ticket Operator LLC in 2021 amounted to 139 million rubles. with a loss of 201 million rubles. But Yevgeny Finkelstein clarified to Kommersant that in the first half of the year alone, the company’s turnover reached 5 billion rubles. excluding Radario, by the end of the year it is expected at the level of 11-12 billion rubles. The turnover of the entire market for selling tickets to theaters, concerts and sporting events, according to the forecast of the businessman, will amount to 80 billion rubles.

The trend towards consolidation of the ticket sales market in the Russian Federation began in 2018, when MTS acquired Ticketland.ru and Ponominalu operators, and intensified into a pandemic. In 2019, Yandex.Afisha bought the TicketSteam ticketing system. In 2020, MTS spun off its core business into an independent MTS Entertainment, and Yandex bought Listim.Tickets in 2021. Kommersant’s source on the market believes that the deal with Parter.ru “is unlikely to seriously change the balance of power,” but in the current conditions considers market consolidation understandable and justified.

Evgeny Safronov, editor-in-chief of the InterMedia news agency, considers the departure of CTS Eventim from Russia a logical step: “Decisions are influenced not so much by sanctions as by the financial situation – the company’s turnover in Russia against the backdrop of the cancellation of concerts by Western stars has fallen, presumably, by three to five times.” At the same time, the expert believes that the deal will strengthen Kassir.ru’s position in the ticket segment: “The company will be second only to MTS Entertainment in terms of turnover.”

The CEO of MTS Entertainment, Mikhail Minin, expects that the segment of tickets for concerts in 2022 will be reduced by 23% due to the absence of foreign artists and the cancellation of performances by some Russian performers. The consequences of the pandemic and the “current situation” will be felt by the concert market for several more years, the top manager believes. But, Mr. Minin clarifies, the theater ticket segment will grow by 21%, and in 2023 it will reach the level of 2019 due to state support and the flow of viewers from other types of entertainment, primarily cinema and concerts.

Julia Silence