CVC Capital Partners Purchases Stage Entertainment

CVC Capital Partners ("CVC") announced today that funds advised by CVC have signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in international musical and theatre group, Stage Entertainment. Under the terms of the transaction, CVC will acquire a 60% stake from the company's founder, Joop van den Ende, who will remain a 40% shareholder in the business and as co-chairman.

Founded 17 years ago, Stage Entertainment is the market leader in musical theatre in Continental Europe, responsible for globally acclaimed productions including the Lion King, Mamma Mia!, the Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, which together attract more than ten million visitors a year. The global live entertainment market is set to continue to grow, with Stage Entertainment playing a central part.

CVC has been active in the Dutch market since the early 1990s, including many successful investments, such as C1000, the second largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands. Leveraging its extensive industry experience and world-class network, CVC will work closely in partnership with Joop van den Ende to develop its portfolio of licensed and in-house content, to deliver continued growth in existing markets including Germany, Spain, Holland, France, Italy, UK, USA and Russia, as well as in new markets around the world.

Joop van den Ende, Stage Entertainment's founder commented: "Our current business model is based on creation and production of premium musicals, managing first class theatres and an excellent, long-term cooperation with major international producers of leading musical content. My passion for theatre and musicals in particular, remains undiminished but I also realise that it is time for me to take a step back and hand over the reins of management to others as we look to realise the creative and financial ambitions for the business and grow our audiences from ten to twenty million visitors per year. CVC is the perfect partner to take our business to the next level."

Ivo Lurvink partner at CVC Capital Partners, said "Musical production has been a huge growth area in Europe in recent years. Joop has proven himself a visionary and has developed Stage Entertainment into an industry leader. We look forward to bringing our own network and operational expertise to support Joop and the team, in delivering an exciting future for the audience, our IP partners and for Stage Entertainment over the years ahead."

CVC Capital Partners is one of the world's leading private equity and investment advisory firms. Founded in 1981, CVC today has a network of 22 offices and over 300 employees throughout Europe, Asia and the US. To date, CVC has secured commitments of over US$79 billion in funds from a diverse and loyal investor base, completing over 300 investments in a wide range of industries and countries across the globe, with an aggregate transaction value of over US$120 billion.

For further information about CVC please visit: www.cvc.com

Stage Entertainment has earned a worldwide reputation as a creative developer and producer of over 40 musicals and shows on an annual basis, combined with a portfolio of 20 own theaters. With 10 million visitors per year and more than 3,500 employees in eight countries, the company generates a turnover of more than € 500 million. Stage Entertainment is the only company within the international musical industry that successfully managed to introduce the musical genre from the Netherlands to other European countries where interesting markets have been built and then expanded. This was achieved by working with own national teams (locally trained with supervision from Amsterdam) and presenting the productions in their own language. Besides the musicals in collaboration with international partners, Stage Entertainment also harvested successes with self-developed new musicals. In the past decade, the company had five hits in the Netherlands, four in Germany and the first international hit musical Sister Act of which now fifteen different productions are made worldwide.

Stage Entertainment was founded in 1998 as an independent company after Joop van den Ende had acquired the live entertainment activities from Endemol. Joop van den Ende made his name as a theatre producer in 1970s. In his career he produced more than 80 plays and over 180 musical productions. For his productions, he received a total of more than 210 awards, including 13 American Tony Awards, 10 British Laurence Olivier Awards, several German Audience Awards, German Live Entertainment Awards, Spanish BroadwayWorld Awards and French Molière Awards, alongside with 90 Dutch Musical Awards. In 2010 Stage Entertainment was awarded the King Willem I Award, a national award for the best large company.