Business News Deals Live Business

DEAG and Kilimanjaro take stake in ‘Thriller – Live’ producer 

By | Published on Tuesday 22 August 2017

Kilimanjaro Live

German live entertainment company DEAG yesterday announced that it was acquiring a majority stake in the UK-based Flying Music Group via its British subsidiary Kilimanjaro.

Flying Music mainly produces musical theatre, and is the company behind the Michael Jackson-celebrating ‘Thriller – Live’ enterprise, among other projects. DEAG says that the deal gives it a “more heterogeneous and wider range of events” in the UK market, which definitely sounds like fun. It adds that Flying Music has been profitable since its inception and that therefore, via the new acquisition, the wider group is “continuing its strategy of profitable growth in an international environment”.

As previously reported, DEAG bought a majority stake in Kilimanjaro back in 2014, though the company is still run by its founder Stuart Galbraith. Confirming the new Flying Music deal yesterday, he discussed how the new alliance continues Kilimanjaro’s expansion beyond the traditional gig into other areas of live entertainment such as comedy and theatre.

Said Galbraith: “These are exciting times for DEAG and Kilimanjaro. Our core business of live music is continuously growing. We are expecting to have another record year in 2018 with more than two million tickets sold in the UK. We have also been able to achieve the growth of the last three years by diversifying our business model beyond live music into projects such as ‘The Illusionists’, Tape Face and ‘Dinosaurs In The Wild'”.

On the new deal specifically, he went on: “The Flying Music Group deal is another important step in our expansion into West End touring musicals and theatre. The huge experience of Paul and Derek and the Flying Music Group makes it a strong, complementary partner. We’re looking forward to working together with DEAG to continue the Flying Music Group’s growth in the UK and worldwide”.

The there mentioned Paul and Derek are Paul Walden and Derek Nicol, in case you wondered. They are co-CEOs of the Flying Music Group, and they spoke in perfect unison yesterday to say: “As an independent promoter, this is an exciting development for the Flying Music Group”.

Still fully unified, they went on: “As our company continues to grow, we’re excited to be entering into a new chapter with the combined international strength of Kilimanjaro Live and DEAG behind us. We have known and admired Stuart and his team for many years and are looking forward to working together in the future”.



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