Eventbrite stages crowd-pleasing debut

2 min read
Americas
Anthony Hughes

Event planning software platform Eventbrite delivered a stunning NYSE debut Thursday, soaring more than 60% after drawing overwhelming investor demand for its US$230m IPO.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Allen & Co and other banks saw investor demand for the 10m shares Eventbrite offered swell to 30 times before pricing the offering at US$23.00 each, the top of an upwardly revised US$21-$23 marketing range.

Eventbrite shares opened 56.5% higher at US$36.00, traded as high as US$39.30, and settled at US$38.30 (up 66.5%) by mid-afternoon on volume of 9m shares, a near full turnover of the IPO.

T. Rowe Price and Tiger Management, two of Eventbrite’s largest shareholders, purchased additional shares, contributing to tight allocations and a scarcity of stock in the aftermarket, bankers close to the deal told IFR.

At the IPO price, Eventbrite was valued at 5.4 times enterprise value to 2019 forecast sales and 40 times forecast Ebitda for the same year.

Using the former metric, Eventbrite was coming at a sharp discount to comps including HubSpot.

Though a premium to event producer Live Nation Entertainment, which trades at 1.1-times EV-to-2019 revenue, Eventbrite is growing its revenues at a 20%-30% clip versus single-digits for Live Nation.

Founded in 2006 by Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage in 2006, Eventbrite helped 700,000 event “creators” issue 203m tickets and generated US$201.6m of revenue last year, mostly by charging creators on a per-ticket basis.

Investors liked the potential of Eventbrite to consolidate the fragmented event management market and broaden its platform by adding new capabilities and revenue streams.

“Part of the dream is it becomes a broader platform over time, for example adding services that manage sponsorship opportunities and food vendors,” another banker close to the deal said.