CONCERT PROMOTER Denis Desmond has sold his 67 per cent stake in the company behind the Scottish music festival, T In The Park, to US live entertainment giant Live Nation.
Mr Desmond's stake in the Glasgow-based company, DF Concerts, was held by his Dublin company, Gaiety Investments.
Live Nation is acquiring the stake through LN-Gaiety Holdings, its UK joint venture with Mr Desmond. It declined to say how much it was paying for the stake.
DF Concerts made a gross profit of £3.5 million (€4.3 million) from a turnover of £18.2 million in the year to March 31st, 2007, according to its most recently filed accounts.
The remaining 33 per cent shareholding in DF Concerts is being retained by promoter Simon Moran and the company's managing director, Geoff Ellis.
Mr Desmond has worked closely with Live Nation for several years. The two are partners in Britain in the Mean Fiddler and Academy music groups. Mr Desmond also promotes Live Nation concerts in Ireland through his Dublin company, MCD.
Paul Latham, president of Live Nation UK, said the acquisition of T In The Park, Britain's fourth largest music festival, gives the company its first festival in Scotland.
Mr Desmond said: "It is a natural progression for me to transfer this investment into my UK joint venture with Live Nation in order to benefit from the extensive experience and resources that Paul and the rest of his UK team can bring to the business to enhance the concert and festival experience for our fans."
T In The Park takes place on the same weekend in July every year as the Oxegen music festival in Ireland, which is run by MCD, with many of the headline acts playing both. Some 85,000 people are expected to attend each day of the three-day Scottish festival.
REM, Amy Winehouse, Rage Against The Machine and The Verve are among the top acts playing T In The Park and Oxegen at Punchestown, Co Kildare on the weekend of July 11-13th.
DF Concerts also owns King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, the Glasgow venue which became famous as the place where Manchester band Oasis was discovered in 1993.
Live Nation, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has signed multi-million dollar concert deals with U2, Madonna and Jay-Z over the last year, strengthening its control of the live music scene.
