Live Nation will increase its holdings in Mexico’s leading concert promoter, OCESA, to 75% by acquiring an additional 24% stake from its minority owner, Grupo CEI, the companies announced Tuesday (July 29). The transaction, which is expected to close by the end of August, will be worth an estimated $646 million.
Alejandro Soberón, founder and CEO of both CIE and OCESA, will remain OCESA’s CEO through 2032. CIE will retain the remaining 25% stake in OCESA. Additionally, the put/call agreement for the remaining stake will be shifted to 2032.
Live Nation and its CEO, Michael Rapino, have been “ideal partners” for OCESA, Soberón said in a statement. “The combination of our market knowledge and Live Nation’s expertise have come together to create more opportunities for artists to perform in Mexico and for fans to enjoy these shows.”
“Our investment in OCESA has been incredibly successful, and Alejandro and his team have done a tremendous job utilizing the global Live Nation infrastructure to drive growth in Mexico,” Rapino added. “Together we have more than tripled the number of fans attending our concerts in Mexico since 2019, making Mexico now the 3rd largest music market in the world, and I expect we have many years of strong growth ahead of us.”
The Mexico City-based promoter was the No. 3 promoter in Billboard Boxscore’s 2025 mid-year report behind Live Nation and AEG. OCESA promoted some of the top concerts in the first half of the year. The top boxscore was the OCESA-promoted seven-night stand by Shakira at Mexico City’s Estadio GNP Seguros that grossed $46.6 million from 396,000 attendees. OCESA was also behind the No. 8 event, Electric Daisy Carnival at Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which grossed $20.9 million and brought in 307,000 fans.
Live Nation acquired a 51% stake in OCESA in 2021 for $416 million. Initially, Live Nation believed the deal would be completed by the end of 2019, but a slowdown in the regulatory approval process delayed the expected closing date to the second quarter of 2020. Live Nation then postponed its investment in May 2020 once the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the global touring business. The deal added OCESA’s ticketing business, Ticketmaster Mexico, to Live Nation’s Ticketmaster division.
Adding to its presence in Latin America, in May, Live Nation acquired SD concerts, a promoter in the Dominican Republic with a growing presence in Central and South America.