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Live entertainment / Success case

Building the £3M debt deck for a live entertainment company

Narrative, deck and design. A sold-out debut run turned into a lender presentation for a UK and European rollout.Client details are anonymised at the company’s request.

At a glance

Debt raise, now in market

£3M

A lender presentation for a 2027 UK and European rollout.

London debutSold out
Lender deckBuilt
£3M debtIn market
UK and Europe2027

Debut season

£2.6M revenue in a six-week run

£2.3M banked before opening night

The raise

Debt for the 2027 UK and European rollout

Now in market

Client

Premium live entertainment format combining sport and fine dining, debut London season summer 2026

Live entertainment
London

Scope

Narrative
Business model and economics
Deck
Design

The challenge: one season, and a debt ask

A sold-out debut season, and a lender audience that prices risk first.

The business. One season of trading, no venue and no recurring contracts. To a lender, a show can flop, and there’s nothing to repossess.

The ask. Debt, from a company whose only history was a launch year with £1.4M of pre-opening investment on the books.

The story: from a hit show to a business lenders can fund

The deck had to turn a hit show into a repayment case a credit committee could sign.

Before

A show that sold out and wants to tour.

After

A cash-generative business with one proven unit, a launch cost that doesn’t repeat, a dated rollout, and more than one way to grow.

Guests pay at booking, so cash arrives before cost: £2.3M of the season’s receipts were banked before opening night.

What we learned: why entertainment companies struggle to borrow

Entertainment companies struggle to borrow for three reasons.

Lenders price the flop

Costs go out long before ticket income arrives, and one run is only one data point.

Nothing to lend against

Lenders expect collateral. A touring format with a rented venue has to find security elsewhere.

The launch year hides the economics

A P&L carrying £800k+ of launch marketing hides what a repeat season earns.

What lenders read, and how the deck shows it

Three things decide a lending case. The deck puts each one where a credit reader looks first.

Cash before cost.
Lenders look at forward bookings. The debut run, sold-out shows and tickets sold come first.
Demand that travels.
The format next to immersive shows with multi-year London residencies and multi-million-ticket tours.
Owned assets.
The set is an owned asset, and a planned owned venue would earn revenue year-round.

What we did: a repayment case with a growth story

A format with proven demand, strong margins and a clear path to scale, told the way a lender reads.

Narrative

Rebuilt around repayment

Up frontProof, then economics
ThenRollout, then the ask, so a credit reader gets the case before the vision

Ticketing data

Demand outpacing supply, in a lender’s units

Every release sold within days
5,600 tickets in a day
~1% of sales discounted
£190 average order
1 in 3 added extras

Financial story

From the P&L to the balance sheet

£2.6M revenue in a six-week run, 80% gross margin, 70% operating margin before launch costs, and the full-cycle result net of all launch investment

Business model

More than one way to grow

An owned venue that earns year-round, plus franchising and promoter partnerships.

Rollout

Dated

UK regions from spring 2027, Northern Europe following, London at scale in the autumn.

Design

Dark, brand-led, numbers first

The proof pages laid out like a credit summary.

Results

£3M lender presentation in market for the 2027 rollout
£1.1M of launch costs shown as non-recurring
3 growth routes: touring, owned venue, franchise and partnerships
A one-season P&L turned into a repayment case: cash before cost, owned assets, low leverage and a dated expansion