DEAG founder Peter Schwenkow and Swiss private equity firm Ufenau Capital Partners are building a mid-market European live and family entertainment group with up to €100 million to deploy.
DEAG founder Peter Schwenkow is back in dealmaking mode. He and Swiss private equity firm Ufenau Capital Partners have unveiled plans to build a European live and family entertainment group, with Ufenau prepared to deploy up to €100 million in equity over the coming years.
The strategy is straightforward: bring mid-sized promoters, producers and operators under one umbrella, back them with capital, and leave each business with its own identity and management team. Ufenau says it is already reviewing initial investment opportunities and will act as investor and majority shareholder in the new platform.
A buy-and-build play aimed at founder-led businesses
The announcement frames the market as fragmented and full of founder-owned companies with established formats and regional brands. That is where Ufenau sees room to move. The firm says a larger group could create more value through marketing, ticketing, international expansion and proprietary content, while preserving the entrepreneurial culture of the businesses it acquires.
Schwenkow is one of the initiators of the venture and is expected to lead the new group, working alongside Ufenau on its strategic direction. The two sides say they are looking for businesses that can continue to operate with their existing teams, not be absorbed and stripped of their identities.
“Europe’s entertainment market is home to a large number of highly successful, often founder-owned businesses,” Schwenkow said. “Together with Ufenau, we want to offer these entrepreneurs and their management teams a long-term growth perspective as part of a strong European group.”
He added that Ufenau brings “capital and extensive buy-and-build expertise,” while he contributes “industry knowledge and network.”
Grandezza expected to join the platform
Grandezza Entertainment GmbH is expected to become part of the group in due course. Schwenkow plans to contribute his shareholding in the live shows, circus and Christmas entertainment company at a later stage. Grandezza will continue to be run by Schwenkow and producer Thomas Schütte, formerly managing director at Circus Roncalli.
That detail matters. The new platform is not being pitched as a clean break from the businesses already tied to Schwenkow. It is being built around them.
Ralf Flore, founder and managing partner of Ufenau Capital Partners, said he has known Schwenkow for more than 17 years and worked closely with him during his time on DEAG’s supervisory board. He called Schwenkow “an exceptional entrepreneur” with first-hand operating experience and a track record of building and integrating businesses.
Flore said the firm is drawn to the sector because it is “highly fragmented” and filled with entrepreneur-led businesses. He said Ufenau wants to realize that potential alongside strong management teams while keeping each company’s identity intact.
Schwenkow’s long DEAG run still shapes the pitch
Schwenkow founded DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG in Berlin in 1978 and built it over more than four decades. According to the announcement, he promoted performances by David Bowie, Anna Netrebko, David Garrett and the Rolling Stones, and produced shows including Disney on Ice. The biography attached to the new announcement also credits him with developing proprietary entertainment formats, helping shape venues including the Wintergarten, Friedrichsbau and Apollo variety theaters and Berlin’s Waldbühne, and leading more than 60 acquisitions.
He handed over management of DEAG to Group CEO Detlef Kornett in 2024 and later served as an adviser. DEAG then sold Grandezza and its subsidiary Viel Vergnügen GmbH to ELC Entertainment Leisure Consultants GmbH, part of Schwenkow’s corporate group, in a deal announced on November 3, 2025.
DEAG says Schwenkow built the company into an international entertainment group with more than €400 million in revenue and more than 6,000 annual shows and events. The company recently reported record 2025 revenue of €490 million, up about 33% year over year, with EBITDA more than doubling to €32.1 million. It sold more than 12 million tickets during the year, up from around 11 million in 2024.
Private equity keeps circling live events
Ufenau, headquartered in Pfäffikon, Switzerland, says it has invested in about 500 service businesses worldwide since 2011 and advises on more than €5.0 billion of capital. Its investments have focused on service businesses across German-speaking Europe, Iberia, Poland, the Benelux, the UK and the US. In July 2026, its Ufenau VIII Asset Light fund invested in Eco Kart Group, a Germany-based indoor family entertainment operator. That fund closed at its hard cap of €2.12 billion in June 2025.
The move lands in a market that has already drawn serious private equity attention. KKR bought European festival operator Superstruct Entertainment from Providence Equity Partners in a $1.4 billion deal in 2024, and CVC later joined KKR as an investor in the company.
Schwenkow and Ufenau say they want to build a leading mid-market group in European live and family entertainment over the coming years. They are also open to conversations with entrepreneurs, management teams and advisers who want in.
