Ukrainian online ticket purchasing service Tickets.ua, despite active expansion in over 100 markets, is ready to consider offers to sell the company.
Ukrainian online ticket purchasing service Tickets.ua, despite active expansion in over 100 markets, is ready to consider offers to sell the company.
According to Tickets.ua CEO Andriy Ingulsky in an interview with Forbes, the company aims to achieve revenue of €300 million by the end of 2025. The sale of the business is possible if the figure of €350 million is reached, but with "many asterisks", which depends on the buyer, valuation and share.
Ingulsky reported that it is currently very difficult to objectively assess the entire TTN holding, which in 2024 had a revenue of about €200 million (three times less than in 2019), due to high risks in Ukraine. The company's personnel are under fire, which makes the assets "too risky" for European investors. Therefore, according to him, the potential buyer "is more likely to be a Ukrainian company that operates in the same conditions and can adequately assess the situation."
Tickets.ua came extremely close to bankruptcy after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Sales fell sharply, and the company was faced with debts to 18,000 passengers who demanded refunds for their tickets. To cover these obligations, Tickets.ua had to take out a loan of up to €6 million.
During this difficult period, the company approached several funds with a proposal to sell the business. One of the proposals came from a fund that was ready to purchase the TTN holding, but the valuation did not suit the owners. Tickets.ua managed to repay all its obligations with the loan received, and the business began to recover.
In addition to attempts to sell the entire holding, there were also offers to acquire the Kazakh subsidiary Tickets.ua. However, this deal fell through due to the full-scale war in Ukraine, as the potential buyer, one of Kazakhstan's local banks, saw significant risks.
