Exponent Private Equity has become the new majority owner of Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), owner of some of the UK’s best-known playhouses, by financing its £90m takeover of its rival Live Nation’s UK operations.

The deal, which closed this week, creates one of the UK’s biggest theatre groups with 39 venues, including the Lyceum and Duke of York’s in London, the Edinburgh Playhouse, the Theatre Royal Brighton and the Liverpool Empire.