AEG Presents has acquired Auguri Productions, the Paris company that produces concerts and develops artists, and has worked with Stromae, Angèle, Louane, Julien Doré and David Guetta. The deal was announced on October 15, 2026, and Music Business Worldwide reports the financial terms were not disclosed.
It landed six days after Live Nation announced, on Friday, October 9, that it had agreed to take a majority stake in Bizarro Chile. Two different countries, two different companies, one shared pitch: Live Nation and AEG are no longer only buying rooms and festivals. They are buying the people who find local artists early and build their live careers.
What is Auguri Productions?
AEG says Charles Bensmaine founded Auguri in 1997 and still runs it as president. MBW gives a slightly different history: it says the company was established in 1995 under the name Olympic Tour. A 2011 market filing by the French holding company Fimalac, which bought 40% of Auguri that year, names Bensmaine alongside two co-founders, Laurent Malvaldi and Sandrine Delaune.
That filing also says plainly what Auguri does: it is a specialist in organising and promoting shows, and it produced the tours of Dominique A, -M-, Juliette, Oxmo Puccino, Vanessa Paradis, Thomas Dutronc, Soprano, Julien Doré and Stromae.
In France that word, producer, has a legal meaning. The culture ministry's licensing guide describes a category 2 “producteur de spectacles” as a company that holds responsibility for a show, bears its cost (“en supportent le coût,” in the ministry's wording) and employs the artists and the crew attached to it. Simply putting money into a show, the ministry adds, does not make you one. The producer, not the venue, carries the tour.
Why does AEG want a producer, not a venue?
AEG already has French stages. Its own boilerplate lists Rock en Seine and We Love Green among its festivals, and it now operates in the UK, Norway, France, Germany and Benelux. What a festival cannot do on its own is grow the next headliner. That is the job AEG says it bought.
Bringing Auguri into AEG Presents deepens our roots in France and creates a meaningful bridge between that local expertise and our global platform.Adam Wilkes, President and CEO of AEG Presents Europe, AEG press release
Arnaud Meersseman, president of AEG Presents France, said Auguri's know-how will help AEG “further strengthen our ability to identify and develop local talent.” Live Nation used almost the same words in Chile, where it said Bizarro will contribute “its expertise in the development of Latin artists and local content,” and in Argentina in June, where MBW reports Dale Play, in which Live Nation moved to take a majority stake, was set to focus on developing Spanish-language artists and local content.
| Announced | Buyer | Company | What the buyer says it gets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026 | Live Nation | Dale Play Live, Argentina (majority stake agreed) | Spanish-language artists and local content |
| Oct 9, 2026 | Live Nation | Bizarro Chile (majority, pending approval) | Development of Latin artists and local content |
| Oct 15, 2026 | AEG Presents | Auguri Productions, France | Identifying and developing local talent |
Our report on the Bizarro Chile deal maps how Live Nation now promotes the shows, owns the arenas and sells the tickets in several of the region's biggest markets. AEG's move in Paris is smaller and quieter, but it follows the same logic one step earlier in an artist's life.
What changes for Auguri's artists?
AEG's release names 16 artists Auguri helped launch or develop. Read that list carefully: it is a history, not a current roster. MBW reports that Gazo, Tiakola and Sofiane Pamart now work with Nonstop Productions, a separate company that Auguri's former rap team launched in 2024.
Ownership is also not fully settled in public. MBW says Auguri later sat inside Fimalac Entertainment, which Trévise Participations bought in September 2025 and renamed Rivaj Group, and that the announcement did not say whether Rivaj has sold its stake.
For the artists who stay, Bensmaine's promise is reach: “even greater access to AEG Presents' international network and opportunities.” The trade-off is the one every independent act weighs when a small team that believed in them early becomes a unit of a global company. It is the same pipeline question we traced in how Nessa Barrett's tours launched Isabel LaRosa and Ari Abdul: whoever controls the stages a young act plays first has a strong say in who gets to headline later.
The race between Live Nation and AEG has moved upstream, from the arena to the artist's first tour.
What to watch next: whether Rivaj confirms its exit, and whether Auguri's acts start appearing on AEG's European festival bills and arena routings outside France.