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Munich, 24 August 2022. CTS EVENTIM, one of the leading international providers of ticketing services and live entertainment, maintained its strong recovery in the second quarter of 2022 and even exceeded its results for the corresponding period of 2019, which had been a record year. The lifting of coronavirus restrictions meant that a huge number of concerts and events took place in all core markets. They were extremely well attended, as illustrated by the legendary Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals. “Live entertainment, which many people really missed during the pandemic, is making an impressive comeback this summer, and this is directly reflected in our business performance,” said the CEO of CTS EVENTIM, Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, when the results for the first six months of 2022 were presented.
These results show that the Group’s revenue improved to EUR 734.4 million in the period January to June 2022, compared with EUR 65.3 million in the prior-year period. Consolidated revenue was also higher than in the first half of 2019 (EUR 696.6 million). This trend was even more pronounced in the second quarter of this year, when revenue increased to EUR 595.1 million, compared with EUR 45.7 million in the second quarter of 2021 and EUR 413.9 million in the second quarter of 2019. Although revenue in the first quarter of this year fell far short of the figure for the first three months of 2019 due to the wave of Omicron cases, the strong second quarter of 2022 meant that the combined figure for the first two quarters of 2022 was higher than the figure for the first half of 2019.
The Group’s normalised EBITDA amounted to EUR 129.1 million in the first six months of 2022, following EUR 79.4 million in the prior-year period and EUR 111.8 million in the first half of 2019. As a result of revenue and margin growth in the ticketing business, normalised EBITDA stood at EUR 105.4 million in the second quarter of 2022, compared with EUR 99.1 million in the second quarter of 2021 and EUR 54.7 million in the second quarter of 2019.
In the Ticketing segment, revenue rose to EUR 201.5 million in the first half of 2022 (previous year: EUR 49.6 million), which was slightly higher than in the corresponding period of 2019. In the second quarter of this year, revenue came to EUR 125.0 million (previous year: EUR 36.1 million), which was up sharply compared with the pre-pandemic level in the second quarter of 2019. Normalised EBITDA for the six-month period totalled EUR 88.6 million (previous year: EUR 64.2 million), which was also higher than three years earlier. The figure for the period April to June 2022 was EUR 61.4 million (previous year: EUR 77.6 million), representing a sharp rise compared with the second quarter of 2019.
In the Live Entertainment segment, revenue improved to EUR 541.5 million in the first six months of 2022 (previous year: EUR 18.3 million), which was substantially higher than in the corresponding period of 2019. In the second quarter of this year, revenue climbed to EUR 476.4 million (previous year: EUR 11.5 million), up sharply compared with the figure three years ago. Normalised EBITDA amounted to EUR 40.5 million in the first half of 2022 (previous year: EUR 15.2 million), which was slightly higher than in the first six months of 2019. In the second quarter of this year, normalised EBITDA was EUR 44.0 million (previous year: EUR 21.4 million) and thus roughly double the figure for the same period of 2019.
The volume of tickets sold worldwide also bounced back strongly in the first half of 2022, slightly exceeding the level in the first half of 2019. CTS EVENTIM’s best-performing core markets in this regard were Italy and Switzerland, which recorded significant increases. At 38.0%, the increase in worldwide ticket sales in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the same quarter of 2019 was particularly remarkable. The optimisation of costs in the past two years
led to a significant rise in profitability in the second quarter of 2022, with the normalised EBITDA margin in the Ticketing segment improving to 49.2%, compared with 33.9% in the second quarter of 2019.
“Given the robust relaunch of cultural activities and live events, we are very optimistic that our industry has now finally turned the corner after two very difficult years,” continued Schulenberg. “However, increasing prices, a lack of staff, the threat of an energy shortage and uncertainty about how the pandemic will unfold remind us that the long-suffering events sector has not yet emerged from the crisis. Nevertheless, we believe that CTS EVENTIM is ideally placed to continue seizing opportunities in order to maintain its growth trajectory.”
Despite the healthy business performance in the first half of the year, the Management Board continues to believe that it is not possible to provide a precise forecast for 2022 owing to the uncertainty about the pandemic and the geopolitical situation going forward. Assuming that neither a renewed outbreak of the pandemic in autumn and winter 2022 nor the war in Ukraine and its fallout result in substantial difficulties, the Management Board anticipates a significant year-on-year increase in earnings.
About CTS EVENTIM
CTS EVENTIM is one of the leading international providers of ticketing services and live entertainment. Before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, around 250 million tickets per annum were marketed using the Company’s systems – be it through physical box offices, online, or from mobile terminals. Its online portals operate under brands such as eventim.de, oeticket.com, ticketcorner.ch, ticketone.it, and entradas.com. The EVENTIM Group also includes many concert, tour, and festival promoter companies for events like Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Hurricane, Southside, and Lucca Summer. In addition, CTS EVENTIM operates some of Europe’s most renowned venues, for example the LANXESS Arena in Cologne, the K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen, the Waldbühne in Berlin, and the EVENTIM Apollo in London. CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA (ISIN DE 0005470306) has been listed on the stock exchange since 2000 and is currently a member of the MDAX segment.
