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Munich, 24 August 2017. CTS EVENTIM, one of the leading international providers of ticketing services and live entertainment, achieved further growth in revenue and normalised EBITDA in the first half of 2017, thanks to booming ticketing sales. Group revenues improved 16 percent year-on-year to reach EUR 489.0 million (HY1/2016: EUR 421.8 million). Both the Ticketing and Live Entertainment segments contributed to this advance. Thanks to a strong ticketing performance, especially in online sales, normalised Group EBITDA rose by 3.4 percent to EUR 84.2 million (HY1/2016: EUR 81.4 million).
Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO of CTS EVENTIM, commented that “CTS EVENTIM can look back at a successful first half-year. Our growth was fuelled by the expansion of our digital and international activities. On this basis, we managed to sell more than 20 million tickets worldwide via online channels for the first time in our history.”
The Ticketing segment recorded double-digit growth rates, not only in sales revenue but also in earnings. Whereas revenue was up 10.2 percent at EUR 177.8 million (HY1/2016: EUR 161.3 million), the normalised EBITDA figure increased by 13.8 percent to EUR 65.6 million (HY1/2016: EUR 57.6 million). Year-on-year, revenue and normalised EBITDA both showed stronger growth in the second quarter relative to the first.
The persistent trend towards online ticketing was a key driver of this growth. Worldwide, CTS EVENTIM sold 20.4 million tickets via digital and mobile sales channels – up 12.7 percent year-on-year (HY1/2016: 18.1 million). A major role was played here not only by the traditional home markets, but also by expansion in South America and Scandinavia.
In the Live Entertainment segment, revenue climbed 20.7 percent to reach EUR 316.0 million (HY1/2016: EUR 261.9 million). This was attributable, in particular, to the takeover of a majority interest in the FKP Scorpio promoter company, further acquisitions and a greater number of tours attracting large audiences. EBITDA decreased by 21.8 percent to EUR 18.6 million (HY1/2016: EUR 23.8 million). Investments in establishing new festival brands, combined with higher advance costs for future events to be held in the second half of the year resulted in negative but temporary impacts on earnings.
In the Live Entertainment segment, especially, CTS EVENTIM has extended its product portfolio in the course of the current financial year. This has been accompanied by further investment to expand the company’s digital operations, for example in the fields of eCommerce and big data.
Klaus-Peter Schulenberg added, “We want to continue our growth strategy and make CTS EVENTIM more digital and international. As ever, this includes both organic growth and activities on the acquisitions front. We expect higher revenues and stronger earnings for the year as a whole, compared to 2016.“
The 6-Month Report will be available at www.eventim.de when this press release is published.
About CTS EVENTIM
CTS EVENTIM is one of the leading international providers of ticketing services and live entertainment. More than 150 million tickets for over 200,000 events are marketed annually using the company’s systems – be it through stationary box offices, online or from mobile devices. 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” and “Southside”. Some of Europe’s most renowned venues are operated by CTS EVENTIM, for example the LANXESS arena in Cologne, 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. In 2016, its 2,384-strong workforce generated a total of 830 million Euro in revenues in 25 countries.
