CTS EVENTIM achieves significant revenue and earnings growth in first quarter of 2018

Munich, 23 May 2018. CTS EVENTIM, one of the world’s leading providers of ticketing services and live entertainment, has started 2018 with significant growth in revenue and earnings. In the first quarter, group revenues rose year-on-year by 32.5 percent to reach EUR 274.5 million (Q1/2017: EUR 207.2 million). In the same period, normalised EBITDA climbed 21.8 percent to EUR 55.4 million (Q1/2017: EUR 45.4 million). Both growth rates were attributable to strong organic growth not only in ticketing operations, but also in the live entertainment business.

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO of CTS EVENTIM, commented: ‘In the first quarter of 2018, we followed on seamlessly from our record year in 2017. Thanks to many tours drawing big crowds, and the dynamic development of our webshops, CTS EVENTIM is superbly positioned for further international growth in the future. Our performance so far gives us every reason to be optimistic that we will improve our revenue and normalised EBITDA once again in 2018.’

In the Ticketing segment, revenue increased by 9.9 percent to reach EUR 101.8 million (Q1/2017: EUR 92.6 million). This purely organic growth was supported by a further increase in online ticketing volume. In the first three months of this year, CTS EVENTIM sold 12.1 million tickets through its webshops alone, in 23 different countries – signifying a growth rate of 12.5 percent (Q1/2017: 10.8 million tickets). In that context, normalised EBITDA in this segment rose strongly by 10.6 percent to EUR 40.4 million (Q1/2017: EUR 36.5 million).

In the Live Entertainment segment, revenue climbed by 50.8 percent to EUR 175.0 million (Q1/2017: EUR 116.1 million), surpassing expectations. This achievement is attributable not only to various promoters from the CTS EVENTIM portfolio who organised many crowd-pulling concerts throughout Europe, but also to the latest ‘Holiday on Ice’ jubilee tour and to the recent acquisitions of Italian promoters. Normalised EBITDA rose disproportionately by 67.6 percent to EUR 14.9 million (Q1/2017: EUR 8.9 million). In addition to the events mentioned, proceeds from sales of shares achieved by FKP Scorpio in its Danish portfolio contributed to this. Having sold its stakes in Northside and Tinderbox, FKP Scorpio has focussed on its touring business in Denmark.

The quarterly report on business performance in the first three months of 2018 will be available for download 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. In 2017, more than 250 million tickets were marketed using the company’s systems – through stationary box offices, online or mobile. 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’. In addition, 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 has been a member of the MDAX segment since 2015. In 2017, its 3,020-strong workforce generated more than one billion Euro in revenues in 23 countries.