CTS Eventim Reports Revenue Up In 2017

(VIP-NEWS) — CTS Eventim, achieved significant growth in revenue and normalised EBITDA in the first nine months of 2017.

Group revenues rose 29.4 percent year-on-year to reach EUR 745.6 million (Q1-3/2016: EUR 576.2 million).

The Ticketing and Live Entertainment segments both contributed to this advance. Thanks to a strong performance in Ticketing, the normalised Group EBITDA improved 11.7 percent to EUR 120.3 million (Q1-3/2016: EUR 107.7 million).

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO of CTS Eventim, commented that `CTS Eventim`s business growth in the first nine months gives us every reason to be very optimistic. Our Ticketing growth rate is in the double figures, and our online businesses are performing particularly strong. The fact that we are selling more and more tickets through digital channels has positive and long-term impacts on our margins.`

In the first nine months of 2017, the Ticketing segment achieved a 10.7 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to EUR 265.9 million (Q1-3/2016: EUR 240.3 million).
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Normalised EBITDA climbed 19.5 percent to EUR 98.4 million (Q1-3/2016: EUR 82.3 million). On that basis, the normalised EBITDA margin increased from 34.3 percent to 37.0 percent. Both a significantly higher volume of online ticketing sales and CTS Eventim`s further international expansion had a positive effect.

In the first nine months of the financial year, CTS Eventim sold more than 30 million tickets via the Internet for the first time ever. The total came to 31.0 million, signifying 16.9 percent year-on-year growth (Q1-3/2016: 26.5 million). A major role was played here not only by the traditional home markets, but also by the company`s expansion in South America and Scandinavia.

Strong 43.3 percent growth in the Live Entertainment segment resulted in revenue of EUR 487.6 million (Q1-3/2016: EUR 340.3 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 and events attracting large audiences (among them the début edition of the `New Horizons` EDM festival at Nürburgring).

EBITDA came in at EUR 21.8 million, down 14.2 percent year-on-year (Q1-3/2016: EUR 25.4 million).

Investments in establishing new festival brands, combined with higher advance costs for future events resulted in temporary impacts on earnings.

In the course of the current financial year, CTS Eventim has extended its product portfolio in the Live Entertainment segment, most recently by acquisitions of Vertigo and Friends & Partners, two Italian promoter companies.

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg added, `The trend in recent months has shown that we are making excellent progress in implementing our growth strategy and making CTS Eventim more digital and international. We expect higher revenues and stronger earnings for the year as a whole, compared to 2016.