Schulenberg Stalks Secondary Market

With his half-year profits up 45 percent to euro 30.1 million, Klaus-Peter Schulenberg is looking to push CTS Eventim into the secondary market.

While some German and Swiss promoters were far from happy with what the World Cup did to their sales, the Munich-based ticketing giant must have been more than pleased with the soccer finals as they provided the “major boost” that saw ticketing revenues alone rise an incredible 71 percent to euro 56.8 million.

Group revenues, including the live music sector, improved 29 percent year-on-year to euro 186.8 million

Another major boost was that the demand for soccer tickets pushed online sales past the 2 million mark, significantly broadening the company’s Internet business base.

The next step for CTS, according to so-far unconfirmed reports, is a move into the secondary ticket market.

In what appears to be a bid to help clean up the market while benefiting from it financially, the company is said to be launching a Web-based, secondary market platform where fans can resell tickets.

Although the full details aren’t clear, it’s believed logistics company DHL would collect the tickets direct from the seller and CTS would handle the online payments and dispatch.

German newswire reports suggest the scheme could operate wherever CTS has a European market, which would include Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, plus Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania.

Apart from Folkert Koopmans’ Hamburg-based FKP Scorpio – along with Dieter Boes of Koko – taking a dip in Switzerland when their Greenfield Festival at Interlaken went badly, the CTS promoters weren’t among those hit by competition from the football. The live entertainment segment reported profits up 29 percent to euro 13.1 million.

Marek Lieberberg’s twinned Rock Am Ring and Rock im Park festivals, the only major outdoors apart from Greenfield to fall within the accounting period, both did well. And Koopmans soon recovered Hurricane, Southside and Highfield to ensure he finished the summer ahead – even if he had to scrap his Area 4 Festival in Luedinghausen because he couldn’t get a strong enough bill.

Second-half revenues will need the support of the festivals as the January to June figures reflect what turned out to be an extremely busy touring period, with the sheer volume of shows pushing revenues up 17 percent to euro 131.9 million.

– John Gammon