Nice Q2 For DEAG

DEAG chief Peter Schwenkow is calling it DEAG’s best Q2 result in five years and is characteristically bullish about the German-based concert giant’s second half-year being even better.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) are four times higher than the first half of 2006.

The 2007 figure of euro 2.5 million (US$3.4 million) looks lower on paper than the euro 2.8 million it made last year, but the 2006 figure benefited from the euro 2.2 million sale of 43 percent of Swiss promoter Good News to the country’s Ringier Publishing group.

The year started relatively slowly, with first-quarter incomes at euro 11.9 million, but the second quarter – the one that’s pleasing Schwenkow so much – saw that figure shoot up to euro 30.7 million, bringing first-half sales up to euro 42.6 million. That’s 14 percent up on last year.

The turnaround was largely due to rock and pop tours with Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake and The Who, but the classical section weighed in well with profitable shows from Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon and acclaimed Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

The Live Touring Segment, which is the shows produced by German promoters including DEAG Concerts itself, the Munich-based KB Konzert, Hamburg’s Music Pool, Cologne’s Balou Entertainment and Berlin’s CT Creative Talent, produced sales of euro 14.9 million – euro 1.5 million up on 2006.

The EBIT figure of euro 900,000 is a million up on last year, when the earnings showed a downside of euro 100,000.

Entertainment Services, which is basically the business produced by Good News, made sales of euro 18.2 million – euro 5.6 million up on 2006 – with profit steady at about euro 2.2 million.

Part of Schwenkow’s confidence over Q3 and Q4 is that it kicked off with the Swiss company’s Moon And Stars and Live At Sunset summer seasons in Locarno and Zurich, where a week or so of shows from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Zucchero, Avril Lavigne, P!nk, Muse, Gilberto Gil, James Morrison and Joe Cocker has seen DEAG hit the second half-year running.

This autumn’s classical music season is also expected to be busier than in 2006.

Earnings per share are up 50 percent and Schwenkow believes investors will be quick to appreciate it by looking at acquiring more stock.