CTS Eventim Q1 Results Show Revenue And Earnings Growth

– CTS Eventim
CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg

Germany-based live entertainment giant CTS Eventim has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2018. The numbers indicate a significant growth group revenues and EBITDA.

Group revenues increased by 32.5 percent to €274.5 million ($323.5 million), normalized EBITDA by 21.8 percent to €55.4 million ($65.3 million), according to the earnings report.

CTS Eventim’s financial performance is attributable to both its promotion and a ticketing business. In the ticketing segment, revenue increased by 9.9 percent to €101.8 million ($120 million). Normalized EBITDA in the ticketing segment rose by 10.6 percent to €40.4 million ($48 million).

“This purely organic growth was supported by a further increase in online ticketing volume,” the company states.

In Q1, Eventim sold 12.1 million tickets through its online shops in 23 different countries, which marked a growth rate of 12.5 percent compared to the first three months in 2017, when  10.8 million tickets were sold.

The promotion business grew by 50.8 percent to €175.0 million ($206 million), “surpassing expectations,” according to the company statement. Normalized EBITDA rose disproportionately by 67.6 percent to €14.9 million ($17.6 million).

“This achievement is attributable not only to various promoters from the CTS Eventim portfolio who organized many crowd-pulling concerts throughout Europe, but also to the latest ‘Holiday on Ice’ jubilee tour and to the recent acquisitions of Italian promoters,” the statement continues.

CTS Eventim’s most recent acquisition in Italy was announced in April, when the company bought a majority stake in Italian concert promoter Vivo Concerti, closing its fourth acquisition in the Italian live entertainment market in less than eight months.

Prior to Vivo, CTS Eventim’s bought 60 percent of Italian concert and festival promoter D’Alessandro e Galli in February, following the take over of Andrea and Stefano Pieroni’s Vertigo in September and Ferdinando Salzano’s Friends & Partners in November, 2017.

And now it looks as if Spain’s the next market to be conquered on CTS Eventim’s list.

Besides the strong promotion business, proceeds from sales of shares achieved by FKP Scorpio in its Danish portfolio contributed to the growth in CTS Eventim’s live entertainment segment. The company is apparently on a roll, continuing the positive trend of last year, when it broke the one-billion-euro barrier for the first time in its history.