DEAG’s Q1 Indicates ‘Very Good Start’ Into 2023

Prof. Peter Schwenkow. (Picture by Till Brönner)

Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG) has gotten off to a very successful start to financial year 2023, increasing revenues by 55% compared to the first quarter of 2022, which ended up becoming the company’s most successful year in history in terms of revenues.

Thus DEAG now speaks of “excellent prospects for the year as a whole,” in a press release announcing its Q1 earnings.

A 55% revenue increase in the first three months of the 2023 financial year amounts to €48 million ($51.5 million), compared to €31 million ($33 million) in the same period of the previous year, and €25.5 million ($27 million) in the pre-corona year 2019.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to €3.1 million ($3.3 million). According to DEAG’s earnings statement, “this means almost a doubling of the operating profitability, as the previous year’s figure of €2.8 million [$3 million] still included significant funds from subsidy programs.”

See: DEAG Reports Highest Revenue In Company History

EBITDA also developed positively compared to first quarter of the pre-crisis year 2019, more than tripling from €1 million. “The expansion of DEAG’s event formats and a diversified event pipeline, as well as a strong ticketing business, in particular, contributed to the good financial figures,” the statement continues, as did the businesses DEAG acquired since 2019.

See: DEAG Acquires Regular Music In The UK

Indian Spirit 2022 Kai Behrendt
Indian Spirit, DEAG’s latest festival acquisition in Germany. (Picture by Kai Behrendt)

Some of the successful events DEAG staged in the reporting period include the world’s most successful dance show Riverdance, Disney on Ice, as well as sold-out concerts with Ed Sheeran and Limp Bizkit.

DEAG’s successful Christmas Gardens, drew a total of two million visitors at 19 locations across Europe and the UK. “lit.COLOGNE,” which DEAG acquired in summer 2021, drew 105,000 visitors in March, boosting DEAG’s spoken word & literary events division.

At the end of the reporting period, March 31, DEAG had sold four million tickets for events, a high percentage via the group’s own ticketing platforms myticket.de, myticket.at, myticket.co.uk, gigantic.com and tickets.ie.

80,000 tickets were sold within 48 hours for the European tour of Rammstein singer Till Lindemann, promoted by DEAG subsidiary Handwerker Promotion, and exclusively sold through myticket.

See: Lindemann Tour Sells 80,000 Tickets In 48 Hours

DEAG has also seen strong demand for tickets in the new hip hop/rap music segment, citing 25,000 tickets already sold via myticket for concerts by Samra, Tream, and Jazeek, as examples.

DEAG expects to sell more than 10 million tickets for around 6,000 events by the end of the financial year 2023, which would represent a double-digit percentage increase compared to the record year 2022.

DEAG’s event pipeline for the coming year includes concerts by Iron Maiden, KISS, the Scorpions, Rod Stewart, The Who, and Sam Fender, among others. DEAG’s open-air festivals have already sold over 500,000 tickets, according to the company statement.

See: DEAG Acquires Indian Spirit

DEAG plans to intensify its M&A activities in the second half of 2023, focusing on the area of ticketing and expansion into new European markets. Several acquisitions are already in the pipeline, according to the earnings statement.

Professor Peter L.H. Schwenkow, CEO of DEAG, commented, “We are very pleased with the start to 2023. Growth of more than 50% is above our plan and indicates that we are on track for a strong financial year 2023. After the first quarter, we see ourselves on the way to achieving our annual targets of more than EUR 300 million in revenue with a further improvement in EBITDA. We have again seen demand for tickets at an extremely high level in the first three months. We intend to continue developing our ticketing platforms and expand into new markets. We are in advanced discussions with potential companies and are confident that we will soon be able to announce further partners to the DEAG family. Together, we will grow, expand our event formats and bring enjoyment to visitors beyond their everyday lives.”

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