Features
‘First Quarter Gives Us Tailwind For The Year’: DEAG’s Q1 Earnings
Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG) reports a successful first business quarter of 2024, thanks to “a well-filled event pipeline and very good ticket sales,” according to a press release summarizing the Q1 financials.
Revenues after the first three months of business in 2024 stood at around €52 million ($56 million) – a 7% increase compared to the €48.2 million ($52.2 million) in the same period of the previous year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at €2.9 million ($3.1 million) – a 6.5% decline compared to Q1/23, which was “in line with expectations due to seasonal shifts in business within the genres, and the restructuring of the executive board as of April 1, 2024,” the press release states.
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As DEAG points out, its strategy to focus on its own high-margin event formats, more so than in previous years, will be felt in the following quarters, particularly in the second half of 2024.
DEAG, by its own admission, “now generates around half of its consolidated revenue with its own and self-produced event formats. This makes it easier to plan business development and generates a high percentage of recurring revenue.”
DEAG is also successfully selling an ever-increasing share of tickets through its own ticketing platforms myticket.de, myticket.at, myticket.co.uk, gigantic.com, and tickets.ie.
Ticket sales via these platforms increased by around 28% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024. For the remainder of the year, DEAG expects to sell some 11 million tickets in total, surpassing the 10 million tickets sold in 2023.
DEAG continued its acquisition strategy in Q1/2024, and “plans to intensify its M&A activities in the further course of the year.” According to the earnings statement, DEAG “is currently engaged in promising talks with interested companies,” with a focus on ticketing and new European markets.
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The biggest crowd pullers between January and March 2024 were DEAG’s various Christmas Gardens at 21 locations in six European countries, which attracted more than 2 million visitors; as well as tours, and concerts by Judas Priest, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark; shows such as Cirque du Soleil in Switzerland, or Disney on Ice; as well as the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE, which set a new attendance record with 112,500 visitors.
DEAG’s event pipeline in the coming months is packed, and include tours, and concerts by AC/DC, Lenny Kravitz, as well as open-air festivals, including Nature One, Indian Spirit, Syndicate, Belladrum Tartan Heart, and Sion sous les étoiles, and more.
For the full year 2024, DEAG expects “an improvement in EBITDA with an equally positive sales trend.”
Detlef Kornett, Group CEO of DEAG, commented, “We were successful in the first quarter and are right on target. This gives us tailwind for the year as a whole and beyond. DEAG is growing organically and is also strengthening its market position as one of the leading live entertainment providers in Europe through targeted acquisitions. Live entertainment means feeling good and getting away from it all. This year, we will once again provide visitors with this ‘little slice of happiness’ on unforgettable evenings. We believe we are very well positioned for further growth and are continuing to expand ticketing in particular as a strong growth driver.”
The full financial statement is available on the company website’s “Investor Relations” section.