Features
DEAG Germany Continues Growth, Raises Forecast For 2018
German live entertainment giant Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG) increased revenue in the third quarter of 2018 by 65 percent €21.2 million to €34.9 million year-on-year.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) improved significantly year-on-year from minus €1.2 million to €0.1 million. “For the first time since 2012, DEAG thus achieved a positive EBIT in the traditionally weaker third quarter of the financial year,” the earnings statement reads.
In the first nine months of 2018, DEAG recorded revenue growth of 41 percent to €152.9 million, up from €108.1 million in the previous year. EBIT in the first nine months of 2018 amounted to €8.2 million compared with €1.1 million in the previous year.
DEAG continues along its chosen path of successively reducing minority shareholdings by increasing the shareholding and thus increasing the earnings per share attributable to the shareholders. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, DEAG increased its share in The Classical Company AG to 100 percent.
In the reporting period, DEAG had already taken over minority interests held by third parties in the Classics & Jazz and Ticketing divisions.
“In view of the fact that the calendar of events for 2019 is already filled to capacity, DEAG intends to continue to grow profitably and to profit from high-margin, high-turnover projects in all areas,” the earnings statement continues.
The Arts and Exhibitions, Family-Entertainment and Ticketing business divisions in particular offered “above-average and highly profitable growth potential.”
At the end of October 2018 DEAG successfully placed a corporate bond with a volume of €20 million to finance growth. The company’s executive board – CEO Prof. Peter Schwenkow, COO and CDO Christian Diekmann, CFO Detlef Kornett, and CFO Ralf Quellmalz – expects EBIT of at least €10 million for 2018 as a whole with sales revenues of over €200 million.
The full nine-month report for 2018 will be published on the company’s website on Nov. 30 as published in the financial calendar.