Eventim Ups Profits

The Bremen-based ticketing giant isn’t shifting as many UK tickets as Live Nation would like, but CTS Eventim’s Q1 profit is still 25.3 percent higher than it was for the same period last year.

The majority of the pre-tax (EBIT) profit of euro 22.7 million came from its ticketing business, where the 3.7 million sales were 21 percent higher than the 3.2 million achieved last year.

But the Medusa Group – the collection of German promoters in which Eventim has approximately a 50 percent stake – also reported profit is up 38.1 percent from euro 7.5 million to euro 10.4 million. It’s the best quarterly profit figure the promoters have recorded since the company went public in February 2000.

Group revenues were up 7.5 percent to euro 127.8 million, which means profit is more than 17 percent of turnover.

Eventim’s fortunes have continued to grow despite behind-the-scenes disagreements with Live Nation ballooning into a high-profile public scrap.

On May 12 the company’s board was expected to ratify a 2009 dividend of 83 euro cents per share. The euro 19.9 million handout is also the largest the company has made since it was floated on the market.

Last year the company had record-breaking revenues of euro 446.7 million and a record-breaking pre-tax (EBIT) profit of euro 71.3 million.

During 2010 Eventim plans to focus on growing its highly profitable Internet ticketing operation and expanding the company via acquisitions.