Industry News

Soaring Eventim to double dividend

CTS Eventim is set to more than double the dividends it pays to shareholders this year after selling more than 43.7 million tickets in 2016.

The ticketing and live entertainment company’s strong online ticket sales in 2016 was key to the business choosing to pay out €94.1m (£81.5m) in dividends in 2017.

The company’s management will suggest a dividend of €0.98 per eligible share at a meeting in May, compared with €0.46 in 2015-16.

The proposed €0.98 is composed of a €0.50 basic dividend plus a ‘special dividend’ of €0.48, which reflects a “very successful financial year 2016 [and] the sustainable positive development of the CTS group”, the Munich-based ticketing and promotion giant said.

“Online ticketing was the growth driver of the CTS Group,” Eventim’s end-of-year report stated. “The organic growth of the tickets sold in e-commerce amounted to 15 per cent to around 40.8 million tickets. As a result of the expansion in South America and Scandinavia, the total volume of online tickets rose by 23.1 per cent to 43.7 million.”

The report also stated: “Despite a declining development in the live entertainment segment, which is expected to be in line with the record year 2015, the strong growth in the ticketing segment led to a substantial increase [in company’s operating profitability as a percentage of its total revenue] by 7.4 per cent to €194.5m, up from €181m last year.”

The report also stated that the CTS Group will continue to pursue its international growth strategy consistently in the current fiscal year.

“The focus is on the continuous further development of the company’s own e-commerce platform through a wide range of content, maximum reach and a growing performance portfolio,” it said.

“In addition, the international ticketing and live entertainment market will continue to be subject to on-going strategic cooperation and acquisition opportunities. Based on that strategy, the management expects further growth in the 2017 financial year.”