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Industry News

‘Booming’ CTS Eventim sees huge revenue rise

CTS Eventim said “booming” ticket sales helped it achieve double-digit growth in revenue and a hike in earnings during the first half of 2017.

In a trading update, the Germany-headquartered company said revenue, boosted by both its ticketing and live entertainment divisions, grew by 16 per cent year-on-year to €489m (£450m/$580m) in the six months to June 30.

The owner of ticketing brands such as Eventim.de and TicketOne said normalised EBITDA grew by 3.4 per cent to €84m thanks to a strong ticketing performance, especially in online sales.

Ticketing generated a 10 per cent rise in revenue to €178m while normalised EBITDA increased by 14 per cent to €66m. The company said year-on-year, revenue and normalised earnings both showed stronger growth in the second quarter relative to the first.

Worldwide, CTS Eventim sold 20 million tickets via digital and mobile sales channels – up 13 per cent year-on-year thanks to growth in traditional markets and expansion in Scandinavia and South America.

Chief executive Klaus-Peter Schulenberg said: “CTS Eventim can look back at a successful first half-year. Our growth was fuelled by the expansion of our digital and international activities. On this basis, we managed to sell more than 20 million tickets worldwide via online channels for the first time in our history.”

In the live entertainment segment, revenue climbed 21 per cent to reach €316m. The company, which operates venues such as the Lanxess Arena in Cologne and Eventim Apollo in London, said this was attributable, in particular, to the takeover of a majority interest in the FKP Scorpio promoter company, further acquisitions and a greater number of tours attracting large audiences.

Schulenberg added: “We want to continue our growth strategy and make CTS Eventim more digital and international. As ever, this includes both organic growth and activities on the acquisitions front. We expect higher revenues and stronger earnings for the year as a whole, compared to 2016.”