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CTS Eventim revenue plummets 97 per cent

CTS Eventim has reported an eye-watering 96.6 per cent drop in revenue in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.

The Berlin-based ticketing and entertainment firm saw revenue fall to €13.9m (£12.5m), down from €413.9m in Q2 2019, bringing the normalised EBITDA figure in at -€16.2m.

The company, in its report for the three months to June 30, said it has managed to cap its losses in the first half of 2020 to €2.7m, stating that an almost balanced EBITDA was an achievement following “rigorous measures to minimise costs and boost efficiency”.

The company’s half-year earnings report also said it implemented cost-cutting measures which saved the group a double-digit million Euro figure.

Eventim noted that it has been assisted by the implementation of government-backed voucher schemes in several of its key markets, including Germany, Austria and Italy, in response to the mass cancellation of events due to COVID-19. The schemes involve a voucher being issued, rather than a refund of the ticket price, to holders of tickets for music, cultural, concert or sports events that they are unable to attend because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or to holders who are unable or unwilling to accept an alternative date.

During the first half of 2020, Eventim saw a drop in revenue of 71 per cent, falling from €696.6m in 2019 to €198.5m this year,

Eventim’s ticketing revenue in 2020 fell by 55.8 per cent to €88.4m compared to the first half of 2019. In the second quarter of 2020, revenue fell 90.2 per cent from €95.8m to €9.4m.

Meanwhile, the firm’s live entertainment sector saw revenue fall in the first half of the year by 77.2 per cent to €114.9m and in the second quarter of 2020, revenue fell 98 per cent from €322.3m to €6.3m

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, chief executive of CTS Eventim, said: “Even though we are currently experiencing the most difficult phase ever in our corporate history as a result of the corona pandemic, we are looking confidently to the future. Crises are above all an opportunity for a company to show its strengths.

“Thanks to prudent management in the past, to the solid cash flow situation we have as a result, to rigorous cost-cutting and efficiency-boosting measures, to our forward looking technologies and thanks, last but not least, to our highly motivated employees, we are also well placed to face such a difficult market environment as it is at present. We will emerge from the crisis stronger and more agile.

“It’s a hopeful sign that events with several hundred visitors are now taking place again. Our LANXESS arena in Cologne was a forerunner in that respect, and concerts with a total capacity of up to 5,000 people are planned as tests for this coming September in our Waldbühne arena in Berlin, with an appropriate hygiene concept. We know that enthusiasm for live events is unbroken, despite corona.”

According to a recent survey of CTS Eventim customers, 75 per cent of the respondents want to go to live events again within four months of the corona restrictions being lifted.