Featured Image: Nils Schirmer on Unsplash
DEAG Deutsche Entertainment’s first-half revenue is an improvement on pre-pandemic figures, but slightly down on last year.
Revenue for the first half of 2023 equated to roughly €123m (£105m/$133m) compared to €133.4m the year previously, and €63.9m in 2019. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) was over €5m, compared to €10.1m in the same period the year prior.
Despite the slight dip in revenue, DEAG believes it is on track to achieve its full-year targets of over €300m in revenue and an improved EBITDA.
DEAG also noted that its largest festivals and major tours are set for the third quarter.
As of June 30, 2023, the available cash and cash equivalents totalled roughly €80m, and subsequent to the balance sheet date, the figure further increased beyond €100m, primarily driven by the net inflow from the DEAG Corporate Bond 2023/2026 in July of this year.
Further goals for the full year include surpassing last year’s ticket sales record of nine million tickets, with the majority sold through the group’s ticketing platforms: myticket, gigantic and tickets.ie. DEAG will have staged over 6,000 events by the end of the fiscal year across European markets.
So far, DEAG has organised events such as ‘Disney on Ice’ and ‘Riverdance’, as well as concerts and tours with Sam Fender, Limp Bizkit, Rod Stewart, The Who, Iron Maiden and Kiss among others.
Elsewhere, DEAG also hosted spoken word and literary events ‘lit.Cologne’ and ‘phil.Cologne’ and festivals that welcomed more than 800,000 visitors.
Going forward, the company’s founder and current chief executive Prof. Peter Schwenkow and Detlef Kornett will now lead together as co-CEOs. Kornett will continue to head international and business affairs, and marketing. He has been a board member of DEAG since 2014.
From October 1, David Reinecke will take on the position of chief financial officer, succeeding Roman Velke, who will continue in an advisory role.
“Just in time for DEAG’s 45th anniversary, we are leading our company into a new, exciting era that will be characterised by profitable growth as well as innovation and expansion into European markets and ticketing,” said Schwenkow.
“I am very pleased that the Supervisory Board has agreed to my personal request to expand Detlef Kornett’s position to the role of co-CEO. I welcome David Reinecke as the new CFO and at the same time thank – also on behalf of the supervisory board – Roman Velke for his excellent work and great commitment over the past years. We will use the combination of a competent team, excellent business and attractive market opportunities to fuel DEAG’s further growth momentum.”
Kornett added: “DEAG has already founded around 20 new companies or successfully integrated them after acquisitions in recent years. We want to continue our successful track record in our M&A activities, with a focus on further expansion into new European markets as well as acquisitions to expand our ticketing platforms. As one of Europe’s leading live entertainment providers, we are excellently positioned and will continue the dynamic growth of previous years.”
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