$1.6B In Revenues: CTS Eventim Boasts Another Record Year

CTS Eventim has reported another record result for the year 2019, with a 16.2% year-on-year rise in group revenues to €1.44 billion ($1.63 billion) and 57.3 million tickets sold.

The year started out with the launch of Eventim Live, which comprises more than 30 promoters across Europe and has just added U.S. concert impresario Michael Cohl to the list.

It also helped that Germany’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals both found back to old strength in 2019.

Normalized EBITDA stood at €286.5 million ($325 million), which marks a 25.6% improvement over last year’s result. The normalized EBITDA margin in 2019 was 19.9%.

“These figures mark a new record and the highest ever achieved so far in the history of CTS EVENTIM. The Ticketing and Live Entertainment segments both contributed to this strong growth,” the earnings statement reads.

Ticketing revenue increased by 7.7% t €481.6 million ($547 million), normalised EBITDA rose 12.6% to €220.4 ($250 million). The normalised EBITDA margin in the Ticketing segment in 2019 was 45.8% (2018: 43.8%).

CTS Eventim attributes these increases to “continuous performance improvements and optimizations of eCommerce operations, and to efficient and innovative B2B sales activities. For example, extensive technical measures were implemented in 2019 to optimise the Eventim webshop system, the backbone for CTS Eventim’s eCommerce activities at national and international level.”

According to the earnings statement, a total of 57.3 million tickets were sold online in 2019, compared to 54.3 million the year before via the webshops operated by the CTS Group.

The normalized EBITDA figure was up by 104.9% to €66.1 million in 2019 year, the normalized EBITDA margin was 6.7%.

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO of CTS Eventim, commented: “In 2019 we delivered impressive proof of the successfulness and profitability of our integrated business model comprising ticketing services, live entertainment and content. 

“We continued to grow significantly over 2019, while at the same time enhancing our market position at both national and international level. The venues we operate also showed encouraging growth and are among the best in the world.”

Schulenberg was referring to LANXESS arena in Cologne, for example, which ranked third in Pollstar’s Year End Top 200 Arena sales chart. 

The Waldbühne in Berlin made the top 10 in Pollstar’s Year End Top 100 Amphitheatre ranking, which makes it the most successful in Europe.

Added Schulenberg: “CTS EVENTIM has long been an integrated entertainment corporation that offers its customers a full and highly diversified range of live events. The company is constantly developing and changing, adapting itself to the needs and requirements of new markets and a new age.”