DEAG publishes half-year result and confirms forecast for financial year 2016

2016-08-30 07:30:36
DGAP-News: DEAG publishes half-year result and confirms forecast for financial year 2016

DGAP-News: DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft / Key word(s): Half Year Results

2016-08-30 / 07:30
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Corporate press release

DEAG publishes half-year result and confirms forecast for financial year 2016

– EBIT of EUR -3.8 million in line with expectations due to seasonal effects

– Festivals fully settled and included in half-year result

– Clearly increasing profitability and well-filled event pipeline expected for the second half-year

– Expansion of myticket division successfully progressing

– EBIT forecast of EUR 3 to 5 million for financial year 2016 confirmed

Berlin, 30 August 2016 – DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG), Berlin, (ISIN: DE000A0Z23G6, WKN: A0Z23G) is on course to reach the forecast result for financial year 2016. With sales of EUR 78.9 million (H1 2015: EUR 118.7 million) and EBIT of EUR -3.8 million (H1 2015: EUR -7.9 million), business in the first half of the year was within expectations. In view of a very well-filled event pipeline and an extraordinarily strong 4th quarter, the Executive Board is optimistic about reaching the planned EBIT of EUR 3 to 5 million for the whole financial year 2016.

The half-year result reflects DEAG’s typical seasonality with up-front costs for numerous high-profile events to take place in the second half of the year. For example, DEAG was able to secure top-class show highlights, such as David Garrett, Disney on Ice, Andreas Gabalier, Böhse Onkelz or Red Hot Chili Peppers, and yield promising pre-sale results. Also due to the European Football Championships, the artists’ and their management’s planning are concentrated more on the second half of 2016. As planned, expected ticket sales in the second half of the year are going to increase significantly compared to the first six months. To be pointed out is the continually growing share of tickets sold via DEAG’s own sales platforms myticket.co.uk in the UK and myticket.de in Germany, which strengthens the Group’s EBIT margin. In addition, myticket.de receives an increasing number of tickets for sale from third-party promoters.

Due to the positive development of myticket.de, DEAG is going to open up another European market, apart from Germany and the UK, in the near future. DEAG is positive to reach its target of selling on average 40 per cent of the DEAG content via myticket.de in the short to medium term.

The Executive Board also sees a positive development in the rock festival sector in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The result almost fully confirms the Group’s calculation: with respective festivals now fully settled and included in the current consolidated financial statement, follow-up costs amounted to EUR 0.3 million in the EBIT. Planning for the coming year focuses on Rockavaria, Rock in Vienna, Rock the Ring, and potentially another festival in Switzerland. In other words, festivals are becoming a solid part of the DEAG content, which in turn is further driving the ticketing business.

Particularly the UK-based subsidiaries develop better than expected. Despite the “Brexit”, the English market remains highly attractive to DEAG, which is why the company is examining opportunistic acquisition opportunities there as well. With an already well-filled pipeline for the financial year 2017, with stars like Anna Netrebko, David Garrett and productions such as Christmas at Kew, Disney on Ice or Christmas at Blenheim, and the Christmas markets, the Executive Board expects continued dynamic growth, particularly since six large rock tours are currently in preparation for 2017.

The report for the first half-year of 2016 is available for download at http://www.deag.de/navi-bottom/investors/investor-relations/finanzberichte.html.

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) is an integrated entertainment content company and a leading provider of live entertainment in Europe. DEAG produces and profitably organizes a broad range of events and concerts. Its own distribution business, mytic myticket AG, which is also share-held by two large print and TV media companies, increases the company’s profitability and scales its business model. DEAG realizes around 2,000 concerts and events a year, selling about five million tickets, of which a steadily increasing part is sold via its high-turnover online distribution channel myticket.

Events cover rock/pop festivals (national and international), classical music, jazz, German Hit songs and Middle-of-the-Road music and the strongly growing family entertainment division. Particularly the festivals and family entertainment divisions are fundamental for the further development of DEAG’s own content. Its network of strong partners allows DEAG to put itself in an excellent market position as an internationally active live entertainment group. DEAG shares (ISIN: DE000A0Z23G6 | WKN: A0Z23G | ERMK) are quoted in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which is the quality segment of the Deutsche Börse, the German stock exchange.

IR contact

cometis AG
Ulrich Wiehle
Ph.: +49-611-20585511
E-mail: deag@cometis.de