DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft: DEAG embarks on its next growth phase through excellent business development and strategic decision-making

Corporate News

DEAG embarks on its next growth phase through excellent business development and strategic decision-making

• Strong operational performance: Revenues of approximately EUR 123 million in the first half of the year, with EBITDA surpassing EUR 5 million. Annual targets for 2023 have been reaffirmed
• Exceptional leadership team: Company founder Prof. Peter L. H. Schwenkow and Detlef Kornett will jointly lead DEAG as Co-CEOs going forward, while David Reinecke will assume the role of the new Chief Financial Officer
• Strategic expansion: Anticipate an escalation in M&A activities commencing from the second half of 2023

Berlin, 31 August 2023 – DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (“DEAG”) is embarking on the next phase of its successful expansion, leveraging its strong business performance during the first half of 2023. This expansion is founded upon very strong financial metrics, both organic and inorganic growth strategies, substantial financial leeway, and a dynamic team which will shape DEAG's future trajectory.

After the first half of 2023, DEAG is fully on track to achieve its full-year targets: Revenue of over EUR 300 million and a further improved EBITDA compared to the previous year (EUR 30.9 million). Throughout the ongoing fiscal year, DEAG plans to stage approximately 6,000 events across its key European markets. A substantial portion of these events comprises its proprietary, high-margin formats and festivals. The aim is to surpass the previous year's record of 9 million tickets sold, reaching a new milestone of 10 million tickets sold. Most of these ticket sales will be sold through the Group's proprietary ticketing platforms: myticket, gigantic.com, and tickets.ie.

Revenue in the first half of the year was at around EUR 123 million, compared to EUR 133.4 million in the previous year and EUR 63.9 million in the pre-corona year 2019. EBITDA was over EUR 5 million, compared to EUR 10.1 million in the same period of last year. In 2023, DEAG's major tours and festivals are primarily scheduled for the third quarter. The half-year figures from the prior year still reflected rebound effects stemming from the pandemic, financial support from European funding programs, alongside significant events and tours in the second quarter of 2022. As of June 30, 2023, the available cash and cash equivalents totaled approximately EUR 80 million. Subsequent to the balance sheet date, this figure further increased beyond EUR 100 million primarily driven by the net inflow from the DEAG Corporate Bond 2023/2026 in July of this year.

Over the course of this fiscal year so far, DEAG has successfully 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 other artists. DEAG also achieved great success in the area of Spoken Word & Literary Events with the international literature festivals “lit.COLOGNE” and “phil.COLOGNE”. DEAG also had a very strong festival summer with open-air events in the genres EDM (Electronic Dance Music), Classics & Jazz and Rock/Pop and welcomed more than 800,000 visitors to its festivals between late June and early September.

DEAG is steadily executing its growth strategy, and as part of such, is set to enhance its M&A activities once again starting from the second half of 2023. These activities have already made significant contributions to the record-breaking year of 2022, owing to the considerable number of transactions undertaken in preceding years. Alongside organic expansion and the continuous development of its event pipeline as well as DEAG’s proprietary, high-margin event formats like Christmas Garden, Spoken Word, Ticketing, and an array of festivals spanning diverse genres, the acquisition of promoters, ticketing platforms, and unique events are central to DEAG's expansion strategy. The company currently has several acquisitions in advanced stages of negotiation. By doing so, DEAG expects to further expand its strong market position and actively drive the consolidation of the European market.

The acceleration of further growth is also reflected in the composition of the Executive Board. The company’s founder and CEO Prof. Peter L. H. Schwenkow and Detlef Kornett will jointly lead the company together as co-CEOs going forward. Kornett will continue to head off International Business Affairs and Marketing at DEAG and, together with Prof. Schwenkow, he will oversee Corporate Strategy and drive further growth.

Kornett has been a Board member of DEAG since 2014. His prior roles include being the Managing Director of Red Bull GmbH, as well as the President & CEO of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) in Germany for many years. His responsibilities extended to overseeing diverse areas such as sports, proprietary event formats, and even the conception and development of venues like O2 London, the Mercedes-Benz Arena Berlin and the Barclays Arena in Hamburg.

Effective from October 1, 2023, David Reinecke will take on the position of Chief Financial Officer. He succeeds Roman Velke, who, after 5 successful years as CFO, is leaving the company at his own request with mutual consent. Velke will continue to support DEAG in an advisory capacity. Reinecke brings to the role extensive global management experience in Finance, particularly in capital markets and investor relations, garnered from his previous roles across cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, and Munich. His most recent position was Director of Corporate Finance and CFO at the neobank N26. Previous career milestones include roles at Red Arrow Studios (ProSiebenSat.1), Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley, where he served as Vice President in the Investment Banking/M&A division and Chief Operating Officer of the Frankfurt IBD office.

Christian Diekmann, responsible for the business in Germany and leads the expansion of the Christmas Garden, and Moritz Schwenkow, responsible for ticketing and technology, will continue as board members in a highly experienced and newly reorganized Management Board.

Prof. Peter L.H. Schwenkow, CEO of DEAG: “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. 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.”

Detlef Kornett: “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 the Europe’s leading live entertainment providers, we are excellently positioned and will continue the dynamic growth of previous years.”

The full Half-Year Financial Report will be published on 31 August 2023 on the company website in the “Investor Relations” section.

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG), a leading entertainment service company and live entertainment provider, produces and promotes live events of all genres and sizes in Europe. With its group companies, DEAG has been present at 20 locations in its core markets of Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark. As a live entertainment service provider with an integrated business model, DEAG has extensive expertise in the conception, organisation, promotion and production of events.

Founded in Berlin in 1978, DEAG's core business areas today include Rock/Pop, Classics & Jazz, Family Entertainment, Spoken Word & Literary Events, Arts+Exhibitions and Ticketing. Live Entertainment for all generations including Arts+Exhibitions are important building blocks for the further development of DEAG's own content.

For around 6,000 events, over 10 million tickets are sold annually for proprietary and third-party content - a continuously growing share of these is sold via the group's proprietary e-commerce platforms myticket.de, myticket.at, myticket.co.uk, gigantic.com and tickets.ie.

DEAG is thus excellently positioned for further growth.

Investor & Public Relations
Axel Mühlhaus, edicto GmbH
Eschersheimer Landstraße 42
60322 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
Phone: 0049 69 905505-52
E-mail: deag@edicto.de