Eventim, the ticketing company, experienced a drop in earnings.
CTS Eventim, a prominent concert promoter and ticket vendor listed on the MDax, saw a lacklustre start to 2025, despite recording a 22% increase in group revenue to €499 million in Q1. However, the profit before taxes fell by a quarter to €72 million, and the post-tax surplus for CTS KGaA shareholders decreased by nearly a third to €46 million.
The company attributed the significant downturn to financial results, with an unexpected €4 million loss incurred in Q1 compared to a €28 million surplus in the same period last year. This was largely due to approximately €11 million in expenses from foreign currency conversions for long-term receivables and lower revenues from corporate participations accounted for proportionally.
Investors reacted negatively to the news, with the CTS Eventim share temporarily dropping 14.7% to €96 in Xetra trading. The stock had reached an all-time high of €114.10 just days earlier. The share price increase since the beginning of the year declined by 15% due to the downturn, giving the company a market capitalization of €9.7 billion. The largest single shareholder, Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, holds 38.8% of the share capital through his foundation, KPS.
Despite the setback, Schulenberg remains optimistic, maintaining his forecast for moderate growth in group revenue and the operating result (Ebitda) for the current year. The company achieved record growth in 2024, with revenue increasing by 19% to €2.8 billion and adjusted Ebitda climbing by 22% to €542 million.
The acquisitions of See Tickets Group and French market leader France Billet at the beginning of the year contributed positively to the period result. However, the adjusted Ebitda grew by only 9% to €100 million, resulting in a 2.4 percentage point decrease in the operating margin to 20.1%. This dip in the operating margin fell short of market expectations, with JPMorgan describing the adjusted result as "disappointing."
The margin decline was primarily due to the ticketing segment, where the segment result increased by 7% to €89 million but the segment margin shrank by 4 percentage points to 41.5%. The ticketing area accounted for 90% of the adjusted Ebitda, while the live entertainment segment accounted for the remainder.
[1] https://www.cts-eventim.de/en/ir/publications/ir-news/2025-04-26-cts-eventim-q1-2025-report-facts-figures[2] https://www.cts-eventim.de/en/ir/reports/q1-2025[3] https://www.reuters.com/business/cts-eventim-earnings-miss-forecasts-value-shrinks-2025-04-26/[4] https://www.fn-ticker.de/nachrichten/cts-eventim-kgaa-erlose-als-cts-eventim-gewinne-fallen-2025-04-26-2288604.html[5] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/cts-eventim-reports-disappointing-results-q1-2025
- The unexpected loss in Q1, coupled with lower profits before taxes and post-tax surplus, led to a significant drop in CTS Eventim's share price, as investors reacted negatively to the financial results of the concert promoter and ticket vendor.
- Despite the recent downturn in CTS Eventim's business, the largest single shareholder, Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, remains optimistic and maintains his forecast for moderate growth in group revenue and the operating result (Ebitda) for the current year.