MUNICH, Germany (CelebrityAccess) — German ticketing and live events company CTS Eventim announced its full year fiscal results on Tuesday, revealing that revenue for 2020 dropped precipitously 82.2 percent year-on-year to EUR 256.8 million.
As the result of cost saving measures that included “rigorous cutbacks” as well as income from insurance compensation and government grants to cover payroll and overhead costs, also and especially in countries outside Germany, CTS Eventim’s normalized earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2020 fell to minus 2.9 million euros.
For the fourth quarter fell by 92.4%, down from 368.6 million in 2019 to just EUR 28.1 million in Q4 2020. Normalised EBITDA amounted to EUR 14.8 million for the quarter, dow sharply from 2019 when CTS Eventim posted EBITDA of EUR 109.5 million.
Segment breakouts showed similar impacts from COVID-19 with the Eventim’s ticketing business reporting revenue of EUR 126.6 million for the full year, down from EUR 481.6 million in 2019.
EUR 481.6 million). Normalised EBITDA fell year on-year from EUR 220.4 million to a loss of EUR -23.6 million, including EUR 10 million in compensation paid by insurance companies.
In the Live Entertainment segment, revenue in the whole of 2020 was 86.1 percent lower year-on-year, at EUR 136.8 million in 2020 after CTS Eventim posted revenue for the segment of EUR 985.8 million in FY 2019.
For the fourth quarter of 2020, CTS Eventim’s ticketing segment revenue fell 88.9 percent from EUR 174.7 million to EUR 19.5 million while revenues for the live entertainment division fell 95.4 percent from EUR 204.4 million to EUR 9.5 million.
However, despite the dire year, CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg sounded a positive note about its prospects.
“With our fullscale cost management from the very beginning of the crisis and thanks to our prudent economic management in the years before, we see ourselves as superbly positioned when live shows return to concert halls and our business revives,” Schulenberg said when presenting the figures for the 2020 financial year.
The company also touted its technological approach to dealing with the public health crisis, including the deployment of a custom-built ticketing software which uses algorithms to control the allocation of seats and automatically ensure compliance with minimum distancing. The new platform is now in operation in more than a dozen national subsidiaries, the company said.
The company also highlighted material events in 2020 that included the expansion of its Eventim Live promoter network, which now includes 36 promoters in 15 countries, as well as marquee deals with promoter Michael Cohl to Gadget abc Entertainment Group.
“Never at any stage did we experience any kind of shock paralysis,” adde Klaus-Peter Schulenberg. “It was clear to us from the very beginning that, with our outstanding teams, we will emerge from this crisis stronger than before, by continuously extending our core competencies in technology and industry know-how.”
