Things are going well for Europe's largest event and ticketing group: CTS Eventim expects higher sales for 2022 than in the "record year" 2019, it said on Thursday when the MDAX company presented the figures for the third quarter.

In 2019 - before the pandemic - 1.44 billion euros were booked, it should now be "at least 1.7 billion" for the current year.

Benjamin Fisher

Editor in Business.

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Eventim had previously announced sales of 694 million euros for the past quarter via ad hoc.

This also included the sales forecast for the full year and for the normalized Ebitda "of at least 330 million euros".

Of course, the general price increases also have an impact here.

In 2019, sales amounted to 378 million euros, in the previous year's quarter 2021, which was hardly comparable due to Corona, 115 million euros were booked.

The numbers in the second quarter of this year were already significantly stronger than in 2019.

From Rock am Ring to football tickets

Eventim has various ticketing platforms through which tickets are sold for its own events, but also for countless other sports or cultural events.

In addition, the group operates some well-known concert venues such as the Lanxess Arena in Cologne or the Waldbühne in Berlin.

In Milan, Eventim is currently building a new multifunctional hall with a capacity of 16,000 spectators.

As of August 2021, the project is expected to cost 180 million euros.

The group also includes various large organizers with a portfolio of well-known artists, according to their own statements currently 34 companies in 15 countries.

For example, Eventim holds a majority stake in Semmel Concerts, FKP Scorpio, the organizer of various major festivals such as Southside and Hurricane, or the Dreamhaus agency founded in 2020 - responsible for Rock am Ring, for example.

Own festivals, tours and concerts are the sales drivers of the group.

The area contributed 563 million euros, ticketing 137 million euros.

However, the margin in the cost-intensive live business is significantly lower than in ticket sales, where the group also earns money from events organized by non-group companies.

It was 54 percent here in the past quarter.

The live business comes to 11 percent, which is of course also a good value for the area.

In the second quarter it was 49 and 9 percent respectively.

The Group's biggest festivals also fall in the second quarter.

In an interview with the FAZ in August, Eventim boss Klaus-Peter Schulenberg referred to an improvement in processes that would allow more tickets to be sold with the existing structure.

With a view to the live division, he had referred to cost increases of around 30 percent for events that had been postponed several times, which would have depressed the margin of the events.