BERLIN (CelebrityAccess) — German live events company DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG) announced it managed to add double digiti revenue in the first half of 2024, despite challenging financial conditions that included a serious market shakeout in the festival and open-air sector, and weather-related event restrictions.
According to DEAG, revenue in the first half of 2024 rose by 8.2% from EUR 122.7 million to EUR 132.7 million. At the same time, DEAG’s EBITDA fell from EUR 5.1 million in the first half of 2023 to EUR 3.1 million in the first half of 2024 with impacts from the reorganization of the company’s executive board following several acqusitions as well a planned modernization of DEAG’s IT infrastructure.
Despite the lower EBITDA in the first half, DEAG said the results were within their planning guidelines and the company expects its EBITDA to to at least attain 2023 levels by year’s end, despite the challenges.
Additional impacts cited by DEAG included an across-board decline in economic output in Germany, combined with restrained private consumer spending. Additionally, DEAG’s bottom line was impacted by European Football Championship, which took place in Germany in June and July, drawing consumer entertainment spending away from other live events during the tournament period.
In addition, heavy rainfall and storms took place throughout Germany and large parts of Europe in the summer, which coincides with DEAG’s important annual festival season, impacting several of the company’s marquee events, which were cancelled completely or held with lower capacity.
“We defied the difficult market environment in the first half of the year. Unfortunately, the bad weather affected some of our events, which is also reflected in our key financial figures. However, we remain confident for the second half of the year and for 2024 as a whole. DEAG’s second half of the year will be strong, as expected, our event programme is diversified and our calendar of events is tightly packed. Visitors can look forward to hundreds of great events of all genres and sizes. We are also investing heavily in staff, new technologies and our platforms in order to further improve the customer experience and offer our customers first-class entertainment. Despite the challenges mentioned, we expect revenue to continue to rise and EBITDA to at least the previous year’s level for the year as a whole.”
