Corporate News

DEAG initially off to a successful start to financial year 2020

- Q1 Group sales and EBITDA slightly above last year's level

- Pandemic-related decline in sales and earnings forecast for the full year 2020

- The Group considers itself prepared for longer-term restrictions thanks to sufficient liquidity reserves and strict cost management, strong fourth quarter expected

Berlin, 27 May 2020 - DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (Prime Standard, ISIN: DE000A0Z23G6, Ticker symbol: LOUD, "DEAG") reports that the first quarter of 2020 was both stable and profitable. Group sales of EUR 26.2 million were 3% above the previous year's result (EUR 25.5 million). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were reported to be EUR 1.2 million (previous year: EUR 1.0 million) in the reporting period or 20% higher. Both sales and EBITDA were thus in line with the original planning for financial year 2020, which was prepared prior to the Covid-19 outbreak.

DEAG now expects to see a material decline in sales and earnings in the current financial year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The company's goal is to remain EBITDA positive for 2020, however, achieving such will depend on the duration and future course of the pandemic. As a response to the pandemic, DEAG has significantly reduced its monthly fixed costs through applying strict cost management, including the implementation of short-time work in Germany, the UK and Switzerland. DEAG considers itself to be in a strong position to weather the crisis, even beyond 2020, with access to financial resources of more than EUR 60 million, consisting of available liquidity, credit lines with banks, grants from aid programmes and insurance payments. More than 1,300 postponed, but not cancelled events, a catalogue of overall strong event formats and an increasingly stronger positioning in the area of ticketing will enable DEAG to continue its successful course after the pandemic comes to an end.

The good business development between January and March 2020 is due to the increasing focus on higher-margin areas of the business. For instance, DEAG had many top-class and sold-out performances by renowned artists in the Classics & Jazz division. The Christmas Garden was once again a great success, posting a total of 950,000 visitors to its six locations.

In the area of ticketing, the Group's own platforms myticket.de, myticket.co.uk, myticket.at and Gigantic.com are handling an increasingly higher volume of the ticket sales for its own and third-party content. Consequently, sales and earnings from ticket sales tripled in the first quarter in Germany alone.

DEAG has developed innovative new event formats for the coming quarters together with its partners in order to offer visitors culture and entertainment even in times of the pandemic. These include a "Stage Drive Kulturbühne" open air event to be held on the parking lot of the Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt/Main, as well as the "BW-Kulturwasen" in Stuttgart and other formats in the UK.

In addition, Christmas Gardens are a highly attractive event format which DEAG expects to be fully compatible with Covid-19 restrictions. The very successful format is an open air event that takes place at very spacious venues. By assigning pre-set time slots at the time of tickets purchase, DEAG can control the number of visitors and therefore attendee density in order to avoid a crowded audience. Maintaining a distance between the individual visitors has thus always been part of the concept. For this reason, the number of venues in Germany and internationally is being increased this year from 6 to 11. DEAG expects 1.2 to 1.5 million visitors solely for this series of events in the fourth quarter 2020.

DEAG has full insurance coverage for officially decreed cancellations with one of the largest insurance groups. The claims settlement process is running smoothly without any problems and the Group has already received a seven-figure euro amount as compensation.

The complete Quarterly Financial Statement will be available for download on the company's website in the course of 28 May 2020.

Investor & Public Relations
edicto GmbH
Axel Mühlhaus
Phone: 0049 69 905505-52
Email: deag@edicto.de

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG) is a leading entertainment service company and a provider of Live Entertainment in Europe. With its Group companies, DEAG has been active at 11 locations in its core markets of Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland for more than 40 years.

DEAG produces and profitably organises a broad range of events and concerts. As a Live Entertainment service company with an integrated business model, DEAG has extensive expertise in the organisation, marketing and holding of events, as well as in ticket sales via its own ticketing platforms, 'MyTicket' and 'Gigantic.com' for its own and third-party content. The highly scalable business model of MyTicket strengthens DEAG on its way to increasing profitability. DEAG promotes over 4,000 concerts and events a year and currently sells more than five million tickets - a steadily increasing share via its high-turnover ticketing platforms MyTicket and Gigantic.com.

Founded in Berlin in 1978 and listed since 1998, DEAG's core businesses include Rock/Pop, Classics & Jazz, Family Entertainment and Arts+Exhibitions. The Family Entertainment and Arts+Exhibitions divisions in particular are of great importance to the further development of DEAG's own content. With its strong partner network, DEAG is excellently positioned in the market as an internationally active Live Entertainment service company.

DEAG shares (ISIN: DE000A0Z23G6 | WKN: A0Z23G |ticker symbol: LOUD) are listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the quality segment of Deutsche Börse.