Corporate News

DEAG to strengthen its market position in the UK by acquiring UK Live Limited

Berlin, 15 June 2021 - DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft ("DEAG") is accelerating its international expansion by acquiring 90% of the shares of the British promoter and event organiser UK Live Limited ("UK Live") in the UK via its subsidiary Kilimanjaro Holdings Ltd. Through this investment in UK Live, DEAG is successfully expanding its business activities in the UK, the company's most important secondary market. DEAG had already acquired a majority stake in the UK ticketing vendor Gigantic Holdings Ltd. in December 2019, after having already acquired the promoter The Flying Music Group in 2017 and Belladrum Festival in Scotland in 2018. Furthermore, Kilimanjaro acquired a stake in Collective Form Ltd. in early 2021. DEAG also strengthened its market position in the UK and Ireland in the fall of 2020 by founding the joint venture Singular Artists in Ireland. The acquisition of UK Live as well as continued growth in the ticketing industry in the UK, especially through the cooperation with the platforms myticket.co.uk and Gigantic.com, creates perfect synergy for DEAG.

UK Live has been established in the market as an event promoter for more than 10 years and is one of the largest independent promoters in the UK. In recent years, the company has organised concerts with well-known music stars such as Craig David, Kim Wilde, Rick Astley and the Kaiser Chiefs. UK Live is also active in the areas of artist booking, stage construction and event technology. The company operates exclusively in its home market in the UK and is an excellent complement to DEAG's portfolio with its partner network and broadly diversified portfolio, which includes the renowned music festival "Let's Rock" in 14 cities in the UK. The company founders and Managing Directors of UK Live, Nick Billinghurst and Matt Smith, will stay on board as shareholders and will continue to manage the company in the long term.

"In view of the positive development with regard to the vaccination situation in our core markets, we expect to see our business activities increasingly return to normal in the coming months. We are already setting the course for a continuation of our successful business development and can further expand our strong market position in the UK with the acquisition of UK Live. UK Live has its own productions and independently covers the complete infrastructure from stage set-up to technology. By focusing on the domestic market, UK Live's business activities are hardly affected by the Brexit. The partnership with UK Live offers us potential, especially for our ticketing and live entertainment business. For example, we will offer tickets for UK Live events for sale exclusively through Gigantic.com," commented Detlef Kornett, member of the Executive Board of DEAG.

"The acquisition of UK Live adds attractive events and concerts to our events portfolio," commented Stuart Galbraith, CEO of Kilimanjaro. "Nick Billinghurst and Matt Smith have many years of experience in the live entertainment industry and have shaped UK Live from its early days with "Let's Rock The Moor" with 1,000 visitors to a successful company with over a dozen festivals and countless concerts within only a few years. Today, the four series of events "Let's Rock, Penn Fest, Friday Night Live Norwich, and Sunday Sessions" alone attract over 200,000 visitors annually."

Nick Billinghurst, Managing Director of UK Live, adds: "We are very excited about our future collaboration with DEAG and look forward to driving our growth journey together. With DEAG, we have a strong partner on our side, with whom we are ideally positioned for the post-corona era. Together we will soon be presenting our audience with top-class concerts and events again. I am sure that both sides will benefit from our merger in the long term."

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) is a leading entertainment service company and provider of live entertainment in Europe. DEAG is present with its Group companies in 13 locations in its core markets of Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark. As a live entertainment service provider with an integrated business model, DEAG has extensive expertise in the conception, organization, marketing and holding of events.

Founded in Berlin in 1978, DEAG's core businesses today include Rock/Pop, Classics & Jazz, Family Entertainment, Arts+Exhibitions and Ticketing. Family Entertainment and Arts+Exhibitions in particular are of great importance to the further development of DEAG's own content.

In 2019, more than 5 million tickets were sold for over 4,000 events - a continuously growing proportion of which were sold via the group's own e-commerce platforms "MyTicket" and "Gigantic.com" for its own and third-party content.

With its strong partner network, DEAG is excellently positioned in the market as an internationally active Live Entertainment service company.

Investor & Public Relations
Axel Mühlhaus, edicto GmbH
Eschersheimer Landstraße 42
60322 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: 0049 69 905505-52
email: deag@edicto.de