DEAG off to a solid start in financial year 2026 and confirms full-year targets

DEAG off to a solid start in financial year 2026 and confirms full-year targets

• Buy-and-build strategy successfully continued
• Revenue of EUR 62.1 million and EBITDA of EUR 2.1 million in line with plan
• Strong event pipeline provides high visibility and planning certainty

Berlin, 29 May 2026 – DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG (“DEAG”) reports a solid and on-track business performance for the first quarter of 2026 and, following the first three months, remains on course to achieve its full-year targets.

In the first quarter, revenue amounted to EUR 62.1 million (prior year: EUR 67.0 million), reflecting the typical seasonality of the live entertainment business and the current event calendar. EBITDA came in at EUR 2.1 million, slightly above expectations (prior year: EUR 3.5 million). As of the end of March, DEAG had sold more than 4.7 million tickets for concerts and events in 2026 and 2027. This underpins strong visibility for the business development over the remainder of the year as well as for 2027. DEAG confirms its outlook for the full year. Due to the volatility in the live entertainment industry and its event calendar, DEAG expects revenue to remain at a high level, although this will be temporarily below the previous year’s level. With planned revenues of over EUR 400 million, the EBITDA margin is expected to improve further. Ticket sales are anticipated to remain at a similarly high level as in the previous year. For the years ahead, DEAG expects to enter a further phase of growth.

In the first three months, DEAG consistently continued its buy-and-build strategy and, as planned, reduced minority interests in its particularly successful Group companies. Among other transactions, DEAG acquired all minority interests in the concert and tour promoter Wizard Live and increased its stake in the EDM festival “Airbeat One” from 55% to 75%. In addition, DEAG acquired a majority stake in the renowned music festival “Juicy Beats”, further strengthening its market position in the festival segment. Furthermore, DEAG acquired a majority stake in conneccted: Events & Live Marketing GmbH. With this investment, DEAG is expanding its activities in the corporate events sector and tapping into additional business areas within the tourism-related events segment. Among others, conneccted: organises the popular cruise events “Stars del Mar” and “Jeckliner.” DEAG intends to continue its M&A strategy and play an active role in the consolidation of the European live entertainment industry.

In the reporting period, DEAG successfully organised numerous concerts, tours and events. In the Spoken Word & Literary Events segment, the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE celebrated its most successful edition to date, attracting around 121,000 visitors. Further highlights included the “An Evening with…” event series, featuring, among others, actress and activist Gillian Anderson and author Donna Ashworth, entertainment shows with comedian Jeff Dunham, the arena rave format “The Holy Shit Show”, the Rapperholic Experience by Sarkodie, concerts with Airbourne, SANTA and Gorillaz as well as Family Entertainment formats such as Disney on Ice, PAW Patrol Live! and Cavalluna.

DEAG will continue to present a wide range of events with leading national and international artists in the coming quarters. These include concerts and events featuring the Berliner Philharmoniker, Die Toten Hosen, Till Lindemann, Böhse Onkelz, Tream, Tokio Hotel, as well as Judas Priest, Papa Roach, Iron Maiden, Yungblud, UB40 and Lenny Kravitz. The Group also expects another strong festival summer this year, with several hundred thousand visitors across more than 30 open-air events in the EDM, Rock/Pop and Classics & Jazz segments, including SPUTNIK SPRING BREAK, NATURE ONE, Ruhr-in-Love, ROCKHARZ, Barcelona Rock Fest, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Live at Chelsea and the Classic Open Air at Gendarmenmarkt. The event pipeline for 2027 is already well advanced and underpins DEAG’s growth expectations. Among others, Die Ärzte, Unheilig, Rush, Five Finger Death Punch and many more artists are scheduled to perform in the coming year.

Detlef Kornett, Group CEO DEAG: “The business performance in the first quarter was solid and in line with our expectations. We successfully continued our buy-and-build strategy and remain on track to achieve our full-year targets. For the 2027 financial year, we expect to return to our established growth trajectory.”

The Group’s Quarterly Financial Statement is available to download from DEAG’s corporate website under Investor Relations/Financial Reports.

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG (“DEAG”), founded in Berlin in 1978, is a leading provider of Live Entertainment, Ticketing, and Entertainment Services in Europe.

With Group companies at 25 locations, DEAG is present in its core markets of Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, and Italy. As a Live Entertainment service provider with an integrated business model and a strong international partner network, DEAG has extensive expertise in the conception, organisation, promotion, and production of live events of all genres and sizes.

The Live Entertainment segment includes the core business areas of Music – covering Rock/Pop, including Urban and Electronic Dance Music, Classics & Jazz – and Non-Music, such as the Spoken Word & Literary Events and Family Entertainment. Every year, DEAG organises over 6,000 live events and sells more than 10 million tickets, a steadily growing share of which are sold via the DEAG Group’s ticketing platforms: myticket.de, myticket.at, myticket.co.uk, gigantic.com and tickets.ie.

Live Entertainment for all generations and target groups, the development of international markets and the strengthening of the ticketing area are central building blocks of DEAG’s ongoing development.

Investor & Public Relations

Axel Mühlhaus, edicto GmbH
Eschersheimer Landstraße 42
60322 Frankfurt/Main
Tel: +49 69 905505-52
Email: deag@edicto.de