DGAP-News: DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft / Key word (s): Investment
06/15/2021 / 10:01 am
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Corporate news
DEAG strengthens its market position in Great Britain by acquiring UK Live Limited
Berlin, June 15, 2021 – DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (“DEAG”) is accelerating its international expansion by acquiring 90% of the shares in the British promoter and promoter UK Live Limited (“UK Live”) in Great Britain via its subsidiary Kilimanjaro Holdings Ltd. With the participation in UK Live, DEAG is successfully expanding its business activities in Great Britain, the company’s most important secondary market. DEAG already had a majority stake in the British ticketing provider Gigantic Holdings Ltd. in December 2019. after acquiring the promoter The Flying Music Group in 2017 and the Belladrum Festival in Scotland in 2018. In addition, Kilimanjaro acquired a stake in Collective Form Ltd. Beginning of 2021. DEAG also strengthened its market position in Great Britain and Ireland in autumn 2020 by founding the Singular Artists joint venture in Ireland. The takeover of UK Live and the further growth of the ticketing industry in Great Britain, in particular through the cooperation with the platforms myticket.co.uk and Gigantic.com, create perfect synergies for DEAG.
UK Live has been an established event organizer for more than 10 years and is one of the largest independent promoters in the UK. In recent years the company has organized 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 of Great Britain and perfectly complements DEAG’s portfolio with its partner network and wide-ranging portfolio, which also includes the renowned music festival “Let’s Rock” in 14 cities in Great Britain. UK Live’s founders and managing directors, Nick Billinghurst and Matt Smith, will remain on board as shareholders and will continue to run the company for the long term.
“In view of the positive development of the vaccination situation in our core markets, we expect our business activities to normalize more and more 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 Great Britain with the acquisition of UK Live. UK Live has its own productions and independently covers the entire infrastructure from stage construction to technology. By focusing on the home market, UK Live’s business activities will hardly be affected by Brexit. The partnership with UK Live offers us potential, especially for our ticketing and live entertainment business. For example, we will be offering tickets for UK live events exclusively for sale via Gigantic.com, “commented Detlef Kornett, member of the management board of DEAG.
“The takeover of UK Live adds attractive events and concerts to our event portfolio,” commented Stuart Galbraith, CEO of Kilimanjaro. “Nick Billinghurst and Matt Smith have many years of experience in the live entertainment industry and have made UK Live a successful company with over a dozen festivals and countless concerts in just one year with“ Let’s Rock The Moor ”with 1,000 visitors Today the four series of events “Let’s Rock, Penn Fest, Friday Night Live Norwich and Sunday Sessions” attract over 200,000 visitors annually. “
Nick Billinghurst, Managing Director of UK Live, adds: “We are very much looking forward to working with DEAG in the future and look forward to driving our growth path together. With DEAG, we have a strong partner at our side, with whom we are ideally positioned for the time after Corona. Together we will soon be presenting top-class concerts and events to our audience 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 provider and provider of live entertainment in Europe. DEAG is present with its group companies at 13 locations in its core markets of Germany, Great Britain, 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 implementation of events.
Founded in Berlin in 1978, rock / pop, classical & jazz, family entertainment, art + exhibitions and ticketing are among DEAG’s core businesses today. Family entertainment and arts + exhibitions are particularly important for the further development of DEAG’s own content.
In 2019, more than 5 million tickets for over 4,000 events were sold – a steadily growing proportion of them via the Group’s own e-commerce platforms “MyTicket” and “Gigantic.com” for own and third-party content.
With its strong partner network, DEAG is excellently positioned on 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
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