Cts Eventim Ag & Co Kgaa

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the CTS Eventim Ag & Co earning call first half a year 2020.

This conference is being recorded.

At this time all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Mr. William Willms.

Good evening to everybody and good morning to our participants from the United States. Welcome to CTS Eventim's earnings call for the first six months of the year 2026. Thank you very much for joining. I'm William Willms, as I said, CFO of CTS Eventim, and I'm delighted to take you through our half-year results today. On my side, as usual, is Marco Haeckermann, our Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy. Hello, everyone. Now, before we dive into the details, please allow me A brief word on the structure of the call. Today, we will focus on our H1 2026 financial performance. I will walk you through the headline numbers, segment results, and certain key P&L drivers. At the end of the presentation, we will be happy to open the floor for your questions. Let me start with some operational highlights of the last quarter. Our signature twin festival Rock am Ring, Rock am Park here in Germany was definitely one of those highlights in the last quarter. Sold out eight months in advance with more than 500 fans over three days and spectacular headliners like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Iron Maiden. The Rock am Ring success story will continue next year with two-thirds of all tickets for the 2027 edition already sold so far. Second, the Eros Ramazotti World Tour with shows in more than 30 different countries started in February in Paris, followed by several shows in Europe in the last quarter. Eros is now heading to the United States, Canada, and Latin America. And he will be back in Europe in 2027 for further performances. And last but not least, LA28 started with the so-called first drop offering tickets to the public in April this year. Together with our JV partner AXS, we act as the exclusive partner for the primary ticketing. The so-called second drop window has been conducted already successfully too. First, A summary of our headline KBIs for H1 2026. In summary, I am very proud to say we keep on growing profitably. Group revenue came in at 1.5 billion euros, up 17% versus H1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 12.4% to 2025 million euros, benefiting from the operational leverage of our platform and proving again the strength of our business model. Our EBIT grew even stronger by 15.3%. On retail ticket volume, we recorded 81 million tickets. and performed slightly above prior year's level. By this, we have been able to overcompensate the known and reported change in the stage partner business. GTV on the last 12 months basis grew by 13.3%, reflecting continued platform scale. And APS for the first half year grew significantly to Euro 1.25, Up 0.32 versus H1 2025. A positive development mainly benefiting from FX effects. The first half of 2026 demonstrates hereby our continuous course of profitable growth and is in line with our expectations. The next slide shows the historical first half-year trend with consistent and compounding growth over the past years. Group revenue grew by 70% to 1.5 billion in the first six months. Adjusted EBTR grew by 201 to 225 million, representing a plus of 12.4%. In H1 2026, the adjusted EBDR margin comes out at 14.9% compared to 15.5% in H1 2025. This, however, does not represent a structural deterioration of our margin, but it's mainly a weighted mix effect of our two business segments. Live Entertainment accounts for a larger share of the group's revenue compared to the previous year, and live entertainment margins are structurally lower than the ticketing segment, as you all know. As the venue contribution within live entertainment will grow, we expect live entertainment margins to improve over time. On EBIT, the outperformance in H1 2026 versus prior year is notable. This operational achievement reflects the quality of our earning space. Let's have a deeper look into the performance of our ticketing business. In H1 2026, the ticketing business continued its growth trajectory with plus 14% revenue growth. As already mentioned, 2026 was impacted by the change in the stage partner business. On a like-for-like basis, without this effect, ticketing came in at nearly plus 20% in H1 2026. As we started with our operational excellence program, the first half year was about building up capabilities and talent, which we consider as an important first step. Although this temporarily leads to higher costs now, this increase will be compensated by future efficiency gains and corresponding cost reductions. Adjusted EBDR in H1-2026 is also above prior year and grew by plus 3.4%. Both EBDR and EBDR margin are in line with our internal expectations. Ticketing remains our high quality earning stream and H1 2026 reaffirms its resilience. In the first six months in 2026, we delivered, as I mentioned before, 81 million retail tickets. And by this, we are leaving behind the dip from the structural change in our stage business. As you can see, Eventim is becoming more and more international. Due to the over-proportional international growth, 70% of the retail ticket volume is nowadays generated outside Germany. This is a significant milestone reflecting the successful internationalization of our platform. Putting everything together, the volume growth in 2026 underlines a healthy market environment for CTS Eventim, improves the quality of our offering and the strength of our business model. Let's turn now to our live entertainment segment. Live entertainment delivered a strong performance in the first six months. Strong and within the expected ranges. Revenues went up to nearly $1.1 billion, an increase of well over 18% versus 2025. Surpassing all prior years is shown in the chart. Live entertainment surpassed the $1 billion level for the first time within the first six months of a year. Adjusted EBITDA came out strong too. Euro 53 million compared to Euro 34 million in H1 2025. The margin expanded to 5%. This improvement reflects three factors. One, a very strong portfolio of shows and festivals, especially in Germany and Italy. Turnaround and a positive development of our US promoter business. and a solid contribution from our venue business presented on the next slide. Let's dive now into our venue business. Venue operations remains a key high margin pillar of the group. With revenue of 70 million and adjusted EBITDA of 29 million, margins remain structurally stable. The start-up phase of the Unipol Dome is temporarily waiting on the events business' margins in the second quarter. When adjusted for the effects of the Unipol Dome's wrap-up, margins in this business are actually slightly above the prior year level. It is worth noting in this context that following the Olympic ice hockey tournament in February, which drew 40,000 visitors, The Unipol Dome Milan opened its doors for the first music concerts this spring. A rapidly expanding event schedule is set to follow from late summer onwards. Consequently, the Unipol Dome Milan will contribute to operating results starting in the third quarter and represent a significant addition to our high margin portfolio of event venues. Last but not least, our strong operational momentum is complemented by a positive development on the financial result. We are able to report a positive financial result of Euro plus 20 million. Taking all together, the six-month EPS significantly went up to Euro 1.25. This EPS of 1.25 reflects a growth of 34% compared to last year. As mentioned, this reflects the combination of both operational momentum and an improved financial result. What are the key takeaways of today's call which I would like you to take home? First, we have seen solid organic growth on group level and on ticketing like for like. First six months of 2026 are fully in line with our expectations. Third, the operational excellence program has started and marks the kickoff for 2030 ambitions. And last but not least, strong net result and EPS. And finally, As already announced in the beginning of this year, I'm very pleased now to announce that our Capital Markets Day will take place on the 20th November 2026 in the Unipol Dome in Milano. And to round off a hopefully very exciting and successful day with all of you, we want to invite you to a fantastic concert in the Unipol Dome with the British rock band Muse at that very same night. So please save the date, stay tuned and official invitations will be sent out shortly. That concludes our remarks for the first six months of 2026. I hope this has been insightful for you. Many thanks for your attention. Operator, may I please ask you to jump now into the Q&A and please open the line now.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 9 and pound key on your telephone keypad. If you would like to revoke your question, press star 3 and pound key. You can also use the dial-in function in the webcast and raise your hand if you would like to ask a question by phone. So we already have quite a few questions. Laura Simpson from JPM, please go ahead.

Great, thank you, good evening all. It's Laura Simpson from JPMorgan. My first question was just on the LA28 drop. If you could just give a bit more context in terms of the size of that revenue that dropped through in the second quarter. and also try and help us understand the profitability on which it fell through. I know there's a different moving part from the economics there. And then I know you mentioned the second drop has now happened. So just hopefully you can understand the quantum of that. And I suppose if we take a step back, what does the contract look like in terms of overall revenue and profit expectations? Because clearly a lot of moving parts and I know it can be quite lumpy. With that, my second question would just be if we strip out Stage and the LA28 contribution to ticketing, what was the clean organic growth for that division in Q2 and how you think that compared to underlying market growth? And then my third question, if I may, is just to come back to the guidance, you've obviously reiterated the message from the annual report. So I think that points to an increase in revenue in EBITDA. You've clearly delivered a very strong H1, again, moving parts with Ale. But could you just talk a little bit more to the outlook for the second half? It feels like it's still quite conservative. Are you expecting material deceleration in the second half of the year, or should this be framed as quite conservative? Any color you can give on the second half, I think, would be helpful to manage expectations. Thank you.

Maybe I start with the third question. Marco will take over question one and two. For the time being, we stick to the guidance. We look positive into the year. Having said this, you are right, we are a little bit conservative given the geopolitical environment. Updates on the year, we will discuss then on the 20th of November in more detail. I hope this is a satisfying answer to you and all the others who might have the same question.

Hi, Lara. It's Marco. And thanks for the questions on LA. So first off, as we said last year, the overall contract, of course, has a maturity of three years, starting off in 2026 until 2028. And over the term of the contract, as we said in our Q1 earnings call, we expect a low triple digit million amount of revenues over three years with a profitability levels of somewhere between 20 and 30%. With regards to what was the impact of the first drop in the second quarter, we can say that there was a positive revenue contribution of a low to mid double digit million amount at exactly the profitability levels which I've highlighted. Now, the nature of the contract is, of course, that it's not fully in our control of when these drops happen. So this is, of course, what the IOC can decide upon and where we are ready to act when they want us to act. And the final drop, or the second drop, I think is about to conclude right now. So for now, we are very satisfied with the progress, but it's still too early to share more details there. That would be something for the Q3 call then. And the second question, Adjusting for the change in partner business in 2025, which of course rolls through now 2026 in each quarter, and the LA contribution in the second quarter, we can say that the pure organic like-for-like growth in the second quarter and the first half was around in the mid single digit territories. Comparing this to market growth, I think we can say this is in line with what we have seen so far in the market, although the market in Q2 I would say may have been even a little bit weaker than at a single or mid single digit percentage where we see our organic growth in that quarter.

Great, thank you so much.

Thank you, Lara. Operator, do we have another question?

Mr. Mask, please try to ask for a question again. I see that you just left the queue. The next question goes to Christoph Bliefert, BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. Can you give us some indication which percentage of B2C ticket sales Eventim has lost from the in-house ticketing system of Stage Entertainment. And can you please also quantify the related revenue loss in the second quarter, please? Then I have a follow-up question on the LA Olympics, please. Can you give us an indication how many tickets you have sold? And can you please also repeat the revenue and adjusted EBIT A contribution? And the last question is on the investor relations team. There are rumors that Marco might leave the company. Stefan has already left. So any thoughts about the future setup would be helpful. Thank you.

Okay. For the last, for Lara, let me take question number three. and Marco then as they tie in to the questions Lara asked, question number one and number two. Yes, indeed this is correct. Marco unfortunately is leaving the company on his own request. But this very, very dear colleague, very, very respected colleague of ours is leaving. He will take on different and other ventures. This is fair at an age and development of a career where Marco is. Therefore, our, so to speak, best wishes go to his future after September, but I can truly say we and I and the rest of the management team will miss him dearly. Now, of course, as we know about this development, we are in discussions for and a replacement which will take up this role and step into these large shoes. And this will be announced very, very soon. And a proper period of handover will be guaranteed so that all of you will have the right and best person possible for questions, discussions and further contact in the company.

Marco, do you want to take over? Let me deal with the question. So, Christoph, the first one on this change in the partnership business. I mean, as we said already in our last earnings call, I mean, to some degree, of course, we are not allowed to disclose confidential information as we are in business with that company still. As you know, we continue to sell retake tickets successfully for them, which is part of our recurring business. Other than that, what we have indicated so far that the effect which we see rolling through each quarter on the revenue side is around a high single digit million and some low to mid single digit million kind of EBITDA contribution, which is the effect if you multiply it by four, which gets you to that territory of what the value of the partner business was. Your follow up on the LA Olympics, As we said, I mean, even here again, we are in a contractual relationship with LA. We have a joint venture partner, which of course limits us to disclose contractual information here. And as we said already on Lara's question, we have seen a low to mid double digit million contribution in the second quarter. Yeah, which came in at around 20 to 25% margin, which is the margin level we expect on average for the value of the contract over the length of the three year period and the totaling revenue to come out at somewhere in the low triple digit millions. The hundreds, sorry, to make it more specific. Yeah. And with regards to the number of tickets for LA28 The first drop in the second quarter was around 4 million tickets. Although it's important to highlight that this is not specific as our retail business where we just collect the fee based on every ticket sold. It's a much more complex contract. So as you said, it's more like a B2B kind of framework, which is why you see the margins where they are.

So what you are telling us when we take out the 4 million Retail tickets, the number of retail tickets is down, but organic growth is up. So this is the message.

If you would do that, if you would do that math, you would have to adjust, of course, the period from last year as well. Yeah, with the partner tickets from stage, which we have lost. Yeah. And I can say, but like we said earlier, that the clean organic like for like was up in the mid single digits in terms of revenue and earnings. So, and this is not coming from a decline in retail tickets, yeah?

Okay, thank you. Sure.

Good question. Thank you for calling back. Annick Maas from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Good evening. Thank you for the presentation. My first question is going back onto the ticketing margin and the operational excellence program that you called out as being the reason why margin was down. Can you just give us a bit more color on what we should expect here for the second half of the year? My second question is on live entertainment. Here you've mentioned that live entertainment was more weighted towards the first half than usual. What was exactly driving this and how shall we expect this to shape out in the next years? And then thirdly, thinking about Milan, the venue, how do you think about the value of that business? If I look back at how much this venue was supposed to be worth a few years ago versus the capex that you've spent on it, the numbers are actually quite different. So I was just quite keen how you think about the value of the Milan venue for you. Thank you.

Okay, so third question first. Value is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is investment. So, investment so far is slightly, net investment north of 400 million, while the final amount will be determined by the contributions from the city of Milan and others. Now, when you come to the value, right, you know, you have to take, yeah, then, right, or you have to make your calculation on an NPV basis. of the EBTRs or free cash flows this company or this business is delivering. But I guess you were basically looking at the net investment number. Now in terms of the operational excellence program, this is a key program of ours and driving our, as I said before, our ambition towards 2030. It's a scaling program first and a cost program second. Fast growth and a large number of acquisitions in the last years have duplicated certain processes. I have explained this in several bullet records and discussed this. These processes sometimes lead to unclear interfaces or reporting systems which need to be modernized. And this is nothing specific, right? But this happens in a fast growth scenario and we are tackling this on the process side especially. So that we follow an objective with an organization that can carry more business, more products, and several large projects. In parallel, without cost and complexity rising proportionately. That means that 2026 carries certain implementation costs for this program, including continued investment in technology, platforms, and AI. Stopping these investments now would be the wrong decision as we are preparing for stronger growth in the years to come, 27 and following. The efficiency and growth contributions We'll start from 2027 and I'm very much hoping to show you more details during the CMD and then measurable milestones rather than single savings numbers in the years to come during our quarterly course.

Hi, Annick. It's Marco. I will take the question on the live entertainment margin and the timing. I mean, as you know, of course, particularly in live entertainment, timing of expenses and show is never the same compared to the previous year. And this is why we, of course, look at it more like on a rolling basis and hear the important messages, of course, with all the portfolio work the live entertainment team has done since last year. We see the first half, first six months margin up by 120 basis points. Yes, there was quarter on quarter quite some volatility with Q1 where margins shot really up by more than 300 basis points and now flat margin development in Q2, which is mostly due to these timing effects. But we are on the right path there. Our live entertainment team is doing a great job and particularly the topics which William has highlighted in the presentation as well. The turnaround and the profitability in the United States with our promoters will set a good ground, particularly in the second half as well, to continue on this path and to bring over an extended time period our live entertainment back into the margin territory where we used to have it.

Great, thank you. Can I just follow up on the operational excellence question? My question was more to understand, you know, shall we expect the same margin drop in the second half due to operational excellence or, you know, I understand that you will keep on investing, but you can invest a little bit, a lot or, you know, what is the phasing of the second half? Are we expecting the same level of investment that you saw in the first half and the second half? Thank you.

Hi, it's Marco again. Yes, it's exactly like we laid out at the beginning of the year where we said Q1 and now Q2 is a good proxy with the low to mid single digit million of incremental and temporary expense for operational excellence. And the math would be right if you just roll this forward through Q3 and Q4 to come up with a full year budget.

Super, thanks.

The next question goes to Andreas Rehmann from OdoBHF. Please go ahead.

Yes, good evening, William. Hello, Marco. Two topics. One is the festivals. Last year in Q2, RBDA was negatively affected by loss-making festivals. Can you update us on how many festivals did you shut down? How many do you plan to operate in 26? And how many are still loss-making? So any insight? on the festivals would be appreciated. And the second one, last year you also spoke about integration costs, mainly for sea tickets. Are those costs now zero and is the integration of sea tickets completely done? This would be the second question. Thanks.

Thank you. Integration of sea tickets is done, so no further integration costs. Of course, you have the usual, so to speak, costs of putting new systems in place, As technology becomes obsolete, but what you would classify as typical integration costs, this has been done. Now, on the festivals, you're right, we are constantly actually reviewing our portfolio of festivals. One festival we stopped is The High Field Festival, we will not continue on this festival. It's a mid-sized rock festival here in Germany. There are other festivals which are continuously under review and which might not continue next year. The thing with festivals is once you stop it, it's stopped. You cannot restart, right? Rob Amring, Wolfgang Park had difficult years and there the team from Dreamhouse in Berlin did a fantastic job last year in restructuring this festival and bringing it up to basically the level you need to be at this time. and it was not only to success for the fans but also financially. So long story short, there are other festivals under review which might be stopped and which will be announced in due course over the next few months.

You want to add? No, but I think at the bottom line is what we had as well from Annick's question up front. I mean, the margin is up. It's structurally up. There might be a little bit of noise from one quarter to the other, but the average trend is in the right direction. And this goes together, of course, with the work our teams are doing on the portfolio. and of course it goes without saying that not just I mean single festivals are under review you always have to see it in a broader picture from a ticketing perspective you know from a market positioning perspective but this work which we started last year is is bearing fruits already now and it will continue to do so okay thank you the next question is from Olivia Calver from UBS please go ahead the floor is yours

Hi William, hi Marco. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one would be on the LA 2028 ticket sales. If you could make any comments on drop two and on so far the share of inventory, if you have visibility on that, that has been sold in the first two drops. And just to confirm whether you saw any impact from volumes as opposed to price, that would be the first one. Secondly, just on the group volumes, when I look at the European tickets, I see a decrease in Q2 and H1. I was just curious if there were any further drivers, because I see also some geographies, notably the UK. Thank you very much. The outlook for the full year and you said the Milan venue was a net 400 million or did you mean net of any subsidies or I just want to come back on that. Thank you.

Okay, hi Olympiés, it's Marco. So, correct me if I might miss one or two parts of the questions, but let us start from the back. I mean, as William said, the investments for Milan are basically north of 400 million, yeah? and where we continue where we would expect to end it yeah of course at the moment the investments done so far which you see through our cash flow statement are basically gross yeah because there haven't been any um payments from the cities or other other funders yeah of these projects so everything that went through the cash flow as of now is is gross basically and this is why it's it's yeah with the money is coming in As we started and as we've elaborated that we're already in the ramp up phase this year of the Unipol Dome. The second question around European volumes. I mean, basically, when we take out a little bit the noise from our numbers, you know, the change in partner business last year and the contributions from other larger projects this year. We see a stable volume development which is at the moment at the low single digits but market-wise we can say that of course markets that have seen tremendous performances like last year and the year before like the UK that of course you're seeing a little bit of the effect where many big acts have been touring over the post-COVID years which is somehow flattening out and I would say the revenues in fact you would refer to in the market are more driven by the mix in the volume there. So average ATPs rather than actual volume effects, as much as we can say from that side. The first question on LA. As we said, the second drop is about to conclude today. So there is not too much which we can say. And as we've said earlier, I mean, I can't say whether it's a good or a bad thing that in the end we provide the infrastructure together with our partner, which our client, which is the IOC, is excessively using. Which is why that when we started early on, the best guess was, of course, to have the total contractual value Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, Karel Dorner, William Willms, Alexander Ruoff, Karl Pitrich It is not enough to really put tangible numbers to it, but as of now the second drop went technically well, so this is what we can say and the numbers can be discussed in more detail in the next call.

Okay, thank you. And just can I follow up on the investing cash flow? Because, you know, if I look at what you've done in Q1 and H1 now, it seems like cash from investing is a positive something like 85 million. So just wanted to confirm maybe the outlook for the year for investing cash flow since you don't break it down further, right? Just so we have a sense of what to expect and what drove that positive inflow in Q2.

I mean mainly what we have is supposed year over year that on the overall investing cash flow Milan is tapering out. That's one thing. Last year was affected of course by advances which we paid for projects like the LA Olympics, which is now reversing as we start to generate revenue. And these are the basic moving parts there. Again, given that this is a moving part throughout the rest of the year as well, due to whether there will be drops, what the size of the next drops will be from the IOC, it's hard to predict. But I mean, one thing is for sure, we are in a very cash generative business. And this is, of course, the line we would expect 2026 to come in. We are talking about what temporary effects are and what sustainable effects are and what we expect from the investments we're taking this year, whether it's operational excellence or other projects. So bear with us for the rest of the year and we can disclose more details about how the cash flows are developing. But we're still very happy at where we are in running this business as it is, of course, very attractive from that cash flow perspective. Thanks, Marco.

The next question goes to Bernd Klanten from Berkeley. Please go ahead. The floor is yours.

Yes. Hi, William. Hi, Marco. Thanks very much for taking my question. On the excellence program, you've spoken about the sort of impact in 2026, but what should we expect in terms of cost savings for 2027? And the second question on venues, what is currently the status quo on Vienna and should we Still expect clarity on the sort of financing structure and the potential financial partner for Milan by the CMD in November. And then my last one on net financial income, 20 million versus minus six in one age 25. Can you just remind us of the main moving parts there and what's a reasonable assumption for the full year? Thank you very much.

I didn't get or we didn't get the last question. Could you repeat it, please?

Yeah, the last question was just on net financial income, that 26 million delta. What are the main moving parts behind that and what's a good assumption for the full year?

Okay, let me start with your second question on whether we still continue or still plan to refinance or find a partner for the venue in itself. Now the basic idea is with the potential investors what we are discussing is not only to refinance simply this venue but to find a partner who would also support us and partner with us going forward on potential other venues. So that in other words, if we would then refinance, right, Milan, the Unipol Milan, that this cash generated from this financing exercise is effectively the war shares then for future venue investments, right? Now, the idea behind this is that, of course, the venue in itself will not become off-balance sheet, off-balance sheet, but it will be, so to speak, We are in discussion with several potential partners and they come from all sorts of different industries or angles. You can think about classic financial investors, real estate developers slash real estate investors, You could also think about partners who come from our industry and are interested in moving into the physical mode of a venue. But the key question for us is who is the right partner going forward, who has the financial strength but also shares the same strategic idea in good times but potentially also bad times. The financial result, as I mentioned, improved by 25.6 million compared to the last half year, mainly driven by the positive effect, 27 million from the currency translation of non-current US dollar denominated receivables into euros and partly offset by lower interest income and higher interest expenses. What we believe is that going forward, this trend As much as we have here, the glass bowl, the crystal bowl, right, will continue.

And let me just conclude with the question on Vienna. There is no uptake yet. No, we're still in exclusivity periods. We are waiting for the next move from the city, and this is the uptake we could get.

Got it, thank you. And just back on the first question, anything you can guide to in terms of impact for 27 from the Cost Excellence Program?

As mentioned before, same effect, you know, Marco, I think, as what Marco said, right?

I mean, we were talking about expenses in 2026, yeah, with then positive effects coming through, but the important thing is It's not a cost-cutting program, right? It's a little bit of a re-acceleration program for the years 2027 and out.

Understood. Thank you very much.

So the next question goes to Craig Abbott from Kepler. Please go ahead, Craig.

Yes, good evening all. Yeah, I have a couple of remaining questions, please. First of all, in the second quarter, you know, you had a two-day shutdown at the Garo Rock Festival, and I think a couple of smaller festivals were also impacted on that final weekend in June when the authorities forced some shutdowns due to extreme heat. I saw some public reports also suggested that the Garo Rock had some initial losses. Now, historically, CTS has been very well insured for such force majeure events, Was there initially a negative impact in Q2? And if there was, if you could maybe at least give us an indication of how much. And if there was, should we then expect then the counter effect, i.e., you know, insurance claim to then come in in Q3 or Q4? That would be the first question. My second question is just one more, please, on LA-28. Just to confirm, even though it's a partnership with AXS, You do fully consolidate all those sales and earnings first in the EBTA and then account for the minority share in the net earnings, if you could just comment on that. And the third, well, two more questions, please. The third question is getting back to some of the earlier cash flow questions. Also, I saw not just in the investment cash flow, but also in the operating cash flow, a very positive turn in Q2. Obviously, happy to see that. But I just wondered if you could give us an update on kind of what trends you're expecting there in H2. And the final question is, you've given us the CMD date, I just wondered when we can expect an official invite with, you know, like an indication of what the program is going to be focused on. Thank you.

Okay, first on your insurance question, you're right, there have been cancellations, all, as you quite rightly pointed out, all our events are fully insured. Then there was no negative impact. in Q2 from those cancellations. In terms of the actual invitation going out, this we are planning for actually next week. The idea is to start mid-day and then in terms of a structure of where we will really go through the company strategy and we introduce it to you in the 360 degree view on the company the operational program and of course then with concluding with a full potential plan slash business plan until 2030 and giving you there the main clear idea of the main drivers for our continuous growth until 2030.

Hi Craig, it's Marco. Let me take the lighter ones. Yes, we can confirm what you've said, that we fully consolidate the operating income on the sales of the LA Olympics project and that the adjustment for the earnings that are attributable to our JV partner will be carved out in the minority interest. On the cash flow profile in the second quarter as you can imagine and as you know that usually Q1 and Q2 have historically been quarters and due to the seasonality of the business where you would more face operating cash out with the ticket monies you have basically proceeded and pay out over these quarters but that there was a counter development from LA in the second quarter yeah which positively impacted of course with these ticket proceeds the operating cash flow profile.

Okay, that's very helpful. And just to get back to my first question, please. So just to be clear on this. Yes, there was initially Q2 that Q2 included both the hit to the festivals, as well as the either the insurance claim already received or the expected insurance claim to be received. And hence, a neutral impact on earnings. Did I understand that correctly?

Yeah, that's what it was correctly understood. Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

So the next question goes to Gerhard Orgonas from Brandenburg. Your line is open.

Yeah, good afternoon. To follow up question one on the CAPEX please. I'm still wondering about the big inflow in investments in Q2. So in Q1 you published CapEx or investing, cash flow from investing activity is 114 million and in H1 it's 29, so it's a big inflow and if that doesn't come from any subsidies from Milan or Kenya, where that comes from, is that also related to LA? And the second question is related to the financial result. I think your predecessor William has had started to invest the cash, the billion cash that you have on the balance sheet. If I look at your H1 financial result, apart from the effects, it seems like the financial income is neutral. Has there been any change to this policy of investing the cash on the balance sheet?

No, no change in the policy. We are still carefully and cautiously investing as if needed. And on L.A.?

Yeah, I mean, like we said, I mean, the cash flow profile in the first half was impacted by L.A. from an operating perspective. There have been minor positions on the investment side where there were short term papers in which we were invested, which were liquidated. But these were minor positions that were showing an impact on the cash flow from investments as well. But that was a minor impact.

So what's the 85 million? That's pretty big. Where does that come from in Q2? The 85 million inflow?

Hang on.

Yeah, like I, sorry, we double checked here with really the numbers now in depth. So basically what happened in Q2 was that as we, of course, invest the liquidity on a rolling basis, yeah, that particularly in Q2 the inflow from papers that became due were simply bigger than the reinvestments which we've done where we invested liquidity as well into new papers, yeah, commercial papers and short-term notes. And this is just A timing effect which became visible from less reinvestments from money that became due that was investments over previous periods.

So the last question goes to Hendrik Paganetti from Jefferies.

Yes, hi William, hi Marco, thanks for taking my question. So most of my questions were already asked, but I have one question on the Avid DA in ticketing in Q2. So is it fair to assume that the impact from LA is higher than the impact from the Lost Stage contract?

Impact-wise?

Like we said, I think it's fair to say that there was, as we said, what we indicated was what the contribution from LA in Q2 was and what we said of what the shortfall was basically year over year from the stage contract. And in between both pieces, we had organic like-for-like growth in the mid single digits. And so, yes, overall, of course, there was a decent earnings contribution. but let's not forget about the organic growth which came from growth in ticket volume which we have sold pure retail volume which added positively to the contribution and what might catch the eye at the beginning is of course more the diversion of the profitability from what has been reflected last year in the partner business that fell away which was a relatively smaller share of revenues as we said with a high single digit million but amid Single-Digit Million of Earnings Contribution. And as we've laid out today as well, that the large sports business here with LA is, of course, very attractive from a revenue perspective, from a profitability perspective as well, but the margins are much lower than what we have discussed with the change in the partner business. And a little bit of operational excellence.

Yeah, exactly, because my assumption would be that the EBITDA contribution from LA is higher than the stage loss, and then you have the excellence program, which is a minus again, but you also have the impact from the integration costs, which you won't see or haven't seen in Q2 now this year. So my question is, is the 5.8% growth, is that very close to the organic growth you have seen, or is the organic growth actually a bit smaller here?

I mean, it's pretty much in that territory. There were exactly these effects from last year. There were integration costs, which are now netted by the operational excellence expenses. There was organic growth. There was basically a new large sports business coming in, which will flourish over the next three years. So there was a couple of noise around it, but the way you summed it up was very correct.

Okay, got it. Thank you very much.

Thank you Hendrik. And this concludes our Q&A and we would hand back to the operator for now.

Hello everyone. Thank you very much for your participation. I wish you all a beautiful evening or morning wherever you are and until next time.

Many thanks and see you in Milano on the 20th of November. Thank you. Have a good day.