The Pink Floyd co-founder will perform in Munich. There are no legal ways to prohibit Roger Waters' concert in the Olympic Hall, the city said on Wednesday. Klaus-Peter Schulenberg expects this to be the outcome at each of the five German tour stops: "I assume that the Roger Waters concerts will take place in all German cities – including Frankfurt," says the head of Europe's largest event and ticketing group in an interview with the F.A.Z.

Benjamin Fischer

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Waters has been criticized for his support of the Israel boycott movement BDS and statements on the Ukraine war. Recently, he had his management declare that he was considering legal action against impending cancellations in Munich and Frankfurt and rejected the accusation of anti-Semitism: "My generally known views relate exclusively to the policies and actions of the Israeli government and not to the people of Israel," it said in a statement.

The recently launched European tour is organized by FKP Scorpio, not least known as the company behind the Southside and Hurricane festivals and part of the M-Dax group Eventim. "A few days ago, we received notice from the trade fair and will now take legal action," says Schulenberg with a view to the concert planned for May 28 in Frankfurt. The financial costs of a possible cancellation would be in the seven-digit range. "In a democracy, we also have to endure unpleasant opinions, regardless of the fact that I do not share Roger Waters' position."

Almost two billion euros in sales for Eventim

Far from the controversy surrounding Waters, CTS Eventim can look back on a record year. After two years marked by the pandemic, sales of around 1.93 billion euros clearly exceed the balance sheet for the best year to date, 2019. At that time, 1.44 billion euros had been booked. Self-organized tours and festivals contributed the majority of sales with around 1.4 billion euros, while ticket sales for their own events, but also for a large number of other events, contributed 541 million euros.

The Group had already announced these key figures in mid-February, as well as the operating result (adjusted EBITDA) of EUR 384 million. As usual, the majority of 263 million euros was accounted for by the ticketing segment, where the Group always earns money through fees even at events outside the Group. Eventim also operates major venues such as Cologne's Lanxess Arena and Berlin's Waldbühne. The bottom line was that last year's profit amounted to 203.8 million euros. In the 87.9 million euros from the year 2021, more than 100 million euros of state corona aid had been included. 50 percent of the profit achieved in 2022, and thus 1.06 euros per share, is to be distributed as a dividend.

The resumption of live business after the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions had temporarily caused an oversupply of concerts in 2022. According to Schulenberg, many concerts, some of which had been postponed several times, had been made up, "and there were also a large number of newly booked tours." The influence of this special effect is not insignificant: "Nevertheless, we assume that we will increase total sales compared to 2022." The rather cautious outlook with reference to earnings at about the previous year's level was not well received on the stock exchange. The share was down around 5 percent in the afternoon. "We have always made conservative forecasts and see no reason to change that," says Schulenberg, unimpressed. In fact, annual sales for 2022 ultimately significantly exceeded the forecast of "at least 1.7 billion euros" issued at the beginning of November.