Cts Eventim AG & Co KgaA

XETRA:EVD

Earnings Call Analysis

CTS Eventim Reports Strong H1 2024 with Increased Revenue and Strategic Acquisitions

CTS Eventim experienced a robust first half of 2024, with revenues up by 18% and adjusted EBITDA growing by 29%. This growth was driven by high demand in their Ticketing, Live Entertainment, and Venue Management segments. The company executed a significant acquisition, integrating See Tickets and Vivaldi Live Entertainment. See Tickets contributed nearly €26 million in revenues and €2.5 million in EBITDA in June alone. Earnings per share reached €1.30. Given the ongoing strong performance and strategic additions, CTS Eventim raised its outlook for 2024.

Introduction and Strong Industry Backdrop

CTS Eventim kicked off the H1 2024 earnings call by expressing optimism about the ongoing robust demand in the live entertainment sector. The company witnessed notable growth across multiple segments including ticketing, live entertainment, and venue management. This performance is anchored by a strong acquisition strategy and expansion into international markets.

Ticketing Segment Shines

The ticketing segment was particularly impressive, with revenues up 26% for the first six months and 28% for the second quarter. The increase in adjusted EBITDA outpaced revenue growth, rising by 29% for the first half of the year and 35% for Q2. This phenomenal growth was attributed to strong online ticket sales, totaling 44 million tickets for the first six months. .

Live Entertainment Segment

Revenue in the live entertainment segment rose by 15% to €866 million during the first half of the year, with a 20% year-over-year increase in Q2. However, the adjusted EBITDA for the segment experienced a decline of 27% for the first six months and 5% for Q2. This decline was due to increased operational expenses and higher competition, especially in the U.S., but the EBITDA margin still managed to improve to 5.3%.【7:5†source】.

Strategic Acquisitions

A key highlight was the acquisition of See Tickets and Vivendi's live entertainment business. This move significantly broadened CTS Eventim's market reach, especially in the U.K., U.S., and Benelux regions. Consolidation of these newly acquired businesses began in June and added €25 million in revenue and €2.5 million in EBITDA for that month alone. This acquisition is a strategic fit that enhances CTS Eventim's market position and diversifies its revenue streams. .

Financial Performance and Guidance

For the first six months, CTS Eventim’s revenue increased by 18%, reaching over €1.2 billion, driven by growth in all parts of its value chain. The adjusted EBITDA reached €202 million, up 29% from the previous period. The company has raised its full-year guidance, now expecting adjusted EBITDA to grow by at least 15%, given the strong performance and positive industry momentum. Specific KPI targets include significantly higher adjusted EBITDA and moderately higher EBIT for both the group and the ticketing segment. .

Effect of U.S. Market and DOJ Investigation

The ongoing DOJ investigation into the U.S. ticketing market was discussed, with CTS Eventim stating that through See Tickets, they have gained a foothold in the U.S. market. While they are closely observing the situation, they noted that high ticket prices are a consequence of broader industry dynamics, including the transition from CDs to streaming, making live events a primary revenue source for artists. .

Growth Drivers and Sponsorship Revenues

A substantive part of CTS Eventim’s growth strategy also involves increasing ancillary revenues such as sponsorships. Sponsorship revenues grew by 77% year-over-year, reflecting the enhanced customer appeal and the successful execution of large-scale events. This growth is still in its early stages, and the company expects it to become a more consistent revenue stream in the future. .

Conclusion and Future Outlook

In summarizing the outlook, the company remains confident in its ability to capitalize on the strong industry momentum. The second half of the year is expected to continue benefiting from high demand in live entertainment and increased activity from recent acquisitions. Given the robust financial performance and strategic enhancements, CTS Eventim appears well-positioned for sustained growth into 2024 and beyond. .

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

Hello, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to CTS Eventim's H1 2024 Earnings Call. Holger Hohrein, Group CFO; and myself, Marco Haeckermann on the line. Over the next 15 to 20 minutes, Holger will go through our H1 results and then we will continue with a Q&A session. And without further ado, I hand over to Holger.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Thanks, Marco. Hello, everyone. Also warm welcome from my end. Before we jump into the financials in detail, I'd like to provide you with a brief overview of the development of the first 6 months and especially the second quarter. The environment for our industry looks good. We see an ongoing strong momentum. We see high demand for Live Entertainment for all kinds of events, music concerts, sports events and the like. See, we have seen a strong growth in -- also in the second quarter, which results in very strong numbers for the first 6 months in total.

For the first 6 months, we have seen revenue up by 18% versus previous 6-month period and adjusted EBITDA up by 29%. This strong performance is driven by all elements of our value chain, Ticketing, Live Entertainment, and Venue Management as part of our Live Entertainment segment, so to say, a subsegment. One major event in the second quarter has certainly been the signing and closing of our acquisition of See Tickets, and Vivaldi Live Entertainment business. And we have started consolidating these units beginning of June. And due to the strong performance of the existing business and the onboarding of See Tickets, we raised our outlook for 2024 as a whole. We come to all of this in a minute, but first, a brief look at some KPIs.

Revenue and EBITDA, we have already talked about. The number of online tickets also increased significantly now to EUR 44 million for the first 6 months in total. And the growth outside of Germany has been even higher, 32% versus 29% in Germany. We come to this also in a minute. But last but not least, earnings per share came out at around EUR 1.30, which is a substantial increase over the last year's first 6 months.

Now first, a few words on the acquisition of See Tickets and its strategic rationale. In terms of size of the business, we -- in the last year, 2023, this perimeter had almost EUR 140 million in revenues, of which more than EUR 100 million came from the Ticketing business and EUR 30 million from Live Entertainment. Here, in the Live Entertainment, this comprises festivals in the U.K. and in France.

On the left-hand side, you can also see the split of last year's Ticketing revenues by country. More than 85% of -- come from countries where we didn't have a strong market position today, namely U.K., U.S. and the Benelux. Therefore, the acquisition is a perfect fit to our growth strategy and improves our market position in these merchant countries significantly. In addition, we broaden our talent base and extend our product portfolio as we, Eventim, and See Tickets have partially complementary products and therefore also serve different groups of clients. Both will help us in the future to further grow in all markets.

After the closing of the transaction, we've immediately initiated and started a PMI project to exploit all synergies on the customer market side as well as in the back end, of course. And as already mentioned, we have started consolidating See Tickets and the former Vivendi Live business beginning of June. And for June, and therefore, already part of the second quarter, these businesses added EUR 25 million -- almost EUR 26 million in revenues and EUR 2.5 million in EBITDA already. So far, a brief look at the [ native ] transaction.

Now a closer look at the first 6 months in total. Revenue already mentioned, revenue went up by 18% to now a little more than EUR 1.2 billion, driven by the growth in our parts of our value chain, Ticketing, Live Entertainment, and Venue Management across all regions. As first mentioning that France is still not included in our numbers as a discussion with the EU competition authorities are still ongoing. These revenues translate into disproportionately into higher -- even higher EBITDA growth. The adjusted EBITDA came out at EUR 202 million. This is the highest amount in the first 6-month period, but that's actually not surprising, not [ huge ] at all, so to say.

The adjusted EBITDA margin on [ Google ] increased to 16.8%, and the EBIT ended at EUR 152 million. This is only a 30% up on previous year's number, but the reason behind this within last year's number, we still have items which have not been adjusted coming from payments, which we then still receive beginning of '23. If you would deduct them, then we would end up with a similar growth rate compared to the adjusted EBITDA.

Looking now at the quarterly view. We can see an increase of 21% in the second quarter versus second quarter last year for the revenues, whereas Ticketing revenues have increased 28% in the second quarter. And revenues in the Live Entertainment segment have increased by 20%.

Compared to the first quarter, revenues have almost doubled, so the growth is accelerating. The adjusted EBITDA went up by 23% compared to second quarter last year. And this performance is mainly driven by the strong Ticketing segment. The EBITDA and Ticketing went up by 35% in the second quarter. And in the live segment, adjusted EBITDA went up by 5% in the second quarter compared to last year's quarter 2.

Let's now have a look at both segments in detail, and we start with the Ticketing segment. As already mentioned, revenues went up by 26% for the first 6 months and 28% for the second quarter, which indicates a strong momentum in Ticketing. It's important to mention ticket is only included for June in these numbers here.

The adjusted EBITDA went up by 29% for the first 6 months, so even stronger than revenues. And for the second quarter, as already mentioned 35%, again, even stronger than revenues. The margin -- adjusted EBITDA margin increased to almost 44% despite the OpEx inflation, and the strong performance reflects development or the product asset development in our markets, which brings me then to the key driver behind this positive development, which is the number of online tickets, which you can see here on this slide.

Looking at the number of online tickets, so the number of tickets sold by our own distribution channels, the eventing experience, so to say, we see 21 million online tickets in the second quarter, totaling to EUR 44 million in the first 6 months. On the right-hand side, you can then see the number of online tickets split by region. And while Germany is still a key market, other regions gain more and more traction. And the one more traction in the share of other regions is constantly increasing over time.

And it's worth mentioning that the tickets from See Tickets are not included in these numbers yet. They will be included for the next reporting. This development shows the increase in importance of international markets and more and more robust and diversified business mix.

Now looking at our Live Entertainment segment. For the first 6 months, revenue went up by 15% to EUR 866 million. Looking at the second quarter, we see an increase year-over-year of 20%. The second and third quarter are typically the strongest quarter here, and this is where all the major events in general take place.

We have seen strong performance, especially in the European Live Entertainment portfolio, especially in Germany and Italy. And we have also seen a very strong performance in the subsegment of Venue Management. We start reporting numbers and the Venue Management in the future as this will be a area where we intend to grow in future even stronger. So in Venue Management, as you know, we operate a number of vendors across Europe. Like I said earlier, in the first -- for the first 6 months, we have earned more than EUR 50 million revenues in this subsegment already.

The adjusted EBITDA decreased by 24% -- 27% in the first 6 months and 5% for the second quarter compared to the second quarter last year. Here, we can see an ongoing OpEx challenge, on one hand. On the other hand, we see also an increased competition especially in the U.S. Nevertheless, the EBITDA margin improved to 5.3%, which is a decent level compared to 4 more years and also given the challenges in this environment. So all in all, a very strong performance for the first 6 months and an even stronger second quarter. This raises the question what our outlook for 2024 as a whole will be.

So here comes our outlook. This is a slide with many upwards pointing arrows. I will guide you through the slides right now. Already in March, we have positive -- we were positive for 2024 as a whole, mostly guiding moderately higher revenues and EBITDA levels for both for group and segment levels. Given the strong performance in our existing business and the positive momentum we see in the industry, and as well also the consolation of See Tickets from June on, we increased our guidance for most of our KPIs, on group and on Ticketing level -- segments.

For the group, we increase, especially guidance for adjusted EBITDA significantly from moderately higher to significantly higher. For the Ticketing segment, we increased the outlook for revenues, adjusted EBITDA and also for the EBIT from mostly moderately to or what is significantly higher for the adjusted EBITDA and moderately higher for the EBIT.

Significantly in this context, just to guide you a little bit is according to our internal metrics. So our internal scale means a growth higher than 15%, 1-5%, just as a rough guidance. Well, after March here, what would be EBIT, just moderately higher than last year. As a reminder, last year, we -- last year was impacted -- positively impacted by some one-off effects, mainly coming from the [indiscernible] project from the [indiscernible] project and also some payments, which we received in the first part of 2023.

So we take out those effects, roughly EUR 50 million. We have to compensate this or set off this effect. And those EUR 50 million would have to be earned operationally. And that's why optically, this looks a little bit more cautious. But in effect, we have to earn this operationally also.

I'd like to close my presentation by repeating the key takeaways. So again, the industry saw strong momentum. We are -- we see unchanged high demand for Live Entertainment in all markets. We have seen strong growth in the first 6 months, 80% revenue increase year-on-year and even 29% revenue increase year-on-year in the adjusted EBITDA.

The first 6 months were driven by all elements of our value chain, Ticketing, Live Entertainment and Venue Management. We have completed the acquisition of See Tickets and former Vivendi's Live Entertainment business and started consolidating this business in June. And we are very positive for the remainder of this year, for 2024 as a whole, and look very positive into the future.

That's it from my end for the moment. And Marco and I look forward to your questions.

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

Thank you very much, Holger. And as this concludes the presentation part, we now move on to Q&A.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]. And the first question comes from Cornelis Kik from Hauck Aufhäuser.

[Cornelis Kik, analyst]

I would have 2, if I may. So I saw that sponsoring revenues increased by 77% year-over-year. Could you maybe elaborate on the growth drivers behind that? And is that a trend that we can expect to see in the future as well? And then maybe if you could help us again with the bridge between normalized EBITDA to adjusted EBITDA. I saw that you changed that metric now. Maybe if you could shed some light on that, that would be helpful.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Okay. Thank you for the question. Of course, I mean, we put particular focus as well on ancillary revenues. And as we were coming out of COVID, this whole industry is, of course, now operating at a different level. And this helps us, of course, as well on our festival formats and so forth to increase the part of sponsorship revenues, which is a mirror image, of course, of how well we see the development from the customer side, attending big events, which is the main platform for our sponsorship business. And I think it's fair to say that we are only at the beginning there and that, with the continued quarters and years, we will make this as well a more sustainable income and earnings stream as part of our Live Entertainment business.

On the second question, maybe I can ask my colleagues to jump to Page 18 of the presentation. We have anticipated that this question might arise as we have prepared a slide for this. Just as a reminder, this is -- I think, we made it transparent in our full year report, '23 full year financial statement, where we explained the transition from normalized EBITDA, which we have reported on in the past and adjusted EBITDA, which we reduced from this year on -- beginning of this year on. The reason behind is that the definition of normalization effect was rather narrow, only in a sense some effects coming from M&A activities but rather narrow definition.

And last year, we had the strange situation that we have normalized some small effects coming from those activities while not taking into account the larger effects like compensation from the [ control ] project, roughly EUR 40 million here and also some corona e-payments. And also, in the previous year in 2022, we have quite some central corona e-payments, which were not normalized, which is a little bit strange because you guys are interested in the -- look at the operations or the performance -- operational performance behind -- on this company and would be interested, I guess, on the metric which expresses the operational strength of the company. And therefore, those effects would have been or should be excluded in a way. That's why we have changed the metric beginning of this year. And we now have, in general, a broad set of potential effects, which we -- or nonrecurring effects, which we'll eliminate or add if necessary. And an effect is seen as significant if it exceeds 1% of the EBITDA.

So everything the law would not be touched, but if it exceeds 1% of the EBITDA, then we will adjust for this recurring effect. And for 2023, this means we would eliminate the compensation for the control project, and would eliminate some received payments, corona e-payments, which we see at the beginning of last year. And that's what I mean for last year, the adjusted EBITDA, restated EBITDA, so to say, would be EUR 445.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Andreas Riemann of ODDO BHF.

[Andreas Riemann, analyst]

First topic, See Tickets. So thanks for additional details. My question would be, what might be the contribution to revenue and EBITDA in the years, '25 or '26 once potential synergies are included, so the first topic.

Second one, the U.S. business. So how does the debate around Live Nation and Ticketmaster that we see right now affect your business in the U.S.? Do you already observe any tailwind? This would be my second question.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Yes. Maybe I'll start with the first one, and Marco then answers the second question. I mean, we have provided you with some numbers for 2023. We have provided you with some numbers for June. I mean, we do not expect those numbers to decline, rather to rise. But for the moment, we will not disclose any numbers for the next year. But I mean, you can do some estimates yourself to guess. But for the moment, we have just started the PMI project into the business a little bit more in detail. But of course, we expect some synergies and the substantial synergies. But we will not disclose any number, at least not today.

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

For the second part of the question, how does the current DOJ investigation affect our business for now. I mean, through See Tickets, we have gained access to the U.S. from a ticketing perspective. But of course, on a scale that is largely unaffected by the ongoing DOJ investigation. As a player in the industry, of course, we pay very close attention to what is going on over there. But again, I mean, it's very difficult to comment on the potential outcome there. I know that the banking team is discussing various scenarios there, yes. But I mean, it's always difficult to put a bet on the outcome of an ongoing litigation, particularly when it is so prominently positioned as this case is in the U.S.

Some expect, of course, a breakup to cause ticket prices to decline. My personal view is that these people who think that this could happen should further investigate and understand how this industry works in the U.S. And you all know my point. I mean, complaining about high ticket prices starts at the point of time where we all stopped buying CDs and went to streaming. So it's the main source of income for artists, particularly in the biggest market worldwide, which is the U.S., there are huge economic interest behind this industry. And yes, we continue to stand on the sidelines to see whether opportunities arise for us, and then we are willing to act on those. But for now, yes, we remain on the sidelines.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Craig Abbott from Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Craig Abbott, analyst]

And if you don't mind, I'll ask 3. First of all, just to be 100% sure on your guidance outlook. So you said you expect at least 15%, 1-5%, EBITDA growth. And that's compared to this comparative base, which you very kindly showed us with this chart a moment ago of the 445, correct? I mean, that's the first part of that question. The second part is, last time you gave us kind of a range. Are you willing to give us kind of a range of what you're thinking about at this stage? That would be my first question, and then I have 2 more.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Yes. For the first question, it's clear, yes. I'm not sure if I got the second question, was more if we would be willing to provide more range.

[Craig Abbott, analyst]

Yes. Last time, you kind of said 5% to 15%, now you're saying more than 15%. I'm just wondering if you could give us a ballpark figure, just what maybe you're looking at on the upper end.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Well, it's at least 15%, as you point out, yes, in the upper range. If it was more 30%, then we would maybe have used a different terminology. So I know that's maybe a very, very broad range. But -- so we -- so maybe 15%, 25%, 30%. Basically, this is a closer range that the upper end is not 100%, maybe the [ sales ].

[Craig Abbott, analyst]

Okay. Secondly, I was just in the Live Entertainment, we saw the margins down. We know about the cost pressures in the industry with artist fees structurally having increased in addition to the other cost pressures and elasticity on pricing. I just wondered -- but then you also mentioned increasing U.S. competitive pressures. In the past, you've kind of said you expect this division to be able to generate 6% to 8% EBITDA margin. Do you still feel comfortable with that range on a full year basis? That's the second question. I have one more, please.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Yes. In general, yes. As it looks, I mean, yes, we have some pressure. And yes, we see this impact on OpEx. Of course, it's challenging you see price inflation everywhere. And this hits us, especially in the Live Entertainment segment, of course. But now we have 5.3% EBITDA margin, a strong quarter, Q3 still to come. So we remain positive to reach this range. Maybe it will not be the upper end, but we will reach this target.

[Craig Abbott, analyst]

Okay. So you feel like your pricing power is still reasonable enough that you can stay in that range on a per year basis?

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Yes. But in the Live segment, I'm not sure if the pricing power there plays an important role there.

[Craig Abbott, analyst]

Okay. Got it. And my second question is kind of on ticketing in general. If we assume stable underlying ticketing fee on average per ticket, it kind of looks like you didn't really see much growth in the average face value. I guess, that's due to geographical mix and things like Peru, Chile acquisitions last year. If you can maybe talk us through that and as well talk about your pipeline also kind of like what you're thinking in terms of pipeline heading into '25.

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

Thank you, Craig. I'll take that one. So first of all, of course, with transactions like See Tickets and so forth, we have pretty much broadened the scope further of our portfolio. And as Holger indicated, an increasing share from international ticketing activities makes it, of course, a bit more complex to look at these KPIs, which have been very helpful 5 or 6 years ago when we were talking about transition from offline to online ticketing. In general, we could say, and as Holger said, we're very confident with regards to what we see in the broader industry, the trends that, of course, the industry continues to operate on a level that is significantly higher than everything which we have experienced before COVID.

And that the underlying bids, I mean, you've seen how -- which direction the ticket prices have gone. And if we look at it on a single cluster, then you see on these categories as well that, of course, the revenues per ticket follow the same direction. But given that we scope out with ongoing international expansions where the average ticket prices are a little bit less. What comes up in all our models, it's more the mix effect rather than any pressure on pricing or definitely not any different pattern in the ways of how we charge for our services.

[Craig Abbott, analyst]

Okay. And just the second part of that question on the pipeline heading -- and also like beyond Q4 and heading into '25.

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

No. I mean, we cannot give any details, of course, as for many reasons, it's not disclosed yet, which artists will go on sale when. But let me sum it up again. We are very confident with regards to the second half and beyond that, yes, it's a good place to be in Live Entertainment, particularly for a company like CTS Eventim.

[Operator]

And the next question goes to Christoph Blieffert from BNP Paribas.

[Christoph Blieffert, analyst]

Let's start with ticketing, please. Can you please help me to better understand the EUR 38 million year-on-year increase in ticketing revenues? What is related to scope, higher ticketing sales, potentially change in off-line tickets or potential mix effects?

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Just for looking for the number. Which number are you referring to?

[Christoph Blieffert, analyst]

The year-on-year increase in ticketing revenues Q2 over Q2.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Well, this is -- yes, it's just the volume effect, and it's an increase in volume in ticket sales. As Marco pointed out, there's no structural effect in the fee structure. So it's just driven by the higher volume of tickets we've sold across various markets or actually across all markets.

[Christoph Blieffert, analyst]

Can you give any indication of the first-time consolidation of the 2 assets you have at [ Fiat ] in South America, so Punto Ticket and Teleticket?

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Yes. Fair question. We have acquired -- I think, in mid-November, we have acquired Chile and Peru 2 entities, the respective market dealers in their countries. The effect -- actually, we do not report on a country level. But in general, we could say the effect is a low 2-digit number in terms of revenues. Should be maybe a little bit more than EUR 10 million plus, EUR 10 million plus, EUR 10 million, EUR 12 million or so in this range. But it's not too big. Or at least put it other way around, the growth in the existing business with our fee ticket is not driven by those acquisitions. So they play in a minor role here.

[Christoph Blieffert, analyst]

I would like to ask a follow-up question on ticketing. Is there any effect from other operating income positively affecting EBITDA and ticketing in the quarter? Or is there any positive impact from the consolidation of See Tickets beyond some earnings generated in June?

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

No significant effect, no. Not at all.

[Christoph Blieffert, analyst]

Okay. Then another question on See Tickets, please. Can you give us a guidance for PPA for the remainder of the year?

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

PPA for the remainder of the year regarding See Tickets. Yes. I mean we have transparently presented our PPA in the report. You could have a look. And if there's any questions, maybe we take this offline and discuss this.

[Christoph Blieffert, analyst]

Okay. And then as a last question, and this is related to potential expansion in U.S. ticketing. I mean, looking on the U.S. ticketing market, I got the impression that it's much more sophisticated, both on primary and secondary ticketing. And the question is, is there -- is your IT infrastructure sufficient to cover the needs of the U.S. market? Or do we have to make major investments to make -- to get a competitive IT infrastructure?

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

I'll take this one. I think the best way to look at it from this point is that if our infrastructure would be in doubt, I cannot imagine that we would have won the LA 28 tender for ticketing. And if you can -- I mean, if you've seen the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics and how the Americans got crazy for bringing this event home, you can be sure that this will be the most sophisticated ticketing challenge the industry has ever seen, and we are the ticketing partner for that.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Ed Vyvyan from Redburn Atlantic.

[Edward Vyvyan, analyst]

I've got 3, if that's all right. Firstly, on See Tickets. I was hoping you could maybe give us some guidance about how to model ticketing volumes in -- for the remainder of the year. Consensus is only modeling around -- I think consensus has 93 million tickets in, which seems very, very low for the full year if See did 43 million or something in 2019. So maybe a little bit of color on that.

And then secondly, with France BA. I was wondering if you could help us get a sense of how dilutive the acquisition will be to your margins in FY '25, given it carries a much lower fee per ticket.

And then lastly, I wonder if you could just help us with some of the phasing between Q3 and Q4. It looks like there's going to be some pretty tough comps in Q3 with Taylor Swift and Coldplay being lapped, but that will be partially offset by See Tickets. And then Q4 has to look a bit stronger to get to consensus. So if you could just help us with the building blocks, that would be great.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Maybe we'll start with the second part, France BA. I think there's no structural difference in the France BA. It's slightly lower, but it's not significant. So I would not adjust the model too much, I would say. So it's adjacent comparable. Marco, See Tickets?

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

Yes. Maybe with regards to See Tickets. As we said in the presentation, we have acquired a very complementary business to our existing portfolio. And given that we were able to close the deal with -- very fast and that we've integrated it in our numbers for June, gives us now -- brings us now to the point where we really have to think about how to allocate these tickets into more our B2B business or into our B2C/retail business as, of course, they have a very good reputation for very customizable B2B solutions. While on the other side, that they have their own retail channel, but it was not, of course, comparable to our existing channels like events. And in markets like Benelux, the U.S. and in the U.K., See Tickets has become a very strong brand for solving ticketing challenges, if you will, for festivals like Tomorrowland, Glasbury and so forth, which is a segment that CTS was serving as well in the past.

But I think it's fair to say that See has developed quite good solutions there. So we're in the process of how to basically model this forward, particularly with regards to ticket volume because the ticket volumes, which we have acquired, are not just retail tickets, as by our old definition. So we work that out. And as we said already in March, we are continuously working on providing you guys with more KPIs. But it would be misleading now to take the 44 million and consider them to be straight up retail tickets as we've defined them in the past.

[Edward Vyvyan, analyst]

Is there a rough percentage you would be able to share at this point?

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

No. It's -- let us discuss that when we all meet again or latest by our next set of numbers, we can provide more color on that. And with regards to the phasing for the second half. As I said, I mean, last year, everyone's looking at Taylor Swift and Coldplay but we shouldn't forget that there has been a plethora of other events, which we sold. And on the other hand, I mean, this year for what is already in the public domain, we started to sell Ed Sheeran tickets.

And -- I mean, it's hard to make a bet on timing, as always, on individual quarters. So there is, of course, still something in the pipeline for the remainder of the year. And it's, of course, out of our control now to say basically what is basically going on sale, at which point in time because this is ultimately the call the promoter has to make, whether they decide to still go on and say in Q3 or whether they roll it over into Q4.

So it's very hard to comment on this because it could be wrong next week when a promoter decided just to go on sale at a later stage. But net-net, I mean, even if the basis in Q3 might be a little bit tougher. On the other hand, Q4 looks then the other way around.

[Operator]

And we have a follow-up question that comes from Cornelis Kik.

[Cornelis Kik, analyst]

It's regarding ticketing, and maybe you can help us better understand the other service charges because they're up quite significantly year over year. Is that related to a shift to mobile? Or -- how can I understand the growth drivers here? And then also, could you help us unpack also in ticketing the portion that's classified under other because that accounts for over 13% of sales? That would be helpful to understand what's in there, please.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Please let me check for which numbers you are referring to, if not all numbers at the moment.

[Cornelis Kik, analyst]

In the 6 months report, we have a breakdown of the revenue and then ticketing split into ticketing fees, et cetera. And I would like to know a bit more about the growth drivers behind other service charges.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Ticketing, we can provide you with the page number. Yes, I'm afraid I can't provide the answer right now. Maybe we can take this offline. And in general, if you look at the size of the numbers, and give it...

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

We highlighted the important things in our presentation.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

It's not material, if you look at the size of the number. But of course, I mean, yes, we have increased by EUR 3 million and increased by another EUR 12 million here.

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

We have to check with the accountants whether they booked in different accounts.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

I'm sure that's not the case. But with us, we can take it offline and provide some -- I'm not sure if this -- if you did the analysis in terms of volume, if this is not simply explained already the difference. I think it follows -- it's in line with the volume increase. We follow up with this. There's no structure change, if this is the question.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, we didn't receive any further questions, so let me hand back over to Marco Haeckermann for some closing remarks.

[Marco Haeckermann, executive]

Awesome. Thank you very much for your time and your questions. Then this concludes our H1 earnings call. Thank you for preparing and giving us the questions, and we look forward to our next call. And until then, we continue to sell tickets and host live events. Wish you all a great end of the summer. Bye.

[Holger Hohrein, executive]

Bye-bye.