European live events giant CTS Eventim published its full-year and Q4 2025 financial results on Thursday (March 26), reporting that it topped €3 billion ($3.48 billion) in annual revenue for the first time last year.
But shares in the firm have plunged around 21% since it published annual results, after it provided guidance for near-flat earnings in 2026, and reports emerged that its new Milan arena cost roughly double the original budget.
For calendar 2025, the Germany-headquartered company reported consolidated revenues of €3.079 billion ($3.48bn), up 9.6% YOY.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 7.7% YoY to €584 million ($660 million), and the adjusted EBITDA margin stood at 19%.
FY Live entertainment segment results
CTS, which describes itself as the number one for ticketing and live entertainment in Europe and number two worldwide (behind Live Nation), said the FY revenue growth was driven by international expansion, the scaling of its technology platform, and “consistently high demand” for live events.
Across the 12 months to the end of December 2025, the company’s live entertainment segment generated revenues of €2.152 billion ($2.43bn), up 9.2% YoY, to cross the €2 billion mark for the first time, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 6.1%.
FY ticketing segment results
Full-year revenues within the company’s ticketing segment, meanwhile, grew 11% YoY to €977.1 million ($1.1bn), with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 46.4%.
The volume of tickets sold by the company increased by 30.7 million tickets to 177.9 million tickets, up from 147.2 million tickets in the previous year.
CTS noted that the retail ticket volume includes all tickets sold through the wider company, both through “all group-owned sales channels and through partner shops operated by the group”.
CTS added that the increase in retail ticket volume was, in particular, “the result of presales for future concerts held by international top artists”.
It was also boosted by the first full year of consolidation of See Tickets and France Billet, the ticketing company in which CTS Eventim took a minority stake in 2019. In late 2024, CTS acquired an additional 17% stake, giving it majority control.
Around two-thirds of CTS Eventim’s retail ticket sales are now generated in markets outside of its home market of Germany.
Q4 2025 RESULTS
The company’s group revenues in the fourth quarter of 2025 grew 19.2% YoYto €930.9 million ($1.05bn).
Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 rose 12.2% YoY to €246.2 million, with a margin of 26.4%.
Live Entertainment revenues in Q4 surged 24.6% YoY to €594.7 million, with adjusted EBITDA up 15.5% YoY to €50.3 million and a margin of 8.5%.
Ticketing revenues in Q4 grew 11.1% YoY to €350.3 million, with adjusted EBITDA up 11.4% YoY to €195.9 million and a margin of 55.9%.
Despite the strong top-line results, CTS Eventim’s stock has fallen more than 21% since the results were published, dropping from around €64 to around €50 on Tuesday (March 31), giving the company a market capitalisation of around €4.8 billion ($5.1bn).
The sell-off was triggered by a combination of factors. CTS guided for revenue and adjusted EBITDA to come in at or only slightly above 2025 levels — well below the roughly 11% EBITDA increase analysts had been forecasting.
New CFO William Willms, who joined in January 2026, also disclosed that a long-term ticketing contract had expired, creating a structural earnings headwind for 2026 — but declined to quantify the impact, citing confidentiality.
Investors were further rattled by the ballooning cost of the company’s new Milan arena.
According to Investing.com, citing a Barclays research note, the Unipol Dome Milano Santa Giulia may have cost close to €400 million ($452m) in total — more than double the €180 million originally budgeted when the project was announced.
Willms said on the earnings call that the final net cost still depends on various components, including the subsidies the company expects to receive.
The same Investing.com report noted that CTS Eventim’s free cash flow fell to just €1 million for the year, down from €275 million in 2024, largely due to the arena spending.
The Milan arena, which opened in early 2026 for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, is planned to host around 50 shows this year.
The venue business now contributes roughly 40% of CTS Eventim’s live entertainment segment EBITDA at a margin of around 46% — comparable to ticketing.
On the earnings call, Willms struck a more bullish tone on the company’s longer-term prospects, pointing to the scale of CTS Eventim’s ecosystem — more than 260 million user profiles, 7.6 billion digital touchpoints, and over 1 million events marketed across 30 countries in 2025.
He highlighted the Ed Sheeran tour, which reached over 1 million fans and generated revenues of around €100 million ($113m), and sold-out anniversary editions of Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, which drew a combined 180,000 fans.
He also announced CTS Eventim’s first-ever Capital Markets Day, to be held at the Unipol Dome in September.
“Within seven financial years — excluding the pandemic years — our revenue has roughly tripled… We are excellently positioned for the next phase in our company’s development.”
KLAUS-PETER Schulenberg, CTS EVENTIM
Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, CEO of CTS Eventim, was similarly upbeat in the company’s press release.
“In 2025, we continued to pursue our growth strategy with determination and surpassed the €3 billion mark for the first time,” he said.
“Within seven financial years — excluding the pandemic years — our revenue has roughly tripled. We are investing in the expansion of our platform, in technology, data and AI. Also in strengthening our live entertainment and venue business. We are excellently positioned for the next phase in our company’s development.”
Separately, CTS Eventim announced earlier this month that its promoter group EVENTIM LIVE had partnered with veteran French promoter Pierre-Alexandre Vertadier to launch PAV Prod, a new promoter and production company focused on the French live market.
Vertadier previously spent twelve years at Décibels Productions, owned by Warner Music France.Music Business Worldwide
