Good evening to everybody, and good morning to our participants from the United States. Welcome to CTS Eventim's earnings call for the first 6 months of the year 2026.

Thank you very much for joining. I'm William Willms, as just 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. Marco Haeckermann (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 im Park, here in Germany was definitely one of those highlights in the last quarter: sold out 8 months in advance, with more than 500 fans over 3 days, and spectacular headliners like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and Iron Maiden.

The Rock am Ring success story will continue next year, with 2/3 of all tickets for the 2027 edition already sold so far. Second, the Eros Ramazzotti 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. He will be back in Europe in 2027 for further performances.

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 KPIs for H1 2026.

In summary, I am very proud to say we keep on growing profitably. Group revenue came in at €1.5 billion, up 17% versus H1 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA grew by 12.4% to €225 million, 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. EPS for the first half year grew significantly to €1.25, up €0.32 versus H1 2025, a positive development mainly benefiting from FX effects.

The first half of 2026 demonstrates hereby our continued 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, as already said, 17% to €1.5 billion in the first 6 months. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 201 to €225 million, representing a plus of 12.4%.

In H1 2026, the adjusted EBITDA 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 is 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 earnings base.

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 EBITDA in H1 2026 is also above prior year and grew by plus 3.4%. Both EBITDA and EBITDA margin are in line with our internal expectations.

Ticketing remains our high-quality earnings stream, and H1 2026 reaffirms its resilience. In the first 6 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 overproportional 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, and proves 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 6 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, as shown in the chart. Live Entertainment surpassed the €1 billion level for the first time within the first 6 months of a year.

Adjusted EBITDA came out strong, too: €53 million, compared to €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 weighing on the events business's margins in the second quarter. When adjusted for the effects of the Unipol Dome's ramp-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 in Milano 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 Milano will contribute to operating results starting in the third quarter, and represents 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 €+20 million. Taking all together, the 6-month EPS significantly went up to €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 6 months of 2026 are fully in line with our expectations. Third, the operational excellence program has started and marks the kickoff for our 2030 ambitions.

Last but not least, strong net results and EPS. 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.

To round off a hopefully very exciting and successful day with all of you, we would like, or we want to, invite you to a fantastic concert in the Unipol Dome with the British rock band Muse at that very same night. Please save the date.

Stay tuned, and official invitations will be sent out shortly. That concludes our remarks for the first 6 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.

Great. Thank you.

Good evening, all. It's Lara Simpson from JPMorgan.

My first question was just on the LA28 drop, if you could just give a bit more context in terms of, one, the size of that revenue that dropped through in the second quarter, and also try and help us understand the profitability on which it falls through. I know there's a different moving parts on the economics there.

Then I know you mentioned the second drop has now happened, just help if you can understand the quantum of that. 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?

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, I think that points to an increase in revenue and EBITDA.

You've clearly delivered a very strong H1, again, moving parts with LA, 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 1 and 2. For the time being, we stick to the guidance.

We look positive into the year. Having said this, you're 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.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Hi, Lara. It's Marco.

Thanks for the questions on LA. First off, as we said last year, the overall contract, of course, has a maturity of 3 years, starting off in 2026 until 2028.

Over the term of the contract, as we said in our Q1 earnings call, we expect a, yeah, low triple-digit million amount of revenues over 3 years, yeah, with the profitability levels of somewhere between 20% and 30%, yeah. With regards to what was the impact of the first drop in the second quarter, yeah, we can say that there was a positive revenue contribution of a low to mid-double-digit million amount, yeah, 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, yeah. This is, of course, what the IOC can decide upon, and where we are ready to act when they want us to act, yeah.

The final drop, or the second drop, I think is about to conclude right now. 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. 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, yeah.

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, yeah, 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. Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Operator,

next question?

Do we have another question?

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? 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?

Can you please also repeat the revenue and adjusted EBITDA contribution? The last question is on the Investor Relation team.

There are rumors that Marco might leave the company. Stefan has already left.

Any thoughts about the future setup would be helpful. Thank you.

Like for Lara, let me take question number three, and Marco then, as they tie in, yeah, to the questions Lara asked, question number one and number two. Yes, and indeed, this is correct.

Marco, unfortunately, is leaving the company on his own request. With this, a very, very dear colleague, very, very respected colleague of ours is leaving.

He will take on different and our other ventures. This is fair at an age and development of a career where Marco is.

Therefore, our, to speak, best wishes go to his future after September. 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 a replacement which will take up this role and step into these large shoes. 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 question one and two? Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Yeah. Let me deal with the questions.

Christoph, the first one, on this change in the partnership business, yeah. As we said already in our last earnings call, to some degree, of course, we are not allowed to disclose confidential information as we are in business with that company still, yeah.

As we continue to sell retail tickets successfully for them, yeah, which is part of our recurring business, yeah. Other than that, what we have indicated so far that the effect which we see rolling through each quarters on the revenue side is around a high-single-digit million, yeah, and a low to mid-single-digit million kind of EBITDA contribution, which is the effect if you multiply it by 4, 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, 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. As we've said already on Lara's question, yeah, 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 3-year period, and the totaling revenue to come out at somewhere, yeah, in the low-triple-digit millions—the hundreds, sorry, to make it more specific, yeah.

With regards to the number of tickets for LA28, the first drop in the second quarter was around 4 million tickets, yeah, although it's important to highlight that this is not specific as our retail business, where we just collect a fee based on every ticket sold. It's a much more complex contract, yeah.

As you said, it's more like a, yeah, B2B kind of framework, which is why you see the margins where they are.

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. This is the message.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

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. 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, and this is not coming from a decline in retail tickets, yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Sure.

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? Then thirdly, thinking about Milan, the venue, how do you think about the value of that business?

Because 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. I was just quite keen how you think about the value of the Milan venue for you.

Thank you.

Third question first. Value, right, is one side of the coin, the other side of the coin is investment.

Investment so far is slightly, net investment, north of €400 million, where 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 have to take, then, right, or you have to make your calculation on an NPV basis of the EBITDAs, yeah, or free cash flows this company or this business is delivering.

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 bilateral calls and discussed this. These processes sometimes lead to unclear interfaces or reporting systems which need to be modernized.

This is nothing specific, right, but this happens in a fast-growth scenario, and we're tackling this on the process side especially. That we follow an objective with an organization that can carry more business, more products, and several large projects in parallel, without costs and complexity rising proportionally.

That means that 2026 carries certain implementation costs for this program, yeah, including continued investment in technology platforms and AI. Stopping these investments now would be the wrong decision as we are preparing for, yeah, stronger growth in the years to come, '27 and following.

The efficiency and growth contributions will 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 calls. Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Hi, Annick, it's Marco. I will take the question on the Live Entertainment margin and the timing.

As, of course, particularly in Live Entertainment, timing of expenses and shows is never the same compared to the previous year, yeah. This is why we, of course, look at it more on a rolling basis.

Here, the important message is, of course, with all the portfolio work the Live Entertainment team has done since last year, we see the first half, first 6-month margin up by 120 basis points. Yes, there was quarter-on-quarter quite some volatility, with Q1 where margin shot really up by more than 300 basis points, and now flat margin development in Q2, which is mostly due to these timing effects, yeah.

We're on the right path there. Our Live Entertainment team is doing a great job.

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, yeah, set a good ground, particularly in the second half as well, to continue on this path, yeah, 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, shall we expect the same margin drop in the second half due to operational excellence, or I understand that you will keep on investing, but you can invest a little bit, a lot, or what is the phasing of the second half?

Are we expecting the same level of investment that you saw in the first half in the second half? Thank you.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Hi, Annick. It's Marco again.

Yes, it's exactly like we've laid out at the beginning of the year, yeah, 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. The math would be right if you just roll this forward through Q3 and Q4 to come up with the full-year budget.

Super, thanks. Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Yeah.

Yes, good evening, William. Hello, Marco.

Two topics. The one is the festivals.

Last year in Q2, EBITDA 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?

Any insight on the festivals would be appreciated. The second one, last year, you also spoke about integration costs, mainly for See Tickets.

Are those costs now zero, and is the integration of See Tickets completely done? This would be the second question.

Thanks.

Thank you. Integration of See Tickets is done, no further integration costs.

Of course, you have the usual, to speak, right, costs of putting new systems in place, as technology becomes obsolete, right, but what you will classify as typical integration costs, right, 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 Highfield 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. Now, the thing with festivals is, once you stop it, it's stopped.

You cannot restart, right? Rock am Ring, Rock im Park had difficult years, and there the team from DreamHaus in Berlin did a fantastic job last year in restructuring this festival and bringing it up to basically the level you need to be, right?

They see it this at this time. It was not only a huge success for the fans, but also financially.

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?

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

No, but I think at the bottom line is what we had as well from Annick's question upfront. The margin is up.

It's structurally up, yeah. There might be a little bit of noise from one quarter to the other, but the average trend is in the right direction.

This goes together, of course, with the work our teams are doing on the portfolio. Of course, it goes without saying that not just single festivals are under review.

You always have to see it in a broader picture from a ticketing perspective, yeah, from a market-positioning perspective. This work, which we started last year, is bearing fruits already now, and it will continue to do so.

Thank you.

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.

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, being down year-over-year. Just curious if you could comment on volumes and whether there's anything going on in relatively small, but still relevant UK market.

Thirdly, just on the investing cash flow and sort of your Milan venue comments. You posted a significant cash outflow in the first quarter, second quarter is an inflow, it gets overall better over H1.

I just wanted you to the sort of outlook for the full year, and you said the Milan venue was net €400 million, or so did you mean net of any subsidies, or, yeah, just wanted to come back on that. Thank you.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Okay. Hi, Olivier.

It's Marco. Correct me if I might miss out one or two parts of the questions, but let us start from the back.

As William said, the investments for Milan are basically north of €400 million, yeah, and 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 payments from the cities or other funders, yeah, of these projects.

Everything that went through the cash flow, as of now, is gross basically, and this is why 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, yeah. The second question around European volumes, yeah, basically, when we take out a little bit the noise from our numbers, the change in partner business last year, yeah, 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.

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, yeah, many big acts have been touring over the post-COVID years, yeah, which is somehow flattening out. I would say the revenues effect you would refer to in the market are more driven by the mix in the volume there, yeah, average ATPs rather than actual volume effects, yeah, 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, yeah, there's not too much which we can say. As we've said earlier, 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, yeah.

Which is why that when we started early on, the best guess was, of course, to have the total contractual value split in three-thirds over 3 years. What we now see is, of course, that they like dropping these primary tickets, yeah, so that there might be a little bit less to sell primarily in 2028, and that this will move forward.

It's an indication we could give at best, yeah. It is not enough to really put tangible numbers to it.

As of now, the second drop went technically well, yeah, this is what we can say. The numbers can be discussed in more detail in the next call.

Okay. Thank you.

Just can I follow up on the investing cash flow? Because 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.

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? Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Yeah. Mainly, what we have is, of course, 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, yeah, which is now reversing as we start to generate revenue.

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, yeah.

One thing is for sure: we are in a very cash-generative business, yeah, 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, yeah.

Bear with us for the rest of the year, and we can disclose more details about how the cash flows are developing. We're still very happy in where we are in running this business as it is, of course, very attractive from that cash flow perspective.

Thanks, Marco.

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?

Then 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? Then my last one, on net financial income, €20 million versus -€6 million in 1H 2025, 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. Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy): Hi,

Bernd. I didn't get or we didn't get the last question.

Could you repeat it, please?

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?

Let me start with your second question on whether we still continue or still plan to refinance and/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, right, this venue, but to find a partner who would also support us and partner with us going forward on potential other venues.

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 chest 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, but will be, to speak, changed into an IFRS 16 lease liability.

At the end of the day, all of these structures are some sort of a sale-and-leaseback scenario. The main question is to find the right partner for this kind of exercise.

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/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, right? 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.

Financial results: 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. We believe is that, going forward, this trend, as much as we have here the crystal ball, right, will continue.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Let me just conclude with the question on Vienna. There is no update yet.

No, we're still in exclusivity periods, yeah. We're waiting for the next move from the city, and this is the update we could give.

Got it. Thank you.

Just back on the first question, anything you can go into in terms of impact for '27 from the cost excellence program?

As mentioned before, same effect, Marco, I think as what Marco said, right? Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Yeah.

We were talking about expenses in 2026, yeah, with then positive effects coming through. The important thing is it's not a cost-cutting program, right?

It's a little bit of a re-acceleration program, yeah, for the years 2027 and out.

Understood.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy): Okay.

Thank you very much.

Yes, good evening, all. I have a couple of remaining questions, please.

In the second quarter, you had the two-day shutdown at the Garorock Festival, and I think a couple other 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 Garorock 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 how much, and if there was, should we then expect the counter effect, i.e., 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 LA28, just to confirm, even though it's a partnership with AXS, you do fully consolidate all those sales in earnings version EBITDA, and then account for the minority share in the net earnings, if you could just comment on that.

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 investing cash flow, but also in the operating cash flow, a very positive turn in Q2, obviously happy to see that, but I just wanted if you could give us an update on kind of what trends you're expecting there in H2. The final question is you've given us the CMD date, I just wondered when we can expect an official invite with an indication what the program is going to be focused on.

Thank you. Okay.

First, on your insurance question, you're right, there have been cancellations, and 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. Idea is to start midday, and then, in the terms of a structure of where we will really go through the company, its strategy, and reintroduce it to you in a 360-degree view on the company, the operational program, and, of course, then with concluding with a full potential plan/business plan until 2030, and giving you there the main clear idea of the main drivers for our continuous growth until 2030.

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Yeah. 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 and on the sales the LA Olympics project, yeah, 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 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 moneys you have basically proceeded and pay out over these quarters. 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.

That's very helpful. Just to get back to my first question, please, just to be clear on this: yes, there was initial in 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, no net impact on earnings.

Did I understand that correctly? Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Yeah. It was correctly understood.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Two follow-up questions.

One on the capex, please. I'm still wondering about the big inflow in investments in Q2.

In Q1, you published a capex or investing cash flow from investing activities €114 million, and in H1, it's €29 million. It's a big inflow.

If that doesn't come from any subsidies from Milan, can you tell us where that comes from? Is that also related to LA?

The second question is related to the financial results. I think your predecessor, William, had started to invest the cash, the €1 billion cash that you have on the balance sheet.

If I look at your H1 financial results, apart from the FX, it seems like the financial income is neutral. Has there been any change to this policy of investing the cash that's on the balance sheet?

No,

no change in the policy, right? We are still carefully and cautiously investing as and if needed.

On LA? Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy): Like we said, the cash flow profile in the first half was impacted by LA 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, yeah. These were minor positions that were showing an impact on the cash flow from investments as well, yeah.

That was a minor impact.

What's the €85 million? That's pretty big.

Where does that come from in Q2? The €85 million inflow.

Hang on. Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy): We double-checked here with really the numbers now in depth.

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. This is just a timing effect which became visible from, yeah, less reinvestments from money that became due that was investments over previous periods.

Okay. Thanks.

Yes. Yes, hi, William.

Hi, Marco. Thanks for taking my question.

Most of my questions were already asked, but I have one question on the EBITDA in Ticketing in Q2. Is it fair to assume that the impact from LA is higher than the impact from the lost Stage contract?

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Impact-wise, like we said, I think it's fair to say that there was at least, as we said, yeah, what we indicated what the contribution from LA in Q2 was, and what we have said of what the shortfall was basically year-over-year from the Stage contract. In between both pieces, yeah, we had organic like-for-like growth in the mid-single digits, yeah.

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've sold, pure retail volume, which added positively to the contribution. 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, yeah, which was a relatively smaller share of revenues, as we said, with a high-single-digit million, but a mid-single-digit million of earnings contribution.

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. A little bit of operational excellence.

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. My question is, is the 5.8% gross, is that very close to the organic growth you have seen, or is the organic growth actually a bit smaller here?

Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

No. It's pretty much in that territory, yeah.

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, yeah. There was basically a new large sports business coming in, which will flourish over the next 3 years, yeah.

There was a couple of noise around it, but the way you've summed it up was very correct, yeah.

Got it. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Henrik. Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy): This concludes our Q&A, and we would hand back to the operator for now.

Many thanks, and see you in Milano on the 20th of November. Marco Haeckermann (Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Strategy):

Thank you. Have a good day.

Bye-bye.