Corporate News

DEAG expands strongly growing festival segment by acquiring the Psytrance festival “Indian Spirit”

Berlin, 18 October 2022 – DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (“DEAG”) is expanding its strategic business activities in the area of Festivals and strengthening its leading position in the market by acquiring a majority stake in the renowned Psytrance/Goa Festival “Indian Spirit.” “Indian Spirit” has been held in Eldena, near Ludwigslust in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, since 1999 and is one of the biggest Psytrance festivals in Europe with around 20,000 visitors every year. Besides a top-class line-up with the best DJs in the Psytrance scene, a direction of electronic music, visitors are also offered various yoga and workshops, chill-out areas and a market mile for culinary delights, clothing and jewellery.

As part of the acquisition, myticket, DEAG’s Group-owned ticketing platform, has already started advance sales for the 2023 festival as the exclusive ticketing partner of “Indian Spirit.” In addition, DEAG expects to gain synergy effects in the Live Entertainment business, both in terms of purchasing and artist acquisition. As a result, DEAG now has a diverse event portfolio with a total of more than 30 multi-day and one-day festivals with currently more than 580,000 visitors in its national markets of Germany, the UK, Switzerland and Ireland. These include the electronic festivals “Nature One,” “Mayday,” “Ruhr-in-Love” and “Airbeat One” as well as the open-air events “Sion sous les étoiles” and “Belladrum Tartan Heart.”

Rolf Eggert from the festival founder and service provider Music Eggert will continue to run “Indian Spirit” as a shareholder in the long term together with his team around managing director Sebastian Eggert, which will remain completely with the festival. In July 2022, DEAG took over the majority of the electronic festival “Airbeat One” and has been working successfully with Sebastian Eggert ever since.

“Indian Spirit” is an excellent addition to our current range of music festivals. We have a strong international position and a well-balanced portfolio, which we are continuously expanding in a rapidly growing market. “Indian Spirit” will provide further impetus for our growth and drive our expansion. We are very much looking forward to working with Sebastian Eggert and his team in greater depth,” said Prof. Peter L.H. Schwenkow.

In view of a capital market environment that is becoming increasingly difficult to assess, DEAG is also examining various options for refinancing the 2018/2023 bond at an early point in time and has mandated IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG with examining the option of issuing a new unsecured bond. A possible new bond could be used for the early refinancing of the 2018/2023 bond, while sufficient liquidity is already available for the foreseeable growth due to the outstanding development of business.

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG) is a leading entertainment service company and provider of live entertainment in Europe. DEAG has been present with its Group companies at 15 locations in its core markets of Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark. As a live entertainment service provider with an integrated business model, DEAG has extensive expertise in the planning, organisation, marketing and promoting of events.

Founded in Berlin in 1978, DEAG’s core businesses today include Rock/Pop, Classics & Jazz, Family Entertainment, Arts+Exhibitions and Ticketing. Family Entertainment and Arts+Exhibitions are the elementary building blocks for the further development of DEAG’s own content.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, more than 5 million tickets were sold annually for over 4,000 events – a constantly growing share of which were sold via the Group’s own e-commerce platforms "myticket" and "gigantic.com" for its own and third-party content.

Through its strong partner network, DEAG is excellently positioned in the market.

Investor & Public Relations
Axel Mühlhaus, edicto GmbH
Eschersheimer Landstraße 42
60322 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
Phone: +49 69 905505-52
e-mail: deag@edicto.de