The Live Nation firm that operates the 3Arena concert venue in Dublin expects to return to profit this year after two Covid-19 impacted years that decimated its box office revenues.
Robbie Williams, Bob Dylan, Sigrid and Kendrick Lamar are just four of the acts due to perform at the Dublin venue in the coming weeks as part of a packed 2022 schedule.
However, the venue was closed to fans from March 2020 to October of last year due to Covid-19 restrictions.
New accounts filed by the Live Nation firm, Amphitheatre Theatre Ltd show that the company last year recorded pre-tax losses of €655,156 last year due to the Covid-19 impact.
The losses would have been much higher but for the firm receiving funding of €528,920 through the Government’s Live Performance Support Scheme.
The company recorded the pre-tax loss as revenues decreased by 43 per cent from €8.37 million to €4.79 million.
The directors state that last year, there were 14 events at the 3Arena compared to 26 events in 2020.
The number of patrons attending events at the 3Arena last year was 87,408 compared to 236,137 in 2020.
Underlining the Covid-19 impact on the business, the firm’s revenues for 2021 represent only 15 per cent of pre-Covid-19 revenues of €30.7 million in 2019 when 956,242 fans attended events at the docklands venue.
The pre-tax loss of €655,156 last year follows pre-tax profits of €1.599m in 2020.
The business recorded an operating loss of €1.08m and this was reduced by interest income of €432,025.
However, sounding a more upbeat note, the directors state that following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, “forecasts project the company will return to profitability in 2022”.
The return to profit by the 3Arena this part of a global comeback by the live music industry with trade industry journal, Pollstar reporting worldwide ticket sales of $3.5 billion with 46.8 million ticket sales for the first half of this year.
The 3Arena company recorded earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €700,000 last year compared to EBITDA of €3 million in 2020.
The company’s balance sheet remains strong with shareholder funds of €58.68 million despite the two Covid-19 impacted years.
The shareholder funds include accumulated profits of €42.3 million. The company’s cash funds decreased from €4.6 million to €2.72 million.
Numbers employed by the business last year decreased by five to 30 as staff costs reduced from €1 million to €875,744.
The loss last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.77 million.
