All ThingsConsidered - Final Results

5 May 2023

All Things Considered Group Plc

("ATC", the "Company" or the "Group")

Final Results

Strong financial performance and operational progress

All Things Considered Group Plc (AQSE: ATC), the independent music company housing talent management, live booking, livestreaming and talent services, is pleased to announce audited results for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Financial highlights

·    Record Group revenue of £12.1m, an increase of 33% (FY21: £9.1m). Group revenue includes the nine-month contribution of Driift, which is shown as Discontinued Operations, as required by IFRS, due to Group ownership reducing to 32.5% following the transaction announced on 30 September 2022

·     Profitability achieved, ahead of expectations and materially ahead of prior year, with PBT of £0.01m (FY21: loss of £2.69m before IPO and related costs)

·     Gain on disposal of controlling interest in Driift of £2.5m, giving an overall post tax profit for the Group of £2.44m (2021: loss of £3.31m)

·    Cash position, after short term debt, of £1.4m as at 31 December 2022 (FY21: £4.24m) - £1.34m of the reduction arising from the removal of Driift as a subsidiary of the Group from 1 October 2022

 

Operational highlights

·   Growth underpinned by resilient business platform with integrated and complementary services across artists' commercial interests

·      Artist representation:

o  ATC Management and ATC Live recorded best revenue numbers to date, with over 70 management artists and over 500 live clients respectively, representing roster growth of c.25%

o  Strong traction in US artist management market following opening of New York office in 2022, including attracting new managers and doubling client roster with several high-profile signings

o  The return to full capacity touring in Q2 combined with strong backlog of shows resulted in a good year for ATC Live, now the 6^th largest touring agency worldwide

§ Highlights include The Lumineers performing the first post pandemic show at the O2 Arena London by an international artist, demonstrating the division's commitment to ensuring clients are at the forefront of the return of touring

§ Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds summer festival tour was the artists' biggest to date, with 34 festival headline shows

·      Services:

o  Launch of ATC Experience to create and distribute artist-led digital and in-person experiences for global audiences, with project pipeline building

o  The Group's synchronisation agency placed clients' work with substantial brands including Apple, Sonos, Amazon, Netflix, and games such as Fortnite and Valorant

·      Livestreaming:

o  Driift's acquisition of technology and commerce platform Dreamstage, concurrent with £4m of additional investment from Deezer, resulting in ATC ownership of Driift reducing from 52% to 32.5% and Driift becoming an associate of the Group

 Current trading and outlook

·      Trading in new year in line with expectations

·      ATC Live set to deliver c.6,000 live shows in 2023

·      First ATC Experience projects in development with strong pipeline of commercial opportunities

·      More than 20 ATC Management clients have significant new music releases scheduled for 2023 with corresponding touring and promotional activities

·      Well positioned to capitalise on multiple revenue opportunities within disrupted and growing global music industry, forecast to grow to $153bn by 2030*

 

*Goldman Sachs: "Music in the Air" report, June 2022

 

Adam Driscoll, Chief Executive Officer of ATC Group plc, commented:

"We are delighted with the progress we have made in our first year as a PLC, delivering 33% top line growth and profitability earlier than expected, whilst also investing in a number of important strategic developments for the Group.

Our performance has been driven by strong growth across our core artist representation businesses, supported by improved trading conditions as live touring resumed, together with progress within the Group's complementary services and livestreaming divisions. During the year we expanded the Group's geographic footprint, attracted new agents, managers, artist clients and key operational management into the Group, and launched new innovative artist service lines.  

The new year has started with continued positive momentum and a pipeline of exciting projects and opportunities. As the music industry continues to undergo rapid change, we believe there is substantial opportunity to co-create, co-produce and deliver new IP via events and experiences, underpinned by our multi-service approach across artists' commercial interests.  We look ahead with confidence in the Group's growth prospects."

 

-ENDS-

 

For more information, please contact:

 

ATC Group plc	Via Alma PR
Adam Driscoll, CEO
Ram Villanueva, CFO
Canaccord Genuity	+44(0)20 7523 8000
Aquis Corporate Adviser and Broker
Adam James / Patrick Dolaghan
Alma PR	+44(0)20 3405 0205
Financial PR
Hilary Buchanan

 

Notes to Editors

 

ATC Group is an independent music company housing talent management, live booking, livestreaming, and talent services within the same group.

The Group is headquartered in London, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Copenhagen. ATC Group Plc is led by an experienced management team who have operated across multiple music industry sectors.

The Group has an established, long-standing client base which, together with innovative new offerings, gives the Directors confidence that the company is well positioned to capitalise on the opportunities emerging from a disrupted music industry.

 

The Group's key divisions, grouped under three segments, are:

 

·      Artist representation

○      ATC Management (Europe and USA) - artist management and development

○      ATC Live - live event booking agency for artists

 

·      Services

 

○      ATC Media Inc - providing consultancy and development services

○      Your Army America - marketing and promotions agency specialising in dance and electronic music

○      Familiar Music - synchronisation agency placing music in films, TV, advertisements, and other media

○      ATC Experience - developing live events and digital experiences with artists

 

·      Livestreamed events

○       Driift - a global livestreaming business, and Flymachine, a livestreaming platform

 

 

For more information see: www.atcgroupplc.com

 

 

Co-Chairs' Statement

We are pleased to report on another year of strong double-digit growth and significant strategic development for the Group, and a close-to-full year of normalised trading post Covid lockdown.

The Group's growth and resilient business platform is underpinned by an integrated, multi-service offering across a range of artists' business interests. This model continued to generate additional commercial opportunities for artists across service lines during the year, contributing to top line growth of 33%.

Key to ATC's resilience is its well-established, long-standing client base. This has come about as a result of patient years of development, and we can now boast over 70 artists on our management roster and over 500 acts on our live roster, representing roster growth of c.25% in 2022. As a result, ATC Live and ATC Management posted their best revenue numbers to date.

Contributing to this growth was pent up supply and demand following the easing of lockdown restrictions together with a return to near full-capacity touring in Q2.  The Group saw a backlog of postponed shows and tours from the previous two years return in a short space of time, which was welcomed by fans.  A consequence of this was added pressure on touring operational costs across the board as a huge number of artists required touring infrastructure at the same time, in a global environment of challenging supply chains. Despite this, the Group achieved profitability with profit before tax of £0.01m, ahead of expectations.

ATC Live further deepened its trading arrangements with North American agency, Arrival Artists, in order to offer artists the option of global representation. This has strengthened its position as one of the world's leading independent live agencies, now the 6th largest agency globally.   

2022 saw the Group make a strategic expansion into NYC, opening an office in Tribeca, bolstering our footprint in the most important of geographical markets.  This investment, together with key personnel hires, provided the foundations for the North American operation to post their best revenue numbers to date.

Within our Services division, we continued to expand our range of services to both our own management clients and to third parties. The Group established its ATC Experience business to take advantage of the broadening IP rights opportunities that come with working closely with artists contracted to the Group.  The Group has a building pipeline of projects.

The Livestream industry experienced considerable disruption during the year with the live industry returning to traditional business during 2022.  Whilst many livestreaming providers exited the market, the Group's livestreaming business, Driift, attracted further capital from the streaming service, Deezer, bringing it together with US based ticketing and technology operator Dreamstage. As a result, Driift now has complete end-to-end livestreaming capability - across show development, production, ticketing, streaming and distribution. This transaction represents a significant strategic development for the business, cementing Driift's position as one of the leading brands in the field and ideally positioned to benefit from the anticipated growth from this segment, which we believe to be a permanent and complementary feature to live touring. The transaction with Deezer resulted in the Group's equity holding in Driift reducing to 32.5%.           

People

It is important to recognise the immense effort put in by all the ATC staff as we transitioned to the post Covid era.  Despite the unique challenges of re-opening  for business and navigating the evolving operating conditions, the team delivered across the board with a special thank you to our senior management team who remain fully committed to the Group and its vision for growth.

Shirin Foroutan resigned as an independent director on 30 November 2022 due to a potential conflict of interest in her role resulting from her appointment to a new executive position with a major music publishing group. We thank Shirin for her valuable contribution; we are in the process of recruiting a replacement independent director and our senior independent director, Andy Glover, is acting Remuneration Committee chair until that appointment is made.

Summary and Outlook

The Group took advantage of a near full year of post-lock down trading to post its best revenue figures to date.  In addition, the Group posted a small profit before tax, ahead of expectations. Importantly, the year saw the Group expand its capabilities through the addition of headcount, the opening of an office in New York, and the launch of complementary services. ATC continues to cement its position as a leading independent music company at the forefront of a rapidly changing industry.

2023 will still see the ramifications of lockdown strategies unwind. We continue to assess any implications from wider macroeconomic headwinds, including potential pressure on consumer budgets or rising production costs. However, music and ticketing have often outperformed the wider market in difficult economic times and the livestream sector should improve for Driift as larger players cut expenditure on productions, opening opportunities from talent looking to expand revenue streams. We remain positive about our prospects.

Brian Message and Craig Newman

Co-chairs

 

CEO Review

Overview

2022 marked the Group's first full year of trading since listing on the Aquis Growth Market in London in late December 2021. The net proceeds of the £4.15 million that we raised (before expenses) have been used, in part, to invest across our businesses and support the Directors' growth strategy for the Group. This has resulted in expanding our geographic footprint, launching new innovative services, and adding new agents, managers and operational management to the team whilst delivering a record financial performance.

Our underlying business model has proven to be resilient both during the preceding Covid affected year and during 2022, when the industry sought to return to 'business as usual'.

At the time of updating shareholders in relation to our interim numbers in September 2022, we indicated that we were expecting the Group to make a small loss for FY22. I'm pleased to report that we improved upon that forecast position in the second half and our 33% annual growth in revenue to £12.1m for 2022 has resulted in the delivery of a nominal profit before tax, which represents a material improvement upon the loss of £2.69m (excluding IPO costs) for 2021. In addition, the investment that was made by Deezer into Driift has given rise to a gain on the disposal of our controlling interest in Driift of £2.51m, giving an overall post tax profit for the Group of £2.44m for 2022. We retain a 32.5% interest in Driift and remain confident about prospects for the business and its long-term value to the Group.

There were a number of operational highlights in 2022 including successfully opening our office in New York in February and seeing the positive impact of that move on our US revenues during the year; the delivery of Driift's first 'Full Circle' livestream events for one of our managed clients 'The Smile' at the beginning of the year; Driift's acquisition of technology and commerce platform Dreamstage, concurrent with £4m of additional investment from Deezer into Driift; the establishment of ATC Experience as a new division to capitalise upon the changing commercial and creative models developing globally in live entertainment; the strengthening of our management team with the recruitment of Ram Villaneuva as CFO and Despina Tsatsas as Managing Director of ATC Experience; and the addition of a significant number of new managers, agents and clients to our ever-expanding team and artist roster.

The management team remains strongly aligned with shareholders, with executive Board members and senior directors holding 42% of the shares as at 31 December 2022.

Growth Strategy

The global music industry is a multi-billion dollar market undergoing significant disruption brought about by technological innovations, changing consumer demands and a rebalancing toward 'empowered-artists.' All industry income is ultimately derived from the activities of the artist and the move to being in business across all revenue categories with 'empowered creators' remains an industry trend.

The Group's business units have been developed with the strategic goal of ensuring that the Group can be at the forefront of this evolution, with artists able to engage via specific services or to take a more integrated approach. We continue to focus on building out our offering with complementary services that provide strategic and commercial cross-sell opportunities for other Group businesses. We believe there is substantial opportunity to co-create, co-produce and deliver new IP via events and experiences, underpinned by our multi-service approach across key revenue strands.

Current trading

We have seen positive momentum continue into the start of FY2023, with our business model proving attractive to artists, managers and agents. Additionally, the expansion of our Services division has put us in a stronger position to be much more engaged with artists and more involved in developing their wider business aspirations. At the core of all revenues in the music industry is the connection between an artist and a fan. Our businesses support that connection and that will enable us to play a greater role in 'direct to consumer' offerings and in the development of IP across emerging platforms in the future.

At ATC Management we have, over recent months, welcomed a number of new managers to our team including Bertie Gibbon, Dan McEvoy and Gwen Sanchez in the UK and Ben Rafson, Brandon Sanchez, Jordan Alper and Emily Cameron in the USA. We are pleased that managers of their calibre are choosing to make ATC their home.

Our management roster now stands at over 70 clients, with substantial activity anticipated across 2023 for a large number of those artists. In the coming months we will see new releases from The Hives, Amaarae, Black Country, New Road, PJ Harvey, Katie Melua, O, Max Winter, Izzi de Rosa, Jungleboi, Kabba, Christian Balvig, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, The Smile, Insincere, Nix Northwest, Billie Marten, Alma, Keaton Henson, Nathan Nicholson, Fink, and others. Touring and promotional activity will accompany many of these releases.

Our composer roster within management continues to work with highly regarded and commercially successful clients. Isobel Waller Bridge scored The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse  which recently won the Oscar for best short film, and Volker Bertlman's All Quiet On The Western Front score, winner of both the BAFTA and Oscar best score was orchestrated and conducted by Robert Ames.

The ATC Live business continues to perform in line with management expectations following a highly successful 2022 and we now represent over 500 clients.  New agents continue to join the business, the most recent being Ed Thompson whose clients include Jungle, a festival headlining act. Our relationship with North American agency Arrival Artists continues to deepen and prosper and we are excited about the opportunities to explore new markets together in the coming months and years.

The strength of the ATC Live business and its clients continues to be recognised by the industry at large with Alex Bruford, ATC Live's Managing Director, recently being awarded Agent of the Year at the prestigious ILMC conference. Additionally, for the second year running, ATC Live clients were awarded 2 of the 3 key Grulke Prizes awarded at the globally-recognised SXSW convention with Blondshell winning the US Prize and Balming Tiger taking the International Award.

Our Services businesses have got off to a good start this year. Your Army America has seen impressive results for Q1 and confidence remains high for this to continue. We are seeing good activity at Familiar Music, our US sync agency, and Company X, our recently-formed joint venture brand agency with Arrival Artists, is making meaningful strides in its first months of operation. Namethemachine Holdings, a US technology-focussed business for the creative industry, in which we hold a 20% stake, has strong development plans for the year which we are actively supporting.

ATC Experience, a new business formed in 2022 to enable us to create and distribute artist-led digital and in-person experiences for global audiences, is successfully building a large development slate of projects, a number of which are attracting exciting international partners. We are positive about the commercial outlook for this business.

The Group's livestreaming holding, Driift, has had a positive start to 2023 as artists and managers look beyond traditional touring and ticketing and seek promotional and revenue-generating opportunities within the livestream market. Having weathered tougher trading conditions in 2022, and with strong end-to-end delivery capabilities and a solid balance sheet, Driift is now poised to play a key role in the renewed growth of the livestreaming sector, which is forecast to become a multi-billion dollar segment over the next 3-5 years. Having recently signed a number of deals for upcoming events alongside partnerships with the likes of IMAX, the prospects for the business are looking very good for the coming year.

During 2022 ATC Media, a Group business based in North America, was engaged in consultancy work relating to the acquisition of Napster by a newly formed US business which had raised around $90m for the purposes of purchasing and investing in Napster. The aim of the new group is to bring blockchain and Web3 to new artists and fans via future developments in the Napster business. Our consultancy arrangement also provided for us to be awarded deferred revenue in the form of Napster crypto 'tokens'. Although not yet commercially available, the owners of Napster set up a new token structure in March 2023. At this point it is impossible to determine what value these tokens may have in the future and so the fair value of deferred revenue at the year end is nil and will be revalued at such time as they are admitted to some form of public trading.

In summary, 2023 is gearing up to be an exciting year of growth and continued development for the Group. We expect our comprehensive service offering to not only continue its organic growth, but to engage in a period of more aggressive expansion. Additionally, management believes that the Group is now well placed to move into areas where it can create, capture and manage more IP in partnership with its clients, which will enable us to build a resilient business and a balance sheet that develops tangible and intangible assets alongside the revenues generated from our client service divisions. We have a unique set of assets and are convinced that their combination gives us the right platform to grow a substantial group which can take advantage of the near-term evolution of music industry models.

Adam Driscoll

CEO

 

CFO Review

Overview

 During the year, the Group's results saw a significant improvement compared to 2021 with revenue posting a 33% increase to £12.1 million (2021:  £9.1 million) and a significant improvement in profitability from a loss before tax (after IPO related costs) of £3.3 million in 2021 to a profit before tax (before the gain on the disposal of the controlling interest in Driift) of £0.01 million in 2022.

 Following the transaction with Deezer SA completed on 30 September 2022, the Group's ownership of Driift reduced from 52% to 32.5% and, from 1 October 2022, the enlarged Driift group is treated as an associated undertaking in the group accounts.  The transaction resulted in the deconsolidation of Driift, and the Group recorded a gain on the disposal of ATC's controlling interest of £2.5 million.     

After successfully implementing its business plan and objectives for 2022 following the IPO listing in December 2021, ATC retains a positive net cash position at 31 December 2022 (after current debt but excluding long-term debt) of £1.4 million. £0.9m of the long-term debt is owed to a related party and is payable over the period to 2030.  The Group is therefore well positioned to continue its growth momentum in 2023.

 Revenue

 The Group's consolidated revenue was up 33% to £12.1 million (2021:  £9.1 million).        The segmental analysis is shown below:

		2022		2021
Continuing operations:		£		£
Artist representation		6,571,428		3,722,924
Services		2,874,603		778,502
		9,446,031		4,501,426
Discontinued operations:
Livestreamed events*		2,608,079		4,642,212
		12,054,110		9,143,638
*  Revenue of Drift group for the nine-months ended 30 September 2022 (2021: twelve months to 31 December 2021)

2022 saw a return to revenue growth after a 2-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic and the associated lock downs in the following areas:

 Artist representation

The live music scene in 2022 has seen strong growth in live music activities and this has created a huge demand for ATC Live's roster as evidenced by the 400% growth in revenue from £0.56 million in 2021 to £2.22 million in 2022.  In a similar vein,  ATC Management also achieved double digit revenue growth of 33% from £2.89 million in 2021 to £3.85 million.

 The Group expanded its Live and Management businesses during the year (as explained in the net cash/(debt) section) and expects to reap the long-term benefits from these investments.

 Services

Revenue includes gross consultancy commission of $2.3m (net commission of $1.15m) for the facilitation of the private acquisition of streaming platform Napster.   The Group is continuously exploring big ticket consultancy deals, building strategic partnerships with other players in the industry and creating and offering new artist related services as part of its growth strategy for this division.

 Livestreamed events

As discussed above, Driift is now an associated undertaking as of 1 October 2022.  Following the transaction that was announced on 30 September, Driift is now engaged in a process of restructuring its organisation, cost structure and business processes and with the £4 million cash infusion from its major shareholder Deezer S.A., it is now well capitalised and well-positioned to take advantage of increasing interest in livestreaming.

 Profit /(loss) before tax

 The profit before tax in 2022 amounted to £0.01 million (2021: loss before tax £3.3 million.)   The segmental analysis is shown below:

 

		2022		2021
Continuing operations:		£		£
Artist representation		542,043		(503,085)
Services		488,185		53,762
Livestreamed events**		(290,994)		-
Central cost*		(437,421)		(713,948)
		301,813		(1,163,273)
Discontinued operations:
Livestreamed events***		(291,802)		(2,143,245)
Profit /(loss) before tax		10,012		(3,306,518)
*   Includes IPO and related costs of £0.62 million in FY21.
** Driift as an associate (32.5% of result)
*** Consolidated Driift (100% of results) up to 30 September 2022

 

Net cash /(debt) position

 At the year end, the Group's net cash after short-term debt was £1.4 million (2021: net cash of £4.24 million).   It is important to highlight that in 2021, the net cash included cash of the Driift group of £1.6 million. The cash balances of the Driift group were deconsolidated with effect from 1 October 2022.

The funds raised during the IPO provided the Group with the necessary working capital to grow its various businesses in 2022.   The money was used in accordance with the Group's business plan and objectives for 2022, which included, but were not limited to, the following:

·       The office expansion in New York City in North America and the hiring of new agents and managers to strengthen the roster of artists of the Live and Management businesses with the main objective of increasing revenue through market penetration and market development strategies.

·       The establishment of a new ATC Services division, the improvement of its service offerings and strategic partnerships with certain third parties to allow the Group to offer a full suite of artist related services.

·    Launch of ATC Experience to create and distribute artist-led digital and in-person experiences for global audiences, with project pipeline building

·       The recruitment of additional personnel in the areas of operations, administration, and finance to improve the front-end and back-end systems, procedures and processes to address the regulatory and compliance requirements of a listed company and the implementation of best practices across the Group.   

·       The year has also seen an increase in the professional and consultancy fees which is part of the growing compliance and regulatory requirements as a listed company and travelling cost owing to the increased business activities and rising cost of inflation.

The funds raised in the IPO in December 2021 together with the operational cash flow of the Group during the year has helped fuel its expansion and mitigate the impacts of rising business costs that were a feature of 2022 for many companies.

Overall, the Group's net cash position after long-term debt was £0.073 million (2021: net cash of £2.31 million).  

Financing costs of £0.128m (2021: £0.097m) was comprised mainly of interest expenses on loans of £0.118 million (2021: £0.083 million)

		2022*		2021*
		£		£
Cash and cash equivalents		3,917,270		5,532,272
Funds held on behalf of clients		(2,172,873)		(1,027,793)
Own funds		1,744,397		4,504,479
Short-term:
Borrowings		(209,188)		(124,068)
Right of use lease liabilities		(143,794)		(140,287)
Net cash after current debt		1,391,415		4,240,124
Long -term:
Borrowings **		(1,214,057)		(1,676,986)
Right of use liabilities		(104,444)		(248,238)
		(1,318,501)		(1,925,224)
Net cash after long term debt		72,914		2,314,900
*   In 2021, net cash included the cash in Driift group of £1.6 million.  In 2022, Driift was deconsolidated as the Group's ownership reduced from 52% to 32.5%.  ** £0.9m of the long-term debt is owed to a related party and is payable over the period to 2030

Earnings per share

Basic and diluted earnings per share from all activities was 27.10 pence per share (2021: loss of 24.56 pence per share).

Basic and diluted earnings per share from continuing activities was 1.58 pence per share (2021: loss of 10.26 pence per share).

Going Concern

The accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis.   Based on the cash flow forecast for the period ended 30 June 2024, the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

Ram Villanueva

CFO