Endeavor Group said revenue rose 18% to $1.3 billion last quarter led by higher media rights fees and live event, partnership, consumer product and licensing revenues at UFC as well as the return of live events.
Owned sports properties, which includes UFC, saw revenue of $332 million up 28% from the 2021 quarter. Adjusted EBITDA – a kind of operating income — of $161 million grew 22%.
The representation business, and the company’s Events, Experiences & Rights division also grew.
“We benefited from strong growth globally across our segments in the second quarter,” said CEO Ariel Emanuel. “While we recognize there are broader macroeconomic forces at play, given the quarter’s performance and our line of sight through the end of the year, we’ve once again raised our Adjusted EBITDA guidance. We remain focused on our long-term strategy – leveraging the diversity and scale of our businesses to drive maximum value for our shareholders, our clients and our owned IP.”
Emanuel will host a conference call at 5 pm ET to discuss the numbers.
The new guidance he referred to for full year 2022 is a range between $1.13 billion to $1.17 billion — up $25 million from the prior guidance midpoint.
Revenue is expected to be between $5.2 billion and $5.47 billion
Events, Experiences & Rights segment revenue of $628 million was up 19% driven by the return of full-capacity live events including music festivals, the Masters, and the NCAA Final Four, as well as the inclusion of the Madrid Open and NCSA acquisitions. Adjusted EBITDA was $108 million, up a hefty 194% year-over-year.
Representation revenue was $358 million, up 9% on continued strong demand for talent including the recovery of music and comedy touring, as well as increased corporate client spending, partially offset by the sale of the restricted portion of Endeavor Content
Endeavor swung to a net income of $42 million from a loss of $517 million a year ago. EPS was 9 cents from a $1.24 loss. Year-earlier losses were inflated by $387 million in equity-based compensation expense to top executives following the company’s IPO.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.8 billion at the end of June, from $2 billion as of March 31. Total debt of $5.68 billion compared to $5.7 billion. Endeavor said it plans to repay $250 million of debt by the end of Q3, supported by an enhanced cash position from the recent $400 million reduction in OpenBet purchase price and expected proceeds from the recently announced sale of Diamond Baseball Holdings to Silver Lake.
