DGAP-News: DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft / Key word(s): Investment DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft: DEAG Classics AG announces strategic partnership with the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE 2021-08-16 / 10:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Corporate News

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG: DEAG Classics AG announces strategic partnership with the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE

Berlin, 16 August 2021 - DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft ("DEAG") is acquiring 66.6% of the shares in lit.COLOGNE GmbH via its wholly owned subsidiary DEAG Classics AG. Managing Partner and co-founder Rainer Osnowski will remain on board as a shareholder and Managing Director and continue to run the company in the long term together with his team, which will remain entirely with the company. DEAG is thus significantly expanding its activities in the field of Literatainment, bringing the most exciting names in culture and entertainment to audiences in Europe and beyond. Both partners expect synergy effects from the cooperation in the development of new formats as well as in the acquisition of new venues and in the ticketing business.

lit.COLOGNE was founded in Cologne in 2000 and quickly reached an ever-growing audience from its first edition. With up to 200 events and its own programme for children and teenagers (lit.kid.COLOGNE), lit.COLOGNE is now one of the largest literature festivals in Europe with more than 100,000 visitors. With other festival formats such as phil.COLOGNE and lit.RUHR, lit.COLOGNE has very successfully expanded its activities in recent years and has an extensive and very stable network of partners. The live formats include traditional author readings, dramaturgically staged versions as well as meeting of minds and conversations between great authors and actors. In recent years, many national and international stars have been guests, including T.C. Boyle, Bret Easton Ellis, Susan Sonntag, Karl Lagerfeld, Daniel Kehlmann, Jonathan Franzen, John Irving, Juli Zeh, Henning Mankell, Patti Smith, Herbert Grönemeyer, Matthias Brandt, Iris Berben, Charles Aznavour, Doris Lessing or Christoph Waltz.

In 2021, Lit.cologne was successfully staged for the first time as a digital edition with a total of 54 events due to the pandemic.

Peter Schwenkow, CEO of DEAG and Jacqueline Zich, Divisional Board member of DEAG Classics AG: "We are very pleased with our partnership with Rainer Osnowski and his team, who have built up Europe's largest literature festival and also know how to inspire their audiences with new formats such as lit.RUHR and phil.COLOGNE. Being able to contribute to the further development of formats and support the long-term direction of the festivals with our live expertise and our European network fills us with great joy."

Rainer Osnowski, Managing Director of lit.COLOGNE GmbH: "The partnership with DEAG Classics in this form, which leaves the festival as such untouched in terms of content and structure, is certainly something of a rarity these days. On the one hand, this partnership is a further step towards securing the long-term future of the festival alongside the great commitment of our main sponsors and partners. On the other hand, this alliance offers the mutual know-how in the live sector and the passion for first-class live events many opportunities for further joint development. I am very pleased about this and look forward to working together."

DEAG sees further, highly interesting European companies in which the company would like to invest in the coming months and years. For this reason, DEAG's Executive Board has commissioned a renowned American investment bank to identify further new international investors for the company, so that DEAG can continue its growth path outside its current core markets.

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) is a leading entertainment service company and provider of live entertainment in Europe. DEAG is present with its Group companies in 14 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 conception, organization, marketing and holding 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 in particular are of great importance to the further development of DEAG's own content.

In 2019 - before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic -, more than 5 million tickets were sold annualy for over 4,000 events - a continuously growing proportion of which were sold via the group's own e-commerce platforms "MyTicket" and "Gigantic.com" for its own and third-party content.

With its strong partner network, DEAG is excellently positioned in the market as an internationally active Live Entertainment service company.

Investor & Public Relations Axel Mühlhaus, edicto GmbH Eschersheimer Landstraße 42 60322 Frankfurt am Main Phone: 0049 69 905505-52 email: deag@edicto.de

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2021-08-16 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de

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Language:     English 
Company:      DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft 
              Potsdamer Straße 58 
              10785 Berlin 
              Germany 
Phone:        +49-30-810 75-0 
Fax:          +49-30-810 75-519 
E-mail:       deag@edicto.de 
Internet:     www.deag.de 
ISIN:         DE000A2NBF25, DE000A0Z23G6 
WKN:          A2NBF2, A0Z23G 
Listed:       Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Stuttgart, Tradegate 
              Exchange 
EQS News ID:  1226584 
 
End of News   DGAP News Service 
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1226584 2021-08-16

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August 16, 2021 04:00 ET (08:00 GMT)