Adoption of Bastei Lübbe AG's annual financial statements for 2016/2017 - Management Board announces forecast for 2017/2018 financial year

Cologne, 27 July 2017 - At today's Supervisory Board meeting to approve the financial statements, the Supervisory Board of Bastei Lübbe AG, which is listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN DE000A1X3YY0), unreservedly approved and adopted the company's audited annual financial statements for the 2016/2017 financial year.

The Bastei Lübbe Group increased its revenue to EUR 146.3 million in 2016/2017 compared with EUR 101.9 million in the previous year. BuchPartner GmbH, consolidated for the first time, accounted for a substantial portion of this growth, contributing revenue of EUR 43.2 million.

As announced in the ad-hoc notification on 23 June 2017, Group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were much lower than expected in the reporting period at EUR 5.4 million (previous year: EUR 6.7 million). There are several reasons for this, particularly one-time items. In addition to a weaker fourth quarter (January to March 2017), the final purchase-price allocation for the majority stake in BuchPartner GmbH acquired in spring in 2016 had a more negative impact than anticipated. Finally, the recoverability of capitalised royalties was reassessed, resulting in one-off impairment losses. Although these one-time items had no effect on cash flow, they severely impacted on earnings in the IFRS balance sheet.

The net profit of the Bastei Lübbe Group for the 2016/2017 financial year amounted to EUR -2.9 million after EUR -0.3 million in the previous year. Bastei Lübbe shareholders accounted for EUR -2.1 million after EUR -0.5 million in the previous year. On this basis, earnings per share amounted to EUR -0.16 in the reporting period as against EUR -0.04 in the 2015/2016 financial year. Overall, as reported, earnings for 2016/2017 were below the company's original forecast, despite a significant rise in revenue.

The Management Board of Bastei Lübbe AG continues to regard the prospects for the 2017/2018 financial year that began in April as positive. In particular, publication of new hardbacks by the global best-selling authors Ken Follett and Dan Brown, expansion of the premises of BuchPartner GmbH and promising new products from Daedalic Entertainment are expected to boost the Bastei Lübbe Group's revenue and earnings substantially in the current financial year. In view of this positive outline data, the Management Board's forecast for the current 2017/2018 financial year published today envisages a rise in revenue to around EUR 160 million and a significant improvement in earnings, with EBITDA expected to reach EUR 14 million to EUR 17 million.

The Supervisory Board and Management Board of Bastei Lübbe AG have jointly resolved to propose to the Annual General Meeting on 22 November 2017 that the net profit of EUR 1.1 million be carried forward to new account. "The proposal takes into account the considerable financial expenses that had an exceptional negative impact in the past financial year," explained Thomas Schierack, CEO of Bastei Lübbe AG, while pointing out that payment of a dividend was being held back only temporarily. "This will safeguard the company's ability to finance its own future-oriented investments. We are of course sticking with our fundamental policy of letting our shareholders participate in the company's success through an appropriate dividend, now and in the long term."

The Supervisory Board and the Management Board are aware of their responsibility for a trust-based relationship with their shareholders. This trusting relationship is reflected in a stringent and sustainable dividend policy. In this regard, Bastei Lübbe AG pursues the goal of getting back on track with its dividends as quickly as possible.
 

About Bastei Lübbe AG:

Bastei Lübbe AG is an internationally active media group with headquarters in Cologne. Its business activities primarily focus on the development and licencing of contents which are sold worldwide in physical and digital formats. The core business of the company in the book segment covers classic publishing and periodically published puzzle magazines and novels. With its total of twelve publishing houses and imprints, the company group currently offers around 3,600 titles in the areas of fiction, non-fiction as well as books for children and young adults. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction books, the company has been the market leader in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is an engine for innovation in the area of digital media. Apart from the production of thousands of audio and ebooks, the "digital" business unit also maintains participations in the self-publishing platform "BookRix" and the renowned game publisher "Daedalic Entertainment". The digital value-added chain of Bastei Lübbe AG is rounded off through its participation in the online shop "beam-ebooks.de" as well as the new and unique international entertainment platform "oolipo".

With annual sales of approx. 146.3 million euros (financial year 2016/2017), Bastei Lübbe AG is the largest medium-sized family-run publishing business in Germany. The shares of the company have been listed in the Prime Standard segment on the Frankfurt stock exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) since 2013. Further information is available at www.luebbe.de.

Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:
Barbara Fischer
Head of Press and Public Relations
Tel.: 0221 / 82 00 28 50
E-Mail: barbara.fischer@luebbe.de