Bastei Lübbe AG: Creditreform upgrades rating from BBB to BBB+

Bastei Lübbe AG, which has been quoted on the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 8^th October 2013, has been reclassified by Creditreform Rating AG as Investment Grade BBB+. Until now, the credit rating of the Cologne based publisher had only been rated with the lower BBB grade. This improved rating reflects the publisher's successful development in recent years.
Creditreform justified the upgrade on the basis that the forecasts for the 2013/2014 financial year had improved significantly on budget and previous year's values.
Furthermore, the IPO boosted the equity ratio significantly and improved liquidity long term.

In November Bastei Lübbe AG published its half-year figures to 30^th September 2013. Compared to the same period in the previous year, sales between 1^st April 2013 and 30^th September 2013 improved by 37.8% to EUR56.0 million (PY: EUR40.6 million). EBIT increased disproportionately by 232% to EUR7.5 million (PY: EUR2.3 million). 'Overall our technical analysis demonstrated an improvement in the key financials for the coming year-end figures. We believe Bastei Lübbe AG is in a stronger position and consider its structure and content to be sufficient enough to be able to generate further growth in the future,' according to the latest Creditreform assessment.

Thomas Schierack, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bastei Lübbe AG, comments: 'The rating upgrade by Creditreform is further evidence of our solid business policy. We are pleased to be able to justify the confidence of our investors. We will therefore continue to consistently work on driving forward the dynamic development of Bastei Lübbe AG.'

Christmas trade is once again performing well. Bastei Lübbe is currently celebrating the big success of Jeff Kinney's eighth novel in the Diary of Wimpy Kid series, 'Hard Luck'. Since it was published on 21^st November 2013 there have already been more than 1 million copies distributed.

Bastei Lübbe is one of this year's most successful non-fiction publishers. In 2013 it scored a total of 13 titles on the non-fiction bestseller list (Media Control, Focus).