Bastei Lübbe AG bundles investments in new holding company 'Bastei Ventures GmbH'

Bastei Lübbe AG bundles investments in new holding company "Bastei Ventures GmbH"

- Restructuring is response to company's development

- Bastei Ventures GmbH comprises investments and start-ups

- Clearer communication with the capital market expected

Cologne, 10 February 2016. Bastei Lübbe AG (ISIN DE000A1X3YY0), which is listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, is restructuring its areas of business. For example, the international media firm is bundling its most recent investments in a holding company in future. This company is to be called Bastei Ventures GmbH and is being founded retroactively as of 1 January 2016. "By taking this step, we are responding to the company's development from a conventional book publisher into an international media enterprise," explained Bastei Lübbe CEO Thomas Schierack. Overall, the measure is intended to make the many different digital and analogue output channels more manageable and thus more transparent for investors. The objective is to structure investment management in a forward-looking manner and to enhance the portfolio strategically.

Specifically, the investments Daedalic Entertainment, BookRix, oolipo, Beam Shop, JV USA and Bastei Media are being combined into Bastei Ventures GmbH. The new holding company also bundles new start-ups, such as "Bastei2B", an innovative new digital content offering aimed specifically at businesses, which is currently in the foundation phase.

The new holding company is headed up by a seasoned management team comprising Mark Rau (Business Development), Sascha Heinen (Portfolio Management) and Anne-Kathrin Haupt (Strategic Investment Management) - all three have held positions of responsibility at the company for a long time.

The new company structure was introduced on 1 February 2016.

About Bastei Lübbe AG:
Bastei Lübbe AG is an international media group based in Cologne. The business operations focus on the development and licensing of content distributed worldwide physically and digitally. The company's core business includes the traditional publishing business and the periodical puzzle magazines and novel booklets in the "Book" segment. With its twelve publishers and imprints, the group of companies currently offers approximately 3,600 titles in fiction, non-fiction and books for children and young adults. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction, the company has been the market leader in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is driving innovation in the field of digital media. As well as the production of thousands of audio and e-books, the "Digital" segment also includes holdings in the self-publishing platform "BookRix" and the renowned games publisher "Daedalic Entertainment". Bastei Lübbe AG's value chain is completed by the investment in the online shop "beam-ebooks.de" and the new and internationally unique streaming platform "oolipo".

With currently 334 employees and an annual turnover of roughly EUR 110.2 million (financial year 2014/2015), Bastei Lübbe AG is the largest medium-sized family company in the German publishing industry. Since 2013, the company's shares have been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0). Further information is available at www.luebbe.de.

Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:
Barbara Fischer
Director / Vice President
Public Relations
Tel.: +49 (0) 221 / 82 00 28 50
E-mail: barbara.fischer@luebbe.de