Bastei Lübbe AG: Management Board confirms positive business development at ordinary Annual General Meeting and announces focused growth strategy

Bastei Lübbe AG: Management Board confirms positive business development at ordinary Annual General Meeting and announces focused growth strategy

Cologne, 19 September 2019 - On September 18, 2019, Bastei Lübbe AG (ISIN DE000A1X3YY0), listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, held its Annual General Meeting for the past financial year 2018/2019 in Cologne. The shareholders approved all of the management's proposals on the agenda with significant majorities.

The Supervisory Board and Management Board started the shareholders' meeting of the Cologne-based media group with a review of the past financial year in which Bastei Lübbe AG successfully returned to profitability, with a phase of extensive restructuring measures almost complete. In its presentation, the Management Board also emphasised the continuing positive business development in the current financial year and gave an insight into the new focused growth strategy.

"Through our joint efforts, we have put Bastei Lübbe back on track and, as things stand at present, are looking forward to a successful 2019/2020 financial year. Now it is time to carefully explore new growth opportunities. This may also include selective acquisitions," explained Carel Halff, CEO of Bastei Lübbe AG.

The general discussion was followed by voting on the agenda items. At the time of voting, around 62.45 percent of the statutory share capital of Bastei Lübbe AG was represented at the Annual General Meeting. The attending shareholders of Bastei Lübbe AG followed the recommendation of the administration to postpone the discharge of the retired Supervisory Board and the retired members of the Management Board for the financial year 2016/2017 once again until the next Annual General Meeting. This is being done against the background of an ongoing legal dispute with former company bodies. In contrast, the actions of the current members of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board were approved for the 2018/2019 financial year with 99.75 percent of the capital present and 98.45 percent of the capital present, respectively.

"In the long term, we want to pay our shareholders a dividend again and we intend to use 40 to 50 percent of future profits for this purpose. The other part of the profits will be used for investments to generate further growth," said Ulrich Zimmermann, CFO of Bastei Lübbe AG.

Ebner Stolz GmbH & Co. KG, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Cologne, was elected as the auditor of the financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for the 2019/2020 financial year. In addition, an increase in the remuneration of the members of the Supervisory Board was resolved. This is to reflect the increased requirements and the diverse tasks and responsibilities of the Supervisory Board in a challenging market environment, so that the Company remains in a good position to attract first-class candidates to the Supervisory Board.

The Management Board's presentation and the voting results have been published at https://www.luebbe.com under the investor relations section.


About Bastei Lübbe AG:

Bastei Lübbe AG is a German publishing house with headquarters in Cologne specialised in the publication of books, audio books and e-books with fiction and popular science content. The company's core business also includes the periodically published puzzle magazines and novel magazines. With its total of twelve publishing houses and imprints, the Bastei Lübbe group of companies 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 one of the market leaders in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is an engine for innovation in the area of digital media and distribution channels, among other things by the production of thousands of audio and eBooks. This includes the stake in the renowned game publisher "Daedalic Entertainment".
With annual sales of approx. EUR 95 million (financial year 2018/2019), Bastei Lübbe AG is one of the largest medium-sized publishing companies in Germany. The shares of the company have been listed in the Prime Standard segment on the Frankfurt stock exchange (GSIN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) since 2013. Further information is available at www.luebbe.com.


Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:
Barbara Fischer
Head of Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 221 / 82 00 28 50
E-Mail: barbara.fischer@luebbe.de