Bastei Lübbe AG with significant growth in revenues and profitability

Bastei Lübbe AG with significant growth in revenues and profitability

• Substantial improvement in profitability of operating business
• Increase of 5.1 percent in revenues to 74.4 million euros
• 57.9 percent increase in EBIT to 11.9 million euros
• Full-year forecast raised

Cologne, 10 February 2022 - General-interest publisher Bastei Lübbe AG (ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) today announced its results for the first nine months of its fiscal year 2021/2022. Despite the continued difficult environment as a result of the pandemic, the group was able to increase its revenues by 5.1 percent from 70.8 million euros to 74.4 million euros in the period from 1 April to 31 December 2021.

Group earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) climbed to 11.9 million euros in the period under review, up from 7.5 million euros in the same period of the previous year. The improvement is primarily attributable to the successful focus on core operating business. Core business was not impacted by any negative non-recurring effects in the period under review in contrast to the previous year in which substantial impairments of inventories had exerted an adverse effect on earnings. In addition, the management team was able to maintain a stable cost structure and achieve further efficiency gains. EBIT as of 31 December 2021 includes extraordinary income of 1.2 million euros from the investment in Räder GmbH. In the previous year, EBIT had included the non-recurring proceeds of 1.1 million euros from the settlement reached with the former members of the governance bodies. The EBIT margin including non-recurring effects reached 16.0 percent (previous year: 10.7 percent).

"We are very satisfied with the figures achieved so far. Together with our colleagues, we have been able to generate very attractive EBIT margins by focusing on publishing business. The strong performance of our important Christmas business was gratifying for us. The positive trend in variable revenue-tied costs thanks to a changed product mix led to a substantial improvement in the cost-of-materials ratio, thus also contributing to the profitability achieved. This result confirms our group strategy," says Joachim Herbst, Speaker of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer, commenting on the company's positive performance.

Strong growth in the "Book" segment
In terms of the individual segments, the group posted revenues of 69.1 million euros in the "Book" segment, thus substantially exceeding the previous year's figure of 65.4 million euros due to the first-time consolidation of the investments in Business Hub Berlin UG ("smarticular") and CE Community Editions GmbH. Segment EBIT also rose to 11.0 million euros in the period under review, up from 6.5 million euros in the same period of the previous year.

The "Novel Booklets" segment generated revenues of 5.3 million euros in the first nine months of 2021/2022 and was thus slightly lower than in the previous year (5.4 million euros). Segment EBIT reached 0.9 million euros in the period under review, down from 1.1 million euros in the previous year.

Poised for further growth thanks to a solid balance sheet structure
Compared with 31 March 2021, total group assets rose by 11.4 million euros from 90.1 million euros to 101.5 million euros, with the equity ratio virtually unchanged at 47 percent. Net assets contracted to 7.2 million euros in the period under review, a change of just 2.5 million euros over the prior year despite the fact that a dividend of 3.8 million euros was distributed in September 2021 and the acquisition of the remaining 60-percent interest in CE Community Editions GmbH was financed via the cash flow.

Group Executive Board to be expanded
In the fourth quarter, the group also announced that the Executive Board would be expanded and that it would again be appointing a CEO. Soheil Dastyari has been appointed as the publishing group's new CEO effective 1 March 2022. In this connection, the responsibilities of the Executive Board have also been restructured.

Full-year forecast adjusted upwards
Bastei Lübbe was able to retain the momentum generated by its current business in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. In addition, the company benefited from the repayment, which was recognised through profit and loss, in February 2022 of a loan of 1.4 million euros which had been granted to the subsidiary Daedalic Entertainment GmbH but had been written off in full.

Thanks to its favourable business performance and the two non-recurring effects arising from the extraordinary investment income and the loan repayment, Bastei Lübbe raised its full-year forecast on 4 February 2022. The Executive Board now expects group revenues to reach roughly 95 million euros (previously: range of 90 to 95 million euros) in the current fiscal year. Group EBIT is expected to be in a range of 14.5 to 15.5 million euros (previously: 11 to 12 million euros). This means that there have been substantial improvements in the Executive Board's forecast for the fiscal year compared to the presentation in the 2020/2021 annual report.

Bastei Lübbe AG's quarterly statement on the first nine months of fiscal year 2021/2022 is available on the Internet at www.luebbe.com/de/investor-relations/finanzberichte/quartalsberichte.

About Bastei Lübbe AG:

Bastei Lübbe AG is a German general-interest publisher based in Cologne, specialising in the publication of books, audio books and e-books featuring fiction and popular science content. The company's core business also includes the periodically published novel booklets. With a total of sixteen imprints, the group currently offers several thousand titles in the fields of fiction, non-fiction and children's and young people's books. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction, the company has been one of the market leaders in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is a driver of innovation in digital media and exploitation channels through the production of thousands of audio and e-books among other things.

The Bastei Lübbe Group reported revenues of around 93 million euros in fiscal year 2020/2021. Bastei Lübbe AG is one of the largest medium-sized companies in the German publishing industry. Its shares have been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) since 2013. Further information can be found at www.luebbe.de.

Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:
Barbara Fischer
Head of Press and Public Relations
Phone: +49 (0) 221 / 82 00 28 50
E-Mail:barbara.fischer@luebbe.de