Tous Actualités
Suivre
Abonner freenet.de AG

freenet.de AG

euro adhoc: freenet.de AG
Quarterly or Semiannual Financial Statements
freenet.de posts outstanding results for Q1/2005

Disclosure announcement transmitted by euro adhoc.
  The issuer is responsible for the content of this announcement.
09.05.2005
freenet.de posts outstanding results for Q1/2005
• New record revenues of 146.3 million euros (+ 22 percent vs. Q1/04)
• Earnings before taxes rise to 28,1 million euros (+ 15 percent vs.
Q1/04) 
• Strong customer growth in DSL (+ 115,000 customers)
• Management confirms revenue and profit forecast for 2005 
freenet.de AG / Hamburg - freenet.de AG continues to amplify its
growth and profitability in the current business year. Revenues rose
to a new record high of 146.26 million euros in Q1/2005 - up by 22
percent over Q1/2004 and a 16 percent increase over the company’s
previous record in Q4/2004. All four lines of business enhanced their
performance both year-on-year and vs. the previous quarter. The
results, too, are significantly improved: Gross profits rose by 22
percent over the previous quarter, to 73.84 million euros. After
personnel and other expenses, EBITDA amounted to 36.59 million euros
- an eight-percent increase vs. Q1/2004 and 41 percent vs. the
previous quarter. 
Any comparison of the quarterly results must consider the new IFRS 2
rules, which mandate that freenet shows its stock option program on
the books: IFRS 2 decrees that the cost of any work performed by the
beneficiaries acquired by implementing the programme must be shown at
the respective balance sheet date for the period under review. This
added 2.25 million euros in personnel expense to the Q1/2005 books,
and 7.36 million euros in additional personnel expense to Q1/2004.
The various quarterly results in 2004 were adjusted accordingly and
after the fact. 
Earnings before taxes (EBT) increased by 15 percent vs. Q1/2004 and
by 60 percent over Q4/2004, to 28.06 million euros. After taxes, the
group had net income of 17.43 million euros, up by 19 percent since
Q1/2004 and by 53 percent over Q4/2004. Cash and cash equivalents
declined by 54.42 million euros in Q1/2005, to 90.93 million euros.
This reflects payments of 10 million euros to mobilcom as the final
instalment in the takeover of its fixed-line business in 2003 and
another 80 million euros paid out as part of the acquisition of the
STRATO group in late January 2005. 
Internet Access is still the strongest mainstay of sales,
contributing 84.19 million euros to group revenues. One particularly
gratifying development is the strong growth in the DSL customer base,
which grew by 115,000 customers to 465,000 customers at the end of
March 2005 (including the 20,000 DSL customers added by STRATO). At
the same time, the total number of active Internet Access customers
rose to a new high at 3.87 million. The time our users spent online
also increased slightly to 5.10 billion minutes. 
With revenues of 39.91 million euros (+ 15 percent vs. Q1/2004),
Voice Telephony remains the second-largest segment, although freenet
had deliberately opted for a strategy of continual low rates in past
months, without trying to undercut every discount rate in the
extremely volatile and price-sensitive by-call business. The total
volume of call minutes rose year-on-year, to 1.35 billion at the end
of March 2005.
The Portal business - including digital services - and the
supplementary B2B Services segment showed the most rapid growth: the
Portal business nearly tripled its revenues year on year, to 20.04
million euros. Factors that contributed to this success include a
systematic increase in the attractive paid services available on the
freenet online service, which currently count approx. 240,000
subscribers, and the integration of the STRATO group acquired with
effect from end January 2005, which added about 1 million customer
contracts in the Domain Hosting segment. B2B revenues, which
increased by 63 percent year on year, to 2.11 million euros, reflects
the management’s increasing focus on this income stream. This does
not include any revenues from the takeover of Talkline ID, which
wasn’t finalized until April 2005.
In light of these excellent first-quarter results, the management
confirms its revenue forecast of 650 million euros for 2005 and
expected EBITDA of between 125 and 140 million euros. At the same
time, it will propose to the Annual General Meeting a dividend payout
of 0.35 euros (per share) for fiscal 2004.
~
Financial data*             Q1/2005 Q4/2004 Q1/2004
                                    adjusted adjusted               
Revenues                    146,256 126,466 119,476
Segment: Internet access    84,187  73,049  76,760
Segment: Portal             20,041  12,463  6,790
Segment: Voice              39,914  39,558  34,630
Segment: B2B services       2,114   1,396   1,296
Gross profit                73,842  60,327  67,093
EBITDA                      36,588  25,969  33,969
Earnings before taxes (EBT) 28,056  17,482  24,401
Group result                17,429  11,409  14,669
Capital and reserves        268,814 185,054 149,116
Balance sheet total         463,664 315,300 320,129
Cahs and cash equivalents   90,925  145,348 144,418
~
*per IFRS; in TEUR / Source: freenet.de AG
end of announcement                    euro adhoc 09.05.2005 06:30:00 

Further inquiry note:

Andreas Neumann
Investor Relations
Tel.: +49 (0)40 51306 778
E-Mail: IR@freenet-ag.de

Branche: Online
ISIN: DE0005792006
WKN: 579200
Index: TecDAX, Prime Standard, CDAX, Prime All Share, HDAX, Technologie All Share, Midcap
Market Index
Börsen: Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse / regulated dealing
Berliner Wertpapierbörse / free trade
Hamburger Wertpapierbörse / free trade
Baden-Württembergische Wertpapierbörse / free trade
Börse Düsseldorf / free trade
Niedersächsische Börse zu Hannover / free trade
Bayerische Börse / free trade
Bremer Wertpapierbörse (BWB) / free trade

Plus de actualités: freenet.de AG
Plus de actualités: freenet.de AG