Bertelsmann Reports Half Year - Lowers Full Year Estimate

From the company's press release:

• Group revenues rise to €7.2 billion
• Operating EBIT high again at €737 million
• Return on sales continues in double digits at 10.3 percent
• Group profit improves to €269 million

In the first half of 2011, the international media company Bertelsmann built on the strong results of the previous year and further increased key indicators. For instance, the company increased its revenues and group profit once more and achieved a high level of operating profit again. 

Group revenues from continuing operations increased by 1.9 percent to €7.2 billion after €7.0 billion in the comparable period last year. Excluding portfolio and currency effects, organic growth came to 2.4 percent; all divisions contributed to this. Operating EBIT was €737 million, down only slightly from last year’s record figure of €754 million. Return on sales amounted to 10.3 percent (H1 2010: 10.7 percent), putting it in the double digits once again. The Group profit rose by €23 million or 9.3 percent, to €269 million. This was due primarily to Bertelsmann’s content businesses. A further contributor was a substantially improved financial result that reflects lower interest charges in the wake of successful debt reduction and the discontinuation of negative income effects from the buyback of profit participation certificates in early 2010. The Bertelsmann Value Added (BVA), which measures the profit realized above and beyond the cost of capital, reached €88 million in the first half of 2011 (H1 2010: €82 million).

Comments on Random House

• Random House profits rise substantially driven by U.S.
• Triple-digit percentage sales growth in e-books
• Digital revenue potential strengthened through acquisition of digital media agency Smashing Ideas

The world’s largest trade book publisher significantly increased its operating EBIT in the first half, while recording a slight dip in revenues due to unfavorable exchange-rate effects. Revenues reached €787 million (H1 2010: €791 million) and operating EBIT €69 million (H1 2010: €40 million). The Random House operating EBIT benefited from a strong U.S. performance despite insolvencies and ongoing consolidations in book retail. Overall gains were driven by an outstanding portfolio of titles worldwide, with several million-copy print bestsellers, and the continued rapid growth in e-book sales across all territories. In the U.S., digital sales accounted for more than 20 percent of all revenues. At the reporting date, Random House imprints had more than 27,000 e-books available worldwide. Random House placed 145 titles on the “New York Times” U.S. bestseller lists in the first six months of the year, including the #1 bestselling “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, and sold nearly four million copies of U.S. author George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Random House Group UK increased its year-on-year sales and profits and published more than a quarter of all “Sunday Times” bestsellers. In Germany, Verlagsgruppe Random House improved its revenues and market share in a difficult overall market, and Random House Mondadori also outperformed the market in Spain. During the period under review, Random House, Inc. author Jennifer Egan won a Fiction Pulitzer Prize for “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” and Philip Roth won the Man Booker International Prize.