Corporate | 12 August 2005 07:28

United Internet AG: United Internet posts record sales and earnings

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— Press release United Internet posts record sales and earnings Customer growth in DSL business reaches record levels Montabaur, August 12, 2005. The first six months of 2005 have been a very successful period for United Internet. The company was able to post new record figures for sales and earnings and strengthen its position as a profitable Internet Service Provider. Earnings per share (EPS) grew by 35.3 % to EUR 0.46 (prior-year: EUR 0.34). Compared with the same period last year, consolidated sales revenues of United Internet AG grew by 40.5 % to EUR 335.4 million (prior-year: EUR 238.8 million). Earnings before taxes (EBT) of the United Internet Group grew by 23.2 % from EUR 37.1 million (prior-year figure) to EUR 45.7 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 0.7 % from EUR 55.2 million (prior-year figure) to EUR 55.6 million. Net cash flows from operating activities amounted to EUR 39.5 million (prior-year: EUR 40.4 million). “Our operating business is making excellent progress. The company’s positive development is continuing. We succeeded in raising sales and pre-tax earnings to new record levels and were able to post the best results in the company’s history,” says Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of United Internet AG. “The increase in fee-based subscriptions continues to be very dynamic. On June 30, 2005 we had 3.94 million customer contracts and have thus added a net amount of 790,000 new contracts in the last 12 months. The strong demand for broadband access continues to be a decisive growth factor,” adds Dommermuth. Compared with June 30, 2004 the number of DSL customers has grown by 515,000 to 1,340,000. In the second quarter of 2005 alone, there were 190,000 new DSL customers. There is also strong demand for DSL telephony. United Internet is already invoicing 100 million minutes per month – just one year after launching. “In addition to Internet Access, there was also strong growth in fee-based customer contracts in our Webhosting business – particularly in our non-German markets. As of June 30, 2005, United Internet had 1.93 million subscriptions in the field of webhosting (prior-year: 1.66 million), of which 490,000 customers were outside Germany, compared with 280,000 at the end of the first half of 2004,” continues Dommermuth. In the Product segment – United Internet’s core business – the brands GMX, 1&1 and Schlund+Partner were responsible for raising sales from EUR 167.1 million (first half-year 2004) to EUR 245.0 million. Despite much higher expenses for marketing, compared with the same period last year, in order to quickly raise customer numbers, the company’s key earnings figures remained stable: EBITDA amounted to EUR 48.0 million (first half-year 2004: EUR 51.8 million), while EBT improved from EUR 40.2 million to EUR 41.0 million. “In addition to the Product segment, our Online Marketing segment also made a decisive contribution toward achieving the new record sales and pre-tax earnings figures,” explains Dommermuth. The Online Marketing segment posted significant improvements in all key figures and achieved high rates of growth. Sales grew by over 63 percent from EUR 28.0 million (first half-year 2004) to EUR 45.8 million. EBITDA improved from EUR 1.4 million (first half-year 2004) to EUR 3.1 million and EBT from EUR -0.8 million (first half-year 2004) to EUR 3.1 million. “In our third segment, Outsourcing, we were able to make further year-on-year improvements in sales and earnings in a fiercely competitive and only moderately growing market,” continues Dommermuth. The segment generated revenues of EUR 44.6 million (first half-year 2004: EUR 43.7 million). EBITDA improved to EUR 6.3 million (first half-year 2004: EUR 5.2 million), while EBT grew to EUR 2.9 million (prior-year: EUR 1.6 million). With over 3.9 million customer contracts, United Internet AG is one of Europe’s leading Internet Service Providers (ISP). In its “Product” segment, the Group’s value-added internet services and fast internet connections are directed at private users, small/home offices (SoHos) and small to mid-size enterprises (SMEs). These groups are served by the brands GMX, 1&1 and Schlund+Partner. In addition to its “Product” business, the Group is also engaged in “Outsourcing” (via the brands InterNetX and twenty4help) as well as “Online Marketing” (via the brands AdLINK, Sedo and affilinet). Contact partner: Marcus Schaps United Internet AG Press spokesman Phone: +49 2602/96-1076 Fax: +49 2602/96-1013 E-mail: mschaps@united-internet.de End of announcement (c)DGAP 12.08.2005 —————————————————————————— WKN: 508903; ISIN: DE0005089031; Index: TecDAX Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart 120728 Aug 05