United Internet AG

Earnings Release • Mar 24, 2006

News Details

Corporate | 24 March 2006 08:53

United Internet posts record sales and earnings in 2005. 50% growth planned for 2006.

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— United Internet posts record sales and earnings in 2005. 50% growth planned for 2006. Montabaur, March 24, 2006. The Management Board and Supervisory Board of United Internet AG yesterday adopted the company’s final financial results for the fiscal year 2005. The figures show record levels of sales, earnings and customer growth. Consolidated sales of United Internet AG grew by 57% to EUR 801.5 million in 2005 (prior year: EUR 509.7 million). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 18% from EUR 109.1 million (prior-year figure) to EUR 128.9 million. Earnings before taxes (EBT) increased by 44%, from EUR 70.4 to EUR 101,0 million. Earnings per share (EPS) improved from EUR 0.59 in 2004 to EUR 1.00. ‘We would also like our shareholders to participate in these record earnings by means of an increased dividend’, says Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of United Internet AG. At the annual shareholders’ meeting, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will therefore propose a dividend payment of 25 cents per share from the balance sheet profit 2005. In the Product segment (represented by the brands GMX, WEB.DE, 1&1 and Schlund + Partner) sales grew from EUR 356.7 million in 2004 to EUR 606.8 million. Despite higher marketing expenses caused by the accelerated growth in DSL customer contracts (710,000 vs. 400,000 in 2004), earnings continued to make good progress: EBITDA reached EUR 112.7 million (prior year: EUR 98.4 million), while EBT improved from EUR 75.3 million to EUR 92.9 million. The number of customer contracts grew by 1.58 million to stand at 5.08 million at year-end. The strongest contribution to growth came from non-German business (plus 62% to 600,000 customer contracts) as well as from the segment’s DSL business (plus 68% to 1.76 million contracts). DSL telephony grew by 1,100% to 300 million minutes/month in December 2005. The Online Marketing segment also posted strong growth in all key figures. Sales grew by over 55% from EUR 68.6 million to EUR 106.0 million. EBITDA more than doubled, from EUR 3.9 million to EUR 8.2 million, while EBT improved from EUR -0.2 million to EUR 6.2 million. There was also an improvement in both sales and earnings in the Group’s third segment: Outsourcing. This segment posted sales of EUR 88.6 million (prior year: EUR 84.3 million). Whereas at EUR 12.2 million EBITDA was slightly down on the prior-year figure of EUR 12.4 million, EBT grew from EUR 5.4 million to EUR 5.9 million. United Internet expects this dynamic growth to continue in the current year. ‘In 2006 we aim to raise customer contracts to over 6 million’, states Ralph Dommermuth. ‘We plan to raise sales, EBITDA and EBT by around 50%.’ With over 5 million customer contracts, United Internet AG is one of the 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, WEB.DE, 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). Marcus Schaps United Internet AG Press spokesman Phone: +49 2602/96-1076 Fax: +49 2602/96-1013 E-mail: mschaps@united-internet.de (c)DGAP 24.03.2006 ————————————————————————— language: English emitter: United Internet AG Elgendorfer Straße 57 56410 Montabaur Deutschland phone: +49 (0)260 296-1631 fax: +49 (0)260 296-1013 email: Investor-Relations@United-Internet.de WWW: www.United-Internet.de ISIN: DE0005089031 WKN: 508903 indexes: TecDAX stockmarkets: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Hannover, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, München, Stuttgart End of News DGAP News-Service —————————————————————————