Axel Springer announces massive investments
With new investor KKR backing it, Axel Springer plans to invest more money in long-term growth. «In the future, we will invest heavily in digital journalism and digital classifieds to become a global leader in both fields,» said CEO Mathias Döpfner on Wednesday.
The company is now entering a new phase with the US financial investor. The publisher of Bild and Welt had already published its key business figures for 2019 at the end of February. According to these, costs for the Group's restructuring pushed sales down by 2.2 percent to around 3.1 billion euros and adjusted earnings (EBITDA) by almost 15 percent to 630.6 million euros.
For 2020, the media group expects stagnating revenues and a decline in profits of between ten and 20 percent due to investments and restructuring. Profits in the booming business with job and real estate portals on the Internet are expected to fall by a high double-digit percentage in the current year.
These classified ads have been the growth driver at Axel Springer for years. Last year, however, adjusted Ebitda in this area fell by just under four percent. In this area, "depending on acquisition opportunities, further acquisitions are also expected to contribute to growth. (SDA)
