Bertelsmann: Quarterly profit doubled
Bertelsmann, Europe's largest media company, has more than doubled its quarterly profit. Low interest payments on the group's debt are said to be a major reason for this.
Bertelsmann reduced net financial debt to 1.74 billion euros by the end of March. At the end of 2010, it had still amounted to 1.91 billion euros. Net income for January to March rose year-on-year from 45 million euros to 94 million euros. This was announced by Bertelsmann on Thursday.
Sales rose by 2 percent to 3.63 billion euros. As a spokesman explained, almost all business sectors contributed to this growth. The fact that Easter was so late this year had depressed revenues somewhat. Some advertising customers had postponed campaigns into the second quarter.
According to the annual forecast, the 2010 profit of 656 million euros is expected to be exceeded this year because managers expect fewer write-downs, the spokesman confirmed.
