DGAP-News

Highlight Group closes fiscal year 2015 with very positive results

DGAP-News: Highlight Communications AG / Key word(s): Final Results
Highlight Group closes fiscal year 2015 with very positive results

15.03.2016 / 18:08
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Highlight Group closes fiscal year 2015 with very positive results

- Consolidated sales of CHF 346.1 million above expectations

- EBIT increased by CHF 2.1 million to CHF 31.1 million

- Consolidated net profit attributable to shareholders of CHF 17.5
million,corresponding to earnings per share
of CHF 0.39, at the upper end of earnings forecast

The Highlight Group's business performance in fiscal year 2015 was very
positive on the whole, although the sales situation and results of
operations were dominated by the appreciation of the Swiss franc against
the euro by approximately 12%.

Group development in fiscal year 2015

- Consolidated sales of CHF 346.1 million (previous year: CHF 412.6
million) exceeded the guidance.

- EBIT improved by 7.2% to CHF 31.1 million (previous year: CHF 29.0
million).

- The consolidated net profit for the period attributable to shareholders
increased by 4.8% to CHF 17.5 million (previous year: CHF 16.7 million)
and was thus at the upper end of profit expectations.

- The same applies to earnings per share, which increased from CHF 0.37
to CHF 0.39; earnings per share on a euro basis improved by 19.4% to
EUR 0.37 (previous year: EUR 0.31).

Development of the operating segments in 2015

The Film segment achieved excellent results in the past year. The
Constantin Film Group's distribution slate featured ten titles in the year
under review - half of them each drew an audience of more than a million
viewers in German theaters. This performance was crowned by "Fack Ju Göhte
2", which sold 7.65 million tickets and became the most seen film of the
year. The TV service production business area was expanded further at a
national and international level. The series "Shadowhunters" was the first
major production to be realized for a US broadcaster. The global SVoD
(subscription video-on-demand) rights for this production (outside the US)
were sold to the streaming platform Netflix.

External sales in the Film segment were down year-on-year at CHF 290.9
million (CHF 359.1 million) as no international in-house production was
released in theaters in the year under review and therefore there was no
income from minimum guarantees from global distribution. As a result of the