media
ProSiebenSat.1 promises a higher dividend
The logo and lettering of “ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE” in the “Unterföhring Park” industrial park. Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
“It was a record quarter!” Says ProSiebenSat.1 boss Beaujean. Nevertheless, the Supervisory Board feels compelled to demonstrate its confidence in him.
The television group ProSiebenSat.1 posted record advertising income and has therefore slightly raised its forecast for the current year.
Board spokesman Rainer Beaujean said on Thursday in Unterföhring: “We achieved the highest advertising revenues and the highest sales in a third quarter.” He promised the shareholders a higher dividend: The adjusted consolidated net income, half of which ProSiebenSat.1 pays out as dividends, should now be “significantly” above the previous year’s figure of 221 million euros.
Major shareholder dissatisfied
Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister and the sole major shareholder of ProSiebenSat.1 with almost 24 percent of the shares, is said to be dissatisfied with Beaujean anyway, according to a report by the business magazine “Business Insider”: Berlusconi does not want to extend the station’s boss’s contract, which expires in June, and three Occupy supervisory board positions with his people, reported the magazine on Thursday. Berlusconi’s Mediaset Group wants to set up a European media holding company. Beaujean, however, considers such a merger to be pointless and relies heavily on local shows, infotainment and sporting events at ProSiebenSat.1.
ProSiebenSat.1 supervisory board chairman Werner Brandt immediately made it clear: “The supervisory board fully supports the management board and the strategy of ProSiebenSat.1. We are very satisfied with the development of the company since Rainer Beaujean and his team have been running the company in March 2020. “
According to Beaujean, there is practically no radio communication between Unterföhring and Mediaset in Milan. «We are always open to contact and ask if there is any interest. So far we have always received the answer that this is not the case, ”he said.
Advertising revenues rise unexpectedly high
For the current year, ProSiebenSat.1 is aiming for an 11 percent increase in sales to around 4.5 billion euros. The operating result adjusted for special effects (adjusted Ebitda) is expected to increase to around 840 million euros. The reason for the growing confidence is the unexpectedly strong increase in advertising revenues: In the third quarter they were “again well above the pre-Corona level and clearly exceeded the value from the third quarter of 2019 by 12 percent”. ProSiebenSat.1 is “the clear market leader” in the German TV advertising market with a share of 38.7 percent, emphasized Beaujean.
With this tailwind, consolidated sales rose by 15 percent to EUR 1.055 billion compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Adjusted operating profit increased by nine percent to 162 million euros. The bottom line was a profit of 73 million euros, an increase of six percent.
Beaujean was also satisfied with the development of the other business areas. Thanks to the takeover of the US dating platform Meet Group, the ParshipMeet division was able to increase its quarterly sales to 129 million euros and the operating result to 25 million euros. Co-owner General Atlantic plans to list the ParshipMeet group on the stock exchange next year and then to silver its shares. ProSiebenSat.1 wants to keep its shares because there are synergies and the platform business is very profitable.
The Commerce & Ventures segment with the other Internet shops and platforms grew organically, but remained below the previous year’s level in the third quarter with sales of 198 million euros and an operating result of just 14 million euros. The main reason was the sale of the Windstar Medical online pharmacy. ProSiebenSat.1 buys small companies, makes the brands known with TV advertising and sells them again.