News

• High double-digit growth expected in the coming years
• Ströer establish new business unit “e-Commerce & Subscription”

Cologne, December 18, 2015 Ströer SE signed a purchase agreement today to acquire a 78.8 % majority in Statista – the remaining 21.2 % will remain with the founders. Statista – based in Hamburg – is a leading data and business intelligence portal.

Statista offers its customers a considerable degree of efficiency and extensive cost benefits in sourcing key business information, especially in the form of statistics on a single, highly relevant platform. The portal provides extensive data which is compiled according to the customer’s specific needs. The platform already gives access to around one million statistics from more than 18,000 sources, with one-third of the data generated independently, one-third by partners and one-third from public sources. On the basis of the compiled data, Statista constantly develops new, innovative and data-based products such as nationwide rankings (e.g. “Best employer”, “Best law firm” etc.) which are primarily marketed with partners. For this purpose, the company is already partnering with several internationally leading media companies such as Hubert Burda Media in Germany and Forbes and Bloomberg in the US.

In their configuration, Statista products are uniquely positioned and in a highly scalable niche easily transferable to other markets. The company currently has around 200 employees based in Hamburg, New York and London. Statista reaches some four million users per month via the www.statista.com website. Next year, the company plans to enter other markets including the French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese markets.

Ströer forecasts a revenue contribution of around EUR 20 million in 2016. The purchase price for 78.8 % of the shares amounts to roughly EUR 57 million. Thanks to an agreed capital increase of EUR 7.5 million at Statista, Ströer’s stake will increase to 81.3 % once the transaction is completed. The remaining 18.7 % will remain with the founders, including managing directors Friedrich Schwandt and Tim Kröger. Both will continue to manage the company in future. The main shareholder Grazia Equity and co-founder Mattias Protzmann sold all their shares. 'Statista has developed excellently since its launch eight years ago and is today one of the leading online portals for Statistics. This is a huge success for all involved. We wish the Ströer SE as a new principal owner and our co-partners staying with Statista continued success,' says Alec Rauschenbusch of Grazia Equity.

“We are delighted with the acquisition of Statista – one of the most promising German start-ups on the scene today. Statista is true hidden champion which has seen an extremely positive development as a first mover with an innovative business model. In a nutshell, Statista’s business model can be described as the netflix of statistics. While our emphasis in the German market is currently on integrating the various digital platforms, we are looking for definable niches in the international arena, with scalable business models which allow for sustainable and profitable double-digit growth. In this respect, Statista is a real landmark deal for us as the company fulfils all these requirements and gives us our first global platform,” commented Udo Müller, CEO of Ströer SE. “With its high double-digit growth, Statista will be a key pillar and value driver for our entire digital portfolio and an anchor investment in our new e-Commerce & Subscription division. Statista is one of the few real digital innovations from Germany which is on the way to becoming a global leader in its segment and achieving systematic expansion. The management team led by Friedrich Schwandt and Tim Kröger has made excellent progress with the company’s expansion and has displayed remarkable strategic farsightedness. We are proud to lift Statista to the next level together with the team of founders.”

In the first expansion stage of the first party content business, Ströer focused on increasing its nationwide reach and the subsequent advertising revenue. After just under two years, Ströer – with Germany’s largest online portal t-online.de (according to AGOF) as its core platform – is already one of the top three digital publishers in the country in terms of reach according to AGOF. From 2016, the focus will be on optimally monetarizing the user basis of the portal portfolios. With this step, Ströer plans to achieve a targeted diversification of revenue flows – previously dominated by ads – towards subscription, e-commerce and downloads. The newly created business unit “e-Commerce & Subscription” will be directly managed by Christian Schmalzl, COO of Ströer SE, on an interim basis.

The closing of the transaction is subject to approval by the Bundeskartellamt (German competition authority).

About Ströer
Ströer SE is a big digital multi-channel media company, and offers its advertising customers individualized and fully integrated premium communication solutions. In the field of digital media, Ströer is setting forward-looking standards for innovation and quality in Europe and is opening up new opportunities for targeted customer contact for its advertisers.

The Ströer Group commercializes several thousand websites especially in German-speaking countries and around 300,000 advertising faces in the field of “out-of-home”.

For more information on the Company, please visit www.stroeer.com.

Press contact
Marc Sausen
Ströer SE Director Corporate Communications
Ströer-Allee 1 · 50999 Cologne · Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 2236 / 96 45-246
E-mail: presse@stroeer.de

Investor Relations
Dafne Sanac
Ströer SE
Manager Investor Relations
Ströer-Allee 1 · D-50999 Cologne
Phone: 0049 2236 / 96 45-356
E-Mail: dsanac@stroeer.de

Disclaimer
This press release contains “forward looking statements” regarding Ströer SE (“Ströer”) or the Ströer Group, including opinions, estimates and projections regarding Ströer’s or the Ströer Group’s financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives of management and future operations. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Ströer or the Ströer Group to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on numerous assumptions which may or may not prove to be correct. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by Ströer with respect to the fairness, completeness, correctness, reasonableness or accuracy of any information and opinions contained herein. The information in this press release is subject to change without notice, it may be incomplete or condensed, and it may not contain all material information concerning Ströer or the Ströer Group. Ströer undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements or other information stated herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.