News

• Strategic sale to Turkish co-shareholder

Cologne, 9 October 2018           Ströer successfully sold its Turkish out-of-home media business. The former co-shareholder Murat Ilbak acquired the 90% shareholding in Ströer Kentvizyon for a transaction value of around EUR 15m.

The Turkish business has not been part of Ströer’s core business since the termination of the contract for the City of Istanbul last year. The sale signals the end of the Cologne-based media company’s activities along the Bosporus.

By focusing on the German core business and future growth fields, the significance of the Turkish out-of-home business faded into the background. At the time of the sale, the Turkish business accounted for around 2% of revenue and just under 2% of the Ströer Group’s EBITDA. The deconsolidation will bolster the Company’s profitability in the long term with a view to the planned portfolio optimizations and further sharpen its financial profile. The transaction is slightly accretive for Ströer in terms of earnings and cash.

“The macroeconomic situation in Turkey is looking increasingly gloomy. Due to this and in light of the upcoming tender, we consider a continuation of our by far most significant contract in Ankara unlikely. This is why we decided to take the final step and sell our Turkish company,” said Udo Müller, founder and Co-CEO of Ströer SE und Co. KGaA.

Following the write-downs of around EUR 20m already charged on the Turkish business in fiscal years 2016 and 2017, Ströer expects the upcoming deconsolidation to result in an additional expense of EUR 10m to EUR 20m.

In addition, since the company’s full consolidation in the Ströer Group in 2010, exchange losses have reached around EUR 100m. They have already been deducted from Ströer’s equity directly and must now be recognized through profit and loss as of the date of the company’s disposal. The resulting effects are reported in “Result from discontinued operations.”

About Ströer

Ströer is a leading digital multi-channel media company and offers its customers end-to-end solutions along the entire marketing and sales value chain. Ströer’s objective is to be the most customer-centric media company. The addition of dialog marketing enables Ströer to offer customers holistic performance-based solutions ranging from location or content-specific reach and interaction across the entire spectrum of dialog marketing through to transactions. Furthermore, in digital publishing, the Company publishes premium content across all digital channels, offering one of Germany’s widest reaching networks with its t-online.de and special interest sites.

The Ströer Group commercializes and operates several thousand websites in German-speaking countries in particular and operates approximately 230,000 advertising media in the out-of-home segment. It has approximately 13,000 employees at over 100 locations. In fiscal year 2017, Ströer generated revenue of EUR 1.33b. Ströer SE & Co. KGaA is listed in Deutsche Börse’s SDAX.

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

Press contact
Marc Sausen
Ströer SE & Co. KGaA
Director Corporate Communications
Ströer-Allee 1 · D-50999 Cologne
Phone: +49 (0)2236 / 96 45-246
Fax: +49 (0)2236 / 96 45-6246
Email: presse@stroeer.de

Investor Relations
Christoph Löhrke
Ströer SE & Co. KGaA
Head of Investor & Credit Relations
Ströer-Allee 1 · D-50999 Cologne
Phone: +49 (0)2236 / 96 45-246
Fax: +49 (0)2236 / 96 45-6246
Email: ir@stroeer.de

Disclaimer

This press release contains “forward looking statements” regarding Ströer SE & Co. KGaA (“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.