Stuttgart, April 24, 2008 – Business Media China AG has experienced a brilliant development during 2007. Investments made in the previous years began to bear fruit and resulted in significant growth during the reporting year: BMC was able to record a more than threefold turnover to reach EUR 23.1 million. As a consequence of the enormous spadework in building up our Premium advertising media, attractive exhibitions & conferences and the organization, there was consolidated loss of EUR 5.4 million, as expected, for the entire reporting year.
According to the actual planning status BMC expects to achieve in fiscal 2008 a turnover between EUR 35-45 mn based on the established business activities. BMC also expects to achieve a positive pre-tax result. The turning to profitability will be supported by the already since 2007 profitable Exhibition & Conferences segment as well as by the strongly growing OOH Media segment that will become substantially profitable in 2008.
Key data of the Group P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statement and shareholder’s equity changes have been published on our Website www.businessmediachina.com as of today. The full Annual report will be available online as of April 30, 2008. Today at 11am an analyst conference is taking place at equinet AG, Gräfstrasse 97 in Frankfurt (presentation is available on the company website).
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Today, BMC in China is one of the prominent and leading market players in the field of Out of Home Media and Exhibitions & Conferences, in certain sub-segments we are already the acknowledged market leaders. This gratifying development is supported by a market environment in China where simultaneously three “ideal worlds” come together for us: the economic growth in China continues to be around 10% annually and. Secondly, China is not only the “factory of the world”, but it also profits evermore from the increasing domestic demand. The middle-class population that has meanwhile grown to a staggering figure of nearly 300 million is inclined to consumption, resulting in a growth of spending on advertising of nearly 16 to 18% per year – that is three to four-times as much as in western industrial countries. And thirdly, outdoor advertising plays in China’s Media-Mix a disproportionate role and is, therefore, much stronger than the whole of advertising market. As a consequence of the powerful infrastructure investments, the supply as well as the quality of the available media formats tends to increase in China.
During 2007, we have achieved important milestones: – In the segment of airport advertising, we moved up to be among the top three providers within a period of one year and our attractive media formats are represented at 12 of the 15 most important airports of China. – In the railway station advertising, we are not only the undisputed number one, but we also set the standards in respect of innovation and quality – a fact that is acknowledged not the least by national and international awards. – In the exhibition & conferences business, we are well-established; of the nine of our events already four have occupied the top position in China’s market and, our optoelectronics trade fair is undoubtedly the largest of this type worldwide. – Over the year, in Stuttgart as well as in China top executives have joined our highly motivated team.
We intend continuing unabatedly with this dynamism in 2008 as well. The year of the Olympics will once again give perceptible impetus to the outdoor advertising business and pave the way allowing us to achieve our ambitious targets. Following the opening of the new Terminal 3 at the Beijing airport in March 2008, we have strengthened our presence conspicuously at this strategic nodal point. Parallel to this, we will substantially expand the railway station business in the region of Greater Beijing. At the beginning of the current year, BMC has signed a path-breaking Joint Venture agreement with Skyflying Media: in future all media formats at major railway stations in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will be marketed jointly by the sales organization “BMC Tianjun”. Together we will offer the largest portfolio on Premium media formats in our market segments in China and, we plan to gradually expand our cooperation. Finally, in the trade fair segment we have enhanced our activities with interesting own technology themes. In addition to all this, a significant number of trade fair takeovers and partnerships are already in an advanced stage of negotiations.
Key data of the Group P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statement and shareholder’s equity changes have been published on our Website www.businessmediachina.com as of today. The full Annual report will be available online as of April 30, 2008. Today at 11am an analyst conference is taking place at equinet AG, Gräfstrasse 97 in Frankfurt (presentation is available on the company website).
For more information:
Business Media China AG
Rotebühlstrasse 87
DE-70178 Stuttgart
invest@businessmediachina.com
Edwin van der Geest
+ 41 (79) 330 55 22
