DGAP-News: Highlight Group with solid business development

• Consolidated sales rise by CHF15.4 million to CHF 229.9 million
• Net result for the period at CHF -1.8 million
• Annual forecast confirmed again

Group development in the first half of 2019

• Consolidated sales climbed by 7.2% year-on-year to CHF 229.9 million. This increase is largely due to different consolidation periods of Constantin Medien AG (Sports segment) in the first half of 2018 (three months) and the first half of 2019 (six months).
   
• The Film segment's sales decreased by CHF 6.3 million to CHF 140.9 million. The drop reflects the fact that, as expected, the high revenue achieved in home entertainment in the first half of 2018 - in particular as a result of the new release of the blockbuster "Fack Ju Göhte 3" - could not be repeated in the first six months of the current fiscal year.
   
• By contrast, the Sports- and Event-Marketing segment recorded a sales growth of CHF 2.9 million to CHF 32.9 million. The increase stems from higher agency commission that the TEAM Group generated as a result of the successful marketing of the UEFA club competitions for the 2018/19 to 2020/21 seasons.
   
• As expected, EBIT declined from CHF 10.1 million to CHF 1.6 million. The reduction primarily results from the Sports segment, which contributed CHF -8.4 million to earnings in the first half of 2019.
   
• Consolidated net profit for the period was also down year-on-year at CHF -1.8 million (previous year's period: CHF 3.2 million). The share of earnings attributable to Highlight shareholders was CHF -0.5 million (previous year's period: CHF 3.3 million), corresponding to earnings per share of CHF -0.01.
   
• Consolidated equity of CHF 221.2 million was down by CHF 4.4 million compared to the end of 2018. The main reasons for the decline are the consolidated net loss for the period and dividend distributions.

The Highlight Group continues to forecast consolidated sales of between CHF 520 million and CHF 540 million as well as a consolidated net profit attributable to shareholders of between CHF 20 million and CHF 22 million.

The interim report as of June 30, 2019 will be available for download at www.highlight-communications.ch starting from today.