After a weak first half for their fiscal year, Bertelsmann has issued the briefest of Q3 trading updates. Sales for the first nine months fell by 0.7 percent to 11.4 billion euros; they don’t break out third quarter sales, which were approximately 3.765 billion euros. Net profit rose to 387 million euros for those nine months, a low margin that still benefits from comparison to last year when they took a 245-million euro charge to settle lawsuits related to Napster. (Operating EBIT so far this year is down more than 10 percent at 926 million euros, though the company offers a number of measures of profits, with continuing operations performing much better.)
The company has revised their guidance to say they expect operating earnings to finish 5 to 10 percent lower for the year, “in view of the subdued economic outlook” according to cfo Thomas Rabe, though after-tax earnings are “expected to rise significantly.” He says in the release, “Bertelsmann is strategically well positioned and financially sound,
which represents a competitive advantage in the current difficult
market situation. Our businesses have a good risk diversification; we
have a long-term orientation and a balanced maturity profile of our
capital market liabilities.”
Bertelsmann