United Internet grows sales in 2010 and invests in the future
Sales up 15% to EUR 1,907.1 million - EBITDA of EUR 357.7 million reaches record prior-year figure - 610,000 new customer contracts take total to 9.76 million - CEO Ralph Dommermuth: "We reached our targets for 2010 and will continue to invest in sustainable growth, such as the penetration of new business fields in Germany and abroad".
Montabaur, March 24, 2011 - United Internet AG can look back on a successful fiscal year 2010. Europe's leading internet specialist with brands such as 1&1, GMX and WEB.DE achieved year-on-year sales growth in 2010 of 15 percent to EUR 1,907.1 million (prior year: EUR 1,658.9 million). Despite additional expenditure of EUR 71.9 million for the current DSL quality drive and start-up costs for new business fields, such as Mobile Internet products, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached EUR 357.7 million and were thus slightly above the previous year's record of EUR 356.1 million and in line with management targets. Free cash flow rose by 8.1 percent to EUR 219.2 million (prior year: EUR 202.8 million).
"We reached our targets for 2010 and will continue to invest in sustainable growth and innovations in order to secure our future profits," states United Internet founder and CEO Ralph Dommermuth. United Internet has laid a solid foundation for the growing "Mobile Internet" and "Cloud Applications" markets as well as for further international expansion: "We see a host of opportunities, such as expanding our non-German business or entering the field of legally secure email communication with DE-Mail, and aim to grasp them," stresses Dommermuth.
The launch of new Mobile Internet products has proved successful. Since starting its extensive marketing campaign on July 1, 2010 United Internet has concluded 180,000 new contracts. A total of 610,000 new contracts were signed in the Group's two segments Access and Applications.
United Internet has taken a further step in the expansion of its non-German business: in 2010 the company successfully launched operations in Poland. The internationalization of business is making encouraging progress: in the UK, France, the USA, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, the number of contracts grew to a total of 2.45 million (prior year: 2.22 million).
Segments
In the Access segment, sales grew year on year by 19.8 percent to EUR 1,230.1 million (prior year: EUR 1,026.7 million). Due to high investments of EUR 50.2 million for establishing and developing new business fields, such as the marketing of Mobile Internet products, as well as for a DSL quality drive, segment EBITDA was slightly down at EUR 122.6 million (prior year: EUR 124.1 million). The number of contracts grew by 130,000 to 3.63 million contracts.
United Internet also invested heavily in customer growth and new products in its Applications segment. Sales were up 7.1 percent to EUR 676.5 million (prior year: EUR 631.5 million). Despite high investments of EUR 21.7 million, EBITDA grew to EUR 232.7 million (prior year: EUR 225.4 million). The investment strategy has paid off. This is illustrated by the positive trend in fee-based contracts: with the addition of 480,000 new contracts, the total figure climbed to 6.13 million
Dividend
At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of United Internet AG to be held on May 26, 2011, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of EUR 0.20 per share.
Outlook
As already announced in November 2010, United Internet will continue to pursue its policy of sustainable growth in 2011. In order to utilize its wide range of opportunities, the company will once again invest heavily in new business fields in 2011. In the "Access" segment, further customer growth is forecast, especially for products enabling mobile internet usage. Segment sales are expected to grow by around 5%. In the "Applications" segment, the focus in 2011 will be on entering new foreign markets for Business Applications. In the field of Consumer Applications, United Internet will mainly drive the technical integration of its newly acquired Mail.com service and begin with its expansion. As Germany's leading email provider, United Internet also intends to enter the field of legally secure email communication in fall 2011, once the legislative procedure for the German De-Mail system is completed. Sales in the Applications segment are expected to grow by around 10%. Despite the high costs associated with these projects for sustainable growth in customer subscriptions, EBITDA in 2011 is expected to reach approximately the same level as 2010 (EUR 357.7 million). Total consolidated sales are expected to exceed EUR 2 billion for the first time.