15Annual Report Contents 4 Foreword 81 Report of the Supervisory Board 6 Executive Board 88 Consolidated Financial Statements 89 Responsibility Statement 8 The Axel Springer share 90 Auditor’s Report 91 Consolidated Statement of Financial Position 10 Combined Management Report 93 Consolidated Statement of 12 Fundamentals of the Axel Springer Group Comprehensive Income 22 Economic report 94 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 39 Economic position of Axel Springer SE 95 Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity 43 Events after the reporting date 96 Consolidated Segment Report 44 Report on risks and opportunities 97 Notes to the Consolidated 57 Forecast report Financial Statements 62 Disclosures and explanatory report of the Executive Board pursuant to takeover law 169 Boards 67 Corporate Governance Report Group Key Figures Continuing operations in € millions Change yoy 2015 2014 Group Total revenues 8.5 % 3,294.9 3,037.9 1) Digital media revenues share 61.7 % 55.3 % 2) EBITDA 10.2 % 559.0 507.1 2) EBITDA margin 17.0 % 16.7 % 1) Digital media EBITDA share 69.6 % 62.4 % 3) EBIT 13.8 % 449.0 394.6 Net income 29.2 % 304.6 235.7 3) Net income, adjusted 11.2 % 279.3 251.2 Segments4) Revenues Classified Ad Models 47.1 % 753.1 512.0 Paid Models – 2.2 % 1,582.2 1,617.5 Marketing Models 10.7 % 878.9 794.1 Services/Holding – 29.4 % 80.7 114.4 EBITDA2) Classified Ad Models 40.1 % 305.0 217.7 Paid Models – 11.2 % 223.2 251.4 Marketing Models – 17.4 % 88.0 106.5 Services/Holding − – 57.1 – 68.5 Liquidity and financial position 5) Free cash flow 22.8 % 299.8 244.1 6) Capex − – 131.4 – 95.9 7) 8) Total assets 13.9 % 6,504.7 5,708.5 7) 8) Equity ratio 38.6 % 43.9 % 7) 9) Net liquidity/debt − – 1,066.6 – 667.8 Share-related key figures10) 3) 11) Earnings per share, adjusted (in €) 10.3 % 2.22 2.01 Earnings per share (in €) 46.5 % 2.50 1.71 12) Dividend (in €) 0.0 % 1.80 1.80 Closing price (in €) 2.5 % 51.34 50.08 13) Market capitalization as of December 31 11.8 % 5,539.3 4,954.9 Average number of employees 7.9 % 15,023 13,917 1) Based on the operating business (without the segment Services/Holding). 2) Adjusted for non-recurring effects, see also the information in the notes to the consolidated financial statements under Note (32). 3) Adjusted for non-recurring effects and amortization and impairments from purchase price allocations. 4) An adjustment of the segment allocation was performed during the reporting year, see also the information in the notes to the consolidated financial statements under Note (31). 5) Cash flow from operating activities minus capital expenditures, plus cash inflows from disposals of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment. 6) Capital expenditures on intangible assets, property, plant and equipment, and investment property. 7) As of December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively. 8) An adjustment was performed during the reporting year 2014, see also the information in the notes to the consolidated financial statements under Note (4). 9) In 2015, without the purchase price received in connection with real estate sales amounting to € 67.5 million, attributable to the plan assets created for our pension obligations. 10) Quotations based on XETRA closing prices. 11) The earnings per share (basic/diluted) adjusted for non-recurring effects, amortization and impairments from purchase price allocations were calculated on the basis of average weighted shares outstanding in the reporting period (99.7 million; PY: 98.9 million). 12) Dividend proposal for the financial year 2015. 13) Based on shares outstanding at the closing price, excluding treasury shares (107.9 million; PY: 98.9 million). Foreword by Stefan Zweig: Immowelt and Immonet, we created a heavyweight in the German real estate market and set the precondition for "For young people, rest is always unrest itself." further growth. The Israeli classified ads portal, Yad2, has further improved its position by acquiring the job Our company will celebrate its 70th anniversary this year. portal, Drushim. Our strong positions in the classified ads By no means young. However, there was some unrest segments have allowed our brands to achieve moderate last year. And it will be the same this year. For us, price rises. Within the Marketing Models segment, the change is a permanent state. Innovation is our tradition. Bonial-Group has continued its promising growth path in the US market with Retale. The biggest profit contribution of all segments was once more provided by our Classified Ad Models. They be- Plus, 2015 was a key year for our journalistic content. We came the economic backbone of the company. In the had announced we would particularly invest in English- financial year, the segment expanded through strong speaking brands. Acquiring Business Insider, one of the organic growth and has been strengthened by strategic media brands with the highest reach worldwide, marked acquisitions. Thus, revenues of the Classified Ad Models the start of our most important move into the US market. increased by 47 percent and EBITDA increased by 40 percent in comparison to the prior year. A series of associated acquisitions added to our early phase investments in the USA, in particular, investing in Driving force of the strong growth was the StepStone- digital lifestyle platform Thrillist, news offering Mic.com Group, which continued its success story particularly in and virtual reality company Jaunt VR as well as increas- Germany, Great Britain and Belgium. Furthermore, ing our share in New York video news company NowThis. SeLoger profits from its strong market position in France, as well as Immobweb in Belgium. Through the merger of 4 Annual Report 2015 Foreword Axel Springer SE We also announced our partnership with Samsung: Under General Atlantic exchanged its equity stake in the Classi- the upday brand, Axel Springer, in cooperation with one of fied Ad Models segment for shares in the company the world's largest manufacturer of mobile devices, is proves the attractiveness of Axel Springer as a whole. developing a platform for aggregated news content. Soon, upday will be prominently pre-installed on Samsung's In addition to important investments in our core seg- smartphones– in Germany, the UK, Poland and France. ments, Axel Springer was able to realize attractive in- flows, particularly through the sale of shares in fitness Last year our journalistic brands once again attracted data platform Runtastic and the sale of shares in the attention: Indian car portal CarWale closed in January 2016. The N24 article "At the border – 24 hours at the refugee Overall our digital business achieved 62 percent of total crisis hotspots" shows how the influx of hundreds of revenues last year. We generated 70 percent of our thousands of people is changing Europe. This article was EBITDA online. And 80 percent of advertising revenues awarded the German Television Award (Deutscher came from the marketing of digital products. Fernsehpreis). With an EBITDA of € 559 million we have slightly outper- POLITICO Europe, which Axel Springer has been operat- formed our forecasts. Dividends payout has reached a ing since early 2015 as part of a joint venture, was rec- record amount of € 194 million. One thing is clear: We ognized as the most-read publication by European deci- will not be satisfied with this but will instead use our sion-makers. economic strength for investments in future growth and further improvements in our results. We believe in our BILD received international renown from its in-depth inter- core business, journalism: Digital media brands inspire a view with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bild.de also discerning young generation and are becoming the new proved innovation leadership with a unique 360° virtual publishers of our time. This offers enormous opportuni- reality video reportage from the Iraqi front in Sindschar. ties. We are therefore looking forward to the future with great confidence. These journalistic successes fuel the rising number of digital subscribers to WELT and BILD. This number had Thank you kindly for the trust and confidence you have risen by more than 22 percent on the prior year in Q4 placed in our company. 2015. At the end of the year we had 384,000 digital subscriptions. In Addition, our company acquired the 15 percent share in the online classified ads business formerly owned by strategic growth investor General Atlantic in return for Sincerely yours, newly issued Axel Springer shares, in order to benefit Mathias Döpfner fully from the successes in this segment. The fact that 5 Executive Board Dr. Mathias Döpfner Jan Bayer Chairman President Paid Models Born 1963, journalist. Born 1970, Master’s degree in Career milestones: media studies. Career mile stones: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung; Publisher Gruner+Jahr; Chief Editor Wochen- Volksstimme, Magdeburg; Publisher post, Hamburger Morgenpost, Süddeutsche Zeitung; Chairman of and DIE WELT. Member of the the Executive Board of the WELT Executive Board since 2000, Group. Member of the Executive Chairman since 2002. Board since 2012. 6 Executive Board Dr. Julian Deutz Dr. Andreas Wiele Chief Financial Officer President Marketing and Classified Ad Models Born 1968, Master’s degree in business administration. Career Born 1962, lawyer. milestones: OC&C Strategy Career milestones: Editor, Consultants; head of M&A/Investor Hamburger Morgenpost; Head Relations Pixelpark AG; CFO of Publishing Capital and Geo, Venturepark AG; CFO Steilmann- Gruner+Jahr, Paris/France; Gruppe; Axel Springer International; Execu tive Vice President and Chief Head of Group Controlling/Corporate Operating Officer of Gruner+Jahr Development Axel Springer SE.