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Annual10 Report Contents 3 Foreword 94 Report of the Supervisory Board 6 Management Board 100 ullstein bild 8 Highlights 116 Consolidated Financial Statements 117 Responsibility Statement 22 The Axel Springer share 118 Auditor’s Report 119 Consolidated Statement of Financial Position 25 Employees 120 Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income 28 Social responsibility 121 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 122 Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity 30 Combined Management Report of the Group and of Axel Springer AG 124 Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements 31 Business and framework conditions 168 Boards 45 Financial performance, liquidity, and financial position 170 Glossary 63 Economic position of Axel Springer AG 66 Events after the reporting date 67 Report on risks and opportunities 74 Forecast report 78 Disclosures pursuant to Sections 289 (4), 315 (4) HGB and Explanatory Report pursuant to Section 176 (1) (1) AktG 82 Statement on governance pursuant to Section 289a HGB and Corporate Governance Report GroupGroup KeyKey FiguresFigures in € millions Change yoy 2010 2009 2008 2007 Group Total revenues 10.8 % 2,893.9 2,611.6 2,728.5 2,577.9 Digital Media revenues as percent of total revenues (pro forma) 24.4 % 21.2 % - - International revenues as percent of total revenues 28.1 % 21.0 % 21.9 % 20.8 % Circulation revenues – 0.2 % 1,174.3 1,176.2 1,215.8 1,190.6 Advertising revenues 21.6 % 1,384.8 1,138.5 1,248.1 1,207.5 Other revenues 12.8 % 334.8 296.9 264.7 179.8 1) EBITDA 53.0 % 510.6 333.7 486.2 470.0 1) EBITDA margin 17.6 % 12.8 % 17.8 % 18.2 % Consolidated net income – 12.7 % 274.1 313.8 571.1 – 288.4 2) Consolidated net income, adjusted 85.5 % 283.2 152.6 254.6 234.6 Segments Revenues Newspapers National – 1.6 % 1,194.2 1,213.7 1,277.6 1,290.3 Magazines National – 6.1 % 486.1 517.8 564.1 587.8 Print International 28.6 % 400.9 311.7 409.8 408.3 Digital Media 51.3 % 711.8 470.4 378.2 208.1 Services/Holding 2.8 % 100.8 98.1 99.0 83.4 EBITDA1) Newspapers National 21.4 % 296.0 243.8 348.9 363.9 Magazines National 83.7 % 101.0 55.0 88.8 73.9 Print International > 100 % 61.5 12.3 27.8 10.6 Digital Media 98.7 % 85.8 43.2 20.9 36.7 Services/Holding 64.7 % – 33.7 – 20.5 – 0.2 – 15.1 Liquidity and financial position 3) Free cash flow 29.4 % 299.3 231.3 219.7 238.7 4) Capex - – 59.2 – 38.9 – 46.7 – 58.8 Total assets 22.8 % 3,603.2 2,934.3 2,809.1 3,826.9 Equity ratio 49.2 % 40.8 % 38.0 % 31.7 % Net liquidity/debt - 79.6 – 193.0 – 369.5 – 743.1 Share related key figures 5) Earnings per share – 19.6 % 8.19 10.19 18.54 – 9.70 2)5)6) Earnings per share, adjusted 82.6 % 8.27 4.53 7.79 7.18 7) Dividend 9.1 % 4.80 4.40 4.40 4.00 Year-end share price 62.6 % 122.00 75.05 51.39 98.00 8) Market capitalization as of December 31 78.8 % 3,999.2 2,236.5 1,525.4 2,998.8 Free float 40.8 % 23.5 % 23.1 % 26.2 % Average number of employees 7.7 % 11,563 10,740 10,666 10,348 1) Adjusted for non-recurring effects and effects of purchase price allocation. 2) Adjusted for significant, non-operating items (see page 47). 3) Cash flow from operating activities, plus capital expenditures, minus cash inflows from disposals of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment. 4) Capital expenditures on intangible assets, property, plant and equipment, and investment property. 5) Diluted. 6) The adjusted diluted earnings per share for all the years indicated in the table were calculated on the basis of weighted average shares outstanding (diluted) in 2010. 7) Dividend proposal for the financial year 2010. 8) Based on shares outstanding at the year-end closing price, excluding treasury shares. 2004: 98 % Print 2 % Digital 2010: 76 % Print 24 1) % Digital 1) Pro forma for acquisitions. Axel Springer is a leading integrated multimedia company in Europe, offering a considerable number of print and digital media. For the future, we have set for our company the ambitious goal of generating half our total revenues from digital media channels, and the other half from print media channels. 2010: 76 % Print 24 % Digital 1) Our Goal: 50 % Print 50 % Digital Dear Axel Springer shareholders, For profitability reasons alone, it write the first sentence about the makes no sense for Springer to em- spring is that it really is a hypothe- ploy somebody like me. It takes me sis, thought up. Literature, if you one or two hours just to write one will. Fiction. I am meant to write single sentence. That is inexcusable, about the first whiff of spring, about practically indecent behavior. something that has not happened Please fire me! yet, but that we yearn for. While information flies around It tends to rain in the spring. on the Internet in a matter of People living on the Mosel and seconds, I get paid to twiddle my Elbe will see all their worldly thumbs at Springer. The Manage- possessions, the very foundations of ment Board must be crazy or their lives, swept away in the murky romantic. floodwaters. Recently somebody in the chief Now two hours have passed editorial office of BILD caught an and I still haven’t found the right early whiff of spring. That would sentence, one as beautiful as a be a harmless letter, one that I could poem and as true as a philosophical deliver in time for the 6:00 p.m. maxim. deadline. Why hasn’t Springer thrown me I didn’t make the deadline. out? If I were a gardener, it would be I think it is because Springer is a simple letter about budding trees like a film. It employs battalions of Franz Josef Wagner was a war in the first rays of spring sunlight. storytellers, set designers, costume reporter, series author, and Because I am not a gardener, I be- designers, directors, technicians, gin to think about the humanization and actors. It is a group compa- senior editor at Axel Springer. of nature. ny, composed of managers and Readers of BILD have been Seeds, pregnant bellies … dreamers. receiving “Mail from Wagner” Suddenly I write “amid the whirl Charlie Chaplin founded United since 2001: This is the column ing mass of lethargic winter flies, a Artists in America almost a 100 ray of sunlight revives the spirits.” years ago. He was an independent in which he has been writing I delete the sentence immediate artist. letters five times a week, since ly, because it’s nonsense. That You can be that at Springer: You January 3, 2001, to people would mean in winter we are dead can be somebody who spends two spirits, or maybe only dormant hours writing about the spring. prominent in current affairs, or spirits. Warmest regards, simply to “God and the world.” An hour goes by on that. During this hour, machinery is rattling, airplanes are taking off, people are making decisions. The reason why it is so hard to Foreword 3 The most important success factor of all has always been, and still is, content. Without irresistibly good content we would have no business model; without excellent journalists we would have no profit. In our regular meetings with investors, especially in New company. That is just a truism, of course. An automobile York, London, or Frankfurt, I am always asked why Axel manufacturer, for example, will always say that making Springer AG is so successful, despite the media crisis, good cars is the most important success factor. But in and what we are doing to ensure that we continue to be the media industry, which is frequently roiled by new that successful in the future. In response, I tell them that distribution channels, unconventional business models, strict cost discipline is an important prerequisite. And of revolutionary technologies, and entirely new forms of course, we are helped very much by our strong, market- journalistic presentation, this simple truth is sometimes leading brands. And the distribution expertise we have forgotten. built up over decades is very important, as is the best possible marketing. But certainly, one of the most im- The primacy of content: What does that mean, exactly? portant factors contributing to the success of our busi- Good journalists and excellent authors who can write ness is the decision we made many years ago to ener- really well are the most important members of a publish- getically pursue a policy of systematic digital ing organization, even if they may sometimes be difficult. transformation, which is closely tied to the internationali- Without people who write such great work that readers zation of our business. And we have made good pro- are irresistibly drawn to, the sales force of a publishing gress in that endeavor, as evidenced by the fact that our house would have nothing to sell, the marketers would digital activities contribute 24.3 % of our total revenues have nothing to market, and the managers would have and generate an average EBITDA margin of 12.0 %. In nothing to manage. That holds true in the analog world the last year alone, the proportion of our total revenues and most certainly in the digital world.