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13Annual Report Contents 4 Foreword 76 Report of the Supervisory Board 6 Executive Board 84 Consolidated Financial Statements 85 Responsibility Statement 8 The Axel Springer share 86 Auditor’s Report 87 Consolidated Statement of Financial Position 10 Combined Management Report 89 Consolidated Statement of 12 Fundamentals of the Axel Springer Group Comprehensive Income 22 Economic report 90 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 38 Economic position of Axel Springer SE 91 Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity 41 Events after the reporting date 92 Consolidated Segment Report 42 Report on risks and opportunities 93 Notes to the Consolidated 53 Forecast report Financial Statements 58 Disclosures and explanatory report of the Executive Board pursuant to takeover law 153 Boards 62 Corporate Governance Report Group Key Figures Continuing operations in € millions Change yoy 2013 2012 Group Total revenues 2.3 % 2,801.4 2,737.3 Digital media revenues share (pro forma) 47.9 % 44.6 % 1) EBITDA – 8.9 % 454.3 498.8 1) EBITDA margin 16.2 % 18.2 % Digital media EBITDA share 61.8 % 49.4 % Consolidated net income – 6.3 % 178.6 190.7 2) Consolidated net income, adjusted – 11.1 % 229.8 258.6 Segments Revenues Paid Models – 3.9 % 1,521.5 1,582.9 Marketing Models 8.1 % 716.5 662.8 Classified Ad Models 21.9 % 402.6 330.2 Services/Holding – 0.4 % 160.8 161.4 EBITDA1) Paid Models – 17.1 % 250.1 301.8 Marketing Models 5.4 % 103.4 98.1 Classified Ad Models 22.6 % 163.8 133.6 Services/Holding - – 63.0 – 34.8 Liquidity and financial position 3) Free cash flow – 15.0 % 326.7 384.4 4) Capex - – 98.4 – 80.7 5) Total assets – 0.7 % 4,773.8 4,808.2 5) Equity ratio 47.0 % 46.9 % 5) Net liquidity/debt - – 471.3 – 449.6 Share-related key figures6) Earnings per share (in €) – 17.8 % 1.34 1.64 2)7) Earnings per share, adjusted (in €) – 17.7 % 1.81 2.20 8) Dividend (in €) 5.9 % 1.80 1.70 Year-end share price (in €) 44.6 % 46.70 32.29 9) Market capitalization as of December 31 44.8 % 4,620.5 3,189.9 Average number of employees 6.3 % 12,843 12,080 1) Adjusted for non-recurring effects. 2) Adjusted for non-recurring effects and amortization and impairments from purchase price allocations. 3) Cash flow from operating activities minus capital expenditures, plus 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) As of December 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. 6) Quotations based on XETRA closing prices. 7) The earnings per share (basic/diluted) adjusted for non-recurring effects and amortization and impairments from purchase price allocations were calculated on the basis of average weighted shares outstanding in the reporting period (98.9 million). 8) Dividend proposal for the financial year 2013. 9) Based on outstanding shares at the closing price, excluding treasury shares. Annual Report 2013 Foreword Foreword Axel Springer SE “Axel Springer wants to become the leading digital publisher.” concretization of a strategy that was defined, announced, and pursued long ago. So nothing really new. As we drew close to our previous goal of generating 50 % of our revenues and earnings from the digital business “1913” is the title of a book by Florian Illies on the subject much more quickly than expected, and as we observed of this most enigmatic year, which is historically regarded that the structural shifts occurring within our industry as a year of transformation, upheaval, and new direc- were speeding up, our initial response was to formulate tions. In art history, it is regarded as the symbolic begin- an even more ambitious strategic goal: ning of the modern era of abstract art and conceptual art. There had never been so much change. Axel Springer will strive to become the leading digital publisher. There had never been so much change: This statement is also true of your company, Axel Springer, 100 years Towards the end of the year, we detailed this strategic after 1913. At the start of the year, we announced that proposition in a position paper. This text is our strategic, 2013 would be a year of reorganization and investment intellectual, and emotional homeland, which is why we in the future, a year of accelerated and even more pro- have named it our “homepage,” with a slight touch of found digital transformation. At the end of 2013, even we irony. It defines “what we are and what we want”. That is were a little surprised at how radical and comprehensive, what it’s all about. and above all successful, this transformation has been, after just twelve months. For Axel Springer, 2013 was Specifically, it means that we are, and have been, and THE year of transformation, upheaval, and new direc- will continue to be, an enterprise of people whose minds tions, and perhaps even the beginning of the new mod- and hearts are dedicated to journalism. We monetize ern age of digital journalism. journalism in the digital world in the same way we have done in the analog world for decades, by relying on three I must admit that it was the most eventful year I have sources of revenue: the paying reader, the advertising experienced in the twelve years I have been the Chief customer, and the classified ad customer. From now on, Executive Officer of this company. Some may have been you will see this revenue structure reflected in our revised surprised by certain developments, but it was really segment structure, which is presented for the first time in nothing other than the rigorous implementation and this Annual Report. Our various operating activities are 4 Annual Report 2013 Foreword Axel Springer SE now divided into the segments of Paid Models, Market- the successful acquisition of the TV news station N24 in ing Models, and Classified Ad Models. 2013. We will proceed to develop this TV station into the nucleus of our digital video activities. This strategy was not altered in the least by the contract we signed to sell our German regional newspapers, Because success in business necessarily entails earning women’s magazines, and TV program guides to FUNKE more money than you spend, we continued to work on Mediengruppe. On the contrary, the ability to focus on our cost basis in 2013. The restructuring measures taken our nationwide, market-leading brand families and the at BILD (particularly in the local editorial offices) and the additional financial leeway afforded by the sale proceeds closer integration of BILD Berlin with Berlin’s biggest of € 920 million have put us in a position to implement newspaper, B.Z., have delivered the most substantial this strategy even more decisively and quickly once the cost savings to date. transaction has been successfully closed. We are now pursuing the goal of successfully establishing indepen- Finally, we honored the increasingly more international dent journalism in the digital world. In effect, we are structure and orientation of our business by converting striving to emancipate the newspaper from paper. Axel Springer AG to the legal form of a European com- pany, or Societas Europaea (SE). Precisely for this reason, it was important for us to advo- cate for the kind of intellectual property rights regime that Our operating results were considerably influenced by the German Federal Government enacted in the summer the unusually high level of investment spending, in the of 2013. It represents the legal basis for the business amount of over € 90 million, to establish forward-looking model of publishing companies in the digital world. Un- organizational structures and set up new business mod- less the intellectual property we place on the worldwide els. We are pleased that, despite these investments, we web is protected from theft, in the same way that com- generated an EBITDA of € 454.3 million in our continuing mon items like coffee are protected from shoplifting, our operations and an EBITDA margin of 16.2 %. And business model has no legal basis. But now it does, and naturally, we are pleased with the fact that our share- the rest is up to the publishing companies. holders rewarded the transformation of our company by bidding up the share price by 44.6 %. Among other things, publishers need to move quickly to establish paid content offerings and subscription models In 2014, we will devote an even higher priority to the for their journalism brands. After all, a company that sustainable appreciation of our company’s value. simply gives away its research and editorial production will have good reason to perceive the digital revolution as We believe that the media industry in general, and a threat. We have already converted our core brands of Axel Springer in particular, still have their best days BILD and WELT to digital subscription models and we ahead of them. And we not only believe that, but we are are extremely pleased with the results so far: 47,000 working hard to make it happen. paying digital subscriptions for WELT and 152,000 for BILD, after only half a year. In the good old analog days, Thank you kindly for the trust and confidence you have a publisher would have been happy to sign up so many placed in our company. subscribers in so short a time. As long ago as 2005, we were convinced that video content is an indispensable element of digital journalism. The planned acquisition of ProSiebenSat.1 did not come to fruition, due to the objections of the German Federal Cartel Office.

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