Montabaur, November 5, 2007. (AdLINK Group), one of Europe’s leading independent networks for digital marketing solutions, succeeded in making strong progress in the first nine months of 2007 with significant year-on-year growth in sales and earnings. Sales in 2007 have climbed 27 %, from EUR 125.8 million last year to EUR 159.7 million. In the traditionally seasonally weaker third quarter, the AdLINK Group posted a year-on-year rise in sales of 41% and even exceeded revenues taken in the generally stronger second quarter. The strongest growth in sales was recorded outside Germany. As a result, the proportion of international sales increased to 45 % in the first nine months of fiscal 2007 (prior year: 38 %).

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 122 % in the first nine months of 2007, from EUR 15.8 million to EUR 35.0 million. Earnings before taxes (EBT) improved by 65 %, from EUR 13.0 million to EUR 21.5 million. As a result of the contribution of the shares in AdLINK Switzerland and AdLINK Austria to Goldbach Media AG and the restructuring of the French and UK operations in the second quarter of 2007, these earnings figures include a net positive effect on EBITDA by EUR 16.8 million and on EBT by EUR 7.4 million.

Earnings per share (EPS) improved from EUR 0.22 last year to EUR 0.58.

Apart from these key financial figures, progress was also made in the important network size figures. In Display Marketing the number of unique users per month increased from 68.4 million to 86.0 million. The average number of ad impressions generated per month on marketed websites grew from 7.8 billion to 9.1 billion. In the Affiliate Marketing segment the number of program suppliers rose from 1,270 last year to 1,520. The number of ad impressions generated per month improved from 4.3 billion to 5.1 billion. In Domain Marketing the number of domains offered for trading grew from 5.7 million last year to 8.9 million. Around 4.2 million of these domains (prior year: 2.2 million) are available for marketing purposes. The number of registered members also grew strongly (from 395,000 to 580,000).
“On the whole, we are satisfied with the development of business in the first nine months of 2007,” states CFO Andreas Janssen. “We’ve been able to continue the positive trend of 2006 and grow especially in our international markets. The management board is convinced that AdLINK Group has many growth opportunities in international markets and wants to quickly expand its international presence, especially in the Affiliate and in the Domain Marketing segment, and to attach less importance to short-term profit maximization. The management board currently expects pre-tax earnings for the year – including special items – to be around 50% up on the previous year,” says Janssen.

* EBT without special items and at-equity results of AdLINK Switzerland / Austria.

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