Auden : announces preliminary results for 2016

Berlin - 29. June 2017

• Fiscal year ends with positive net income of EUR 0.2 million
• Company reaffirms earnings forecast for 2017
• Sale of one of Auden's first digital investments expected shortly

Auden AG has announced the completion of their fiscal year 2016 with positive net income for the full-year period of EUR 0.2 million. The company's predecessor entity, Kilian Kerner AG, had reported a net loss of EUR 3.8 million in the prior fiscal year 2015, followed by a loss of EUR 2.7 million for the first six months of fiscal 2016. The company's results for the first half of 2016 were adversely affected by sizable write-offs associated with the decision to exit the fashion business, a reorganisation and strategic reorientation which was rapidly and decisively carried out by Auden's new management following its assumption of control in the first half of 2016. Starting with the second half of 2016, the new management team has focused entirely on the company's present core business model, successfully constructing an investment portfolio which has since been expanded to encompass six portfolio companies.

With these preliminary results for fiscal 2016, the Berlin-based digital venture investor has thus achieved the short-term objective which it originally set out for itself, which was to earn back the first-half loss and generate a full-year profit in its first fiscal year following its renaming and transformation from Kilian Kerner AG, a designer fashion label, to Auden AG, an active investor in digital opportunities.

Due to the conversion of Auden AG's accounts to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the company's audited financial statements will be released in July. The adoption of these new accounting standards, along with associated professionalization measures, has necessitated the shift from existing third-providers of accounting, tax and audit services to a new and larger provider. The shift in audit provider is not expected to have any impact on these preliminary results.

Auden AG has also announced that the sale of one of its first portfolio companies is close to completion and should take place very shortly. The company's management has, on this basis, reaffirmed its existing financial forecast for the current fiscal year 2017.