LBI INTL : LBi reports continued sales growth and margin improvement

First half-year report for the period January – June 2011

Amsterdam (the Netherlands), 28 July 2011 – LBi International N.V. (NYSE Euronext symbol: LBI), Europe’s largest marketing and technology agency, today reports its 2011 first half-year (6-months) results for the period ended 30 June 2011.

Key highlights

• H1 2011 net sales up by 11% reflecting continued recovery of demand and good commercial progress in major markets;
• H1 2011 EBITDA at EUR 17.1 million includes an exceptional gain of EUR 1.9 million on balance, due to  reduction in contingent liabilities and research costs for Dashboard project;
• H1 2011 Adjusted EBITDA up 13.4% to EUR 15.2 million year-over-year, reflecting good underlying operational progress;
• Net income at EUR 9.9 million in H1 2011 vs. a negative EUR 5.3 million in H1 2010;
• Cash flow from operations at EUR 11.8 – after movement in working capital at EUR –2.9 million compared to EUR –3.0 million last year, reflecting traditional seasonal impact;
• Strong new business wins including significant global mandates for Sony Ericsson, Coca-Cola and Barclays;
• Merger integration proceeds according to plan, with revenue synergies contributing to net sales uplift.

Luke Taylor, CEO of LBi, commented: “We are broadly happy with our continued growth and operational progress in the first half of 2011. Sales grew by 11% and our underlying margin came in at 16.1% versus 15.7% in the comparable 2010 period. We have seen the merits of the merger with BMM which contributed to our sales uplift as we are now fully integrated and equipped to help large multinational accounts improve their business development and marketing activities as their business continues to shift from off line to online.

Global procurement trends and the advance of social media continue to reinforce the relevance and competitiveness of our proposition. We are particularly encouraged by the recent acceleration in large multi-market pitch opportunities which combine all client digital, direct and data needs in a single mandate. Recent significant successes with Coca-Cola, Diageo, Barclays and Sony Ericsson demonstrate our ability to compete with global market leaders in our space and will deliver significant growth momentum.

Another helpful growth driver is the increasing importance of “earned” media across social channels. More clients are looking to roll out “always-on” content programmes that allow brands to engage with consumers across all digital and social touch-points. We see a strong appetite across our client base for branded content strategies and social CRM activity that can engage consumers inside their personal networks. Capitalizing on this trend, we have started to roll out a differentiated specialist search offering where search, PR, social and content skills are uniquely combined to drive performance. As a result, we anticipate some margin pressure in the second half of 2011 due to additional headcount increase, but we strongly believe this new service extension will further strengthen the uniqueness of our capabilities set and will create significant sales upside in the mid to longer term. Based on the above developments, we continue to expect further sales growth with EBITDA to increase in line for the full year 2011.”

Download the full report here: LBi H1 2011 report

Contacts

 Luke Taylor, CEO, LBi International N.V.

 Huub Wezenberg, CFO, LBi International N.V.