SEDO HOLDING AG 
By Cologne, October 24, 2013 - Sedo Holding AG (ISIN DE0005490155) has today published its preliminary consolidated results for the first nine months of 2013 and is also adjusting its forecast for its full 2013 fiscal year.
Based on preliminary figures, Sedo Holding AG achieved 5.5% growth in sales revenue to EUR 104.1 million in the first nine months of 2013 (previous year: EUR 98.7 million). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and write-downs on domains (EBITDA) rose from EUR 3.6 million in the prior-year period to EUR 4.3 million. Accordingly, earnings before taxes (EBT) also increased from EUR 2.7 million in the previous-year period (excluding EUR 60.3 million of negative one-offs resulting from impairment charges) to EUR 3.5 million. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at EUR 0.06 - compared with EUR -1.95 of EPS in the prior-year period, which were burdened by the aforementioned impairment charges.
In the Domain Marketing segment, sales revenue totalling EUR 20.8 million was generated in the first nine months of 2013, representing a 13.3% year-on-year decline compared with the previous year's EUR 24.0 million. This drop in the Domain Marketing segment reflects the domain parking market's overall downtrend. Around 4.1 million domains were available as of the reporting date for advertising marketing in the area of performance-based domain parking (December 31, 2012: 3.8 million). In contrast to this, the Domain Trading segment registered slight growth. The number of domains tradable on the platform rose to 16.4 million as of September 30, 2013 compared with 14.9 million as of December 31, 2012.
In the Affiliate Marketing segment, revenue reported growth of 11.2% during the first nine months of 2013, rising from EUR 74.8 million to EUR 83.2 million. Overall, this segment fell significantly short of budget despite this revenue growth. This was due to a seasonally particularly weak summer quarter in Affiliate Marketing in Germany, as well as to structural changes in the way that partner programs in the major customer business are invoiced, which are accompanied by expected long-term negative impacts on revenue and earnings. The number of partner programs increased by more than 14.5% during the first nine months of 2013 to 3,291, and the number of connected websites by 5.3% to 591,000.
Given the significantly-below-budget 5.5% revenue growth during the first nine months of 2013 and the worsening prospects for the fourth quarter of 2013 as a consequence of the structural changes in the way that partner programs in the major customer business in Affiliate Marketing are invoiced, the Company can no longer retain its existing revenue forecast (10% growth compared with EUR 132.7 million of revenue in the 2012 fiscal year). The Company now anticipates sales revenues of around EUR 140 million and - given the lower expected revenue - earnings before taxes at the lower end of the previously forecast EBT range of EUR 4 million to EUR 5 million for the full 2013 fiscal year.
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