Constantin Medien AG reported Group earnings results for the first half of 2018. For the period, the Group sales amounted to EUR 60.5 million, 69.8% down on the previous year's value of EUR 200.3 million. The decline in sales is primarily due to the deconsolidation of Highlight Communications AG as of June 12, 2017 and the operating business development in the Sports Segment, which was mainly influenced by the loss of sales from the production framework agreement between PLAZAMEDIA GmbH and Sky Deutschland Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG that was not extended beyond June 30, 2017. Loss from operations (EBIT) came to EUR 4.8 million compared with profit of EUR 43.3 million in the first half of 2017. The year-on-year loss is primarily due to the aforementioned deconsolidation effect of Highlight Communications AG and the resulting non-recurring deconsolidation gain of EUR 38.3 million in the H1 2017. Lower staff costs, including from reducing the Management Board from three members to two, had a positive effect, but this was in contrast to high legal and consulting costs. The financial profit improved considerably, up EUR 5.1 million from loss of EUR 5.6 million in the first half of 2017 to EUR-0.5 million a year later. The Group loss attributable to shareholders in the first half of 2018 amounted to EUR 6.4 million for the aforementioned reasons. The loss compared to the same period last year is primarily due to the aforementioned deconsolidation of Highlight Communications AG and the resulting non-recurring deconsolidation gain of EUR 38.3 million in the first half of 2017. Loss per share was EUR 0.07 against earnings of EUR 0.37 a year ago.

The Management Board of Constantin Medien AG is confident of achieving its present Group forecast for the 2018 financial year, anticipating Group sales of between EUR 110 million and EUR 130 million, and Group loss attributable to shareholders of between EUR 1.5 million and EUR 4.5 million.