By Ellen Emmerentze Jervell
BERLIN--Bertelsmann SE Tuesday said its net profit fell 35% in
2014, due to extraordinary costs, an increase in investments, and
the absence of special items that boosted group profits last
year.
Europe's biggest media company's net profit for the full year
fell to EUR573 million ($620.8 million), compared with EUR885
million a year earlier. The company said the decrease was caused by
a special TV tax in Hungary, downscaling costs at its declining
printing business and investments in future profit-generating
units.
Bertelsmann's full-year revenue increased 3.1% to EUR16.7
billion in 2014. Almost a fifth of that was generated in the U.S.
Its operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and
amortization, Ebitda, rose, up 2.7% to its highest level in seven
years.
"We will keep up this brisk pace and continue to invest," said
Chief Executive Thomas Rabe. He said the year 2014 was "one of the
best in Bertelsmann's history."
The owner of book publisher Penguin Random House, music rights
manager BMG, customer service provider Arvato and internet
education provider Relias Learning, among others, said it had a
positive start to 2015 and that it expects revenue to grow to EUR20
billion mid-term.
In 2014, Bertelsmann invested EUR1.6 billion in what it expects
to be profit-generating units. It increased its share in German
publisher Gruner + Jahr to 100%, bought several education provider
companies and continued its business expansion in China and
Brazil.
Write to Ellen Jervell at Ellen.Jervell@wsj.com