EQS-Adhoc: 2018 Annual Report

Group Development in fiscal year 2018

In fiscal year 2028, business of Highlight Event in Entertainment AG (HLEE Group) developed overall in line with expectations.

• Consolidated sales increased by CHF 426.2 million to CHF 564.1 million (previous year: CHF 137.9 million). This considerable upturn is due to the fact that Highlight Communications AG was fully consolidated for over a twelve-month period for the first time (previous year: three months).
   
• At CHF -0.5 million, EBIT was lower than in the previous year (CHF 10.8 million). This was driven primarily by necessary investments and project costs for the further development of the "World Boxing Super Series (WBSS)" platform. Consequently, consolidated net income declined from CHF 9.5 million to CHF -20.2 million and the consolidated net income attributable to shareholders declined from CHF 15.1 million to CHF -14.5 million. Alongside the lower EBIT, this was also due to higher financing costs.
   
• As of December 31, 2018, equity totaled EUR 391.3 million - down EUR 120.4 million against December 31, 2017, which is essentially attributable to the increased shareholding in Highlight Communications AG.

Consolidated total assets were EUR 38.8 million higher than in the previous year at CHF 965.0 million (CHF 926.2 million).

Development of the operating segments in 2018

The Film segment achieved its targets in the fiscal year, whereby generating very pleasing results. Although the Constantin Film Group's distribution slate comprised only nine titles in 2018, one-third of those films attracted more than a million viewers each into German cinemas. Moreover, the theatrical success of "Fack Ju Göhte 3" continued in home entertainment exploitation. The title generated outstanding physical (DVD and Blu-ray) and digital (electronic sell-through) sales figures. In TV exploitation/license trading there were high financing proceeds from the international theatrical and TV productions "Polar" and "Shadowhunters" (season 3). Income from TV service productions remained at a consistently high level, thanks above all to the continuing strong performance of dailies, weeklies, fictional miniseries, and TV movies.

In the Sports- and Event-Marketing segment, the TEAM Group successfully concluded the marketing of the TV and sponsorship rights to the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League (for the 2018/19 to 2020/21 seasons in each case) in the past year. The performance targets agreed with UEFA were achieved, with the result that the TEAM agency agreement was automatically renewed for the 2021/22 to 2023/24 seasons.

The Sports segment at Constantin Medien AG continued to focus on optimizing its portfolio of rights, improving and creating new digital content and marketing environments in addition to cross-platform content exploitation, networking and capitalization in the reporting year.

Comosa AG successfully started the second season of the "World Boxing Super Series (WBSS)" platform including the new launch of a third weight class. These investments required higher project costs.

Also with regard to the further simplification of the Group structure, the HLEE Group is examining an optimization of its capital structure and additional financing options, which include among others the issuance of a corporate bond. Against this backdrop, the HLEE Group is considering to commission banks to contact potential investors.

The ordinary Annual General Meeting for fiscal year 2018 is expected to take place on June 21, 2019.

The detailed 2018 annual report is available at http://www.hlee.ch/Geschaeftsberichte.

Contact:
Highlight Event and Entertainment AG
Investor Relations
Netzibodenstrasse 23b
4133 Pratteln, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 41 226 05 97
Fax: +41 41 226 05 98

info@hlee.ch
http://www.hlee.ch