Roularta Media N : REGULATED INFORMATION - Press release

PRESS RELEASE

AS OF 30 JUNE 2022

Regulated information EMBARGO - 19 August 2022 at 8.00 CET Roularta Media Group

RESULTS FOR THE FIRST HALF OF 2022

Roularta has reached the milestone of 1 million

subscribers

• REVENUE +19.7% YOY
• EBITDA + € 0.7 million YOY (normalised)
• EBIT +25.2% YOY
• NET RESULT € 7.2 million (- € 0.9 million YOY)
• CASH € 81.5 million

Roularta Media Group has reached the milestone of 1 million paying subscribers. This is thanks to years of focusing on raising subscriber numbers and honing the skills we need to achieve this, as well as to strategic acquisitions and high-quality journalism.

The strategic choice to be a consolidator in the media market is clearly yielding results. All the lines of revenue experienced an increase in 1H22 compared to 1H21 - advertising, subscriptions, loose sales, printed matter, events and line extensions - totalling € 28.0 million. Even without acquisitions (like-for-like), the line of revenue experienced an increase of € 7.9 million.

In the first half of the year, Roularta Media Group completed the acquisition of New Skool Media (with EW Magazine as its most prominent brand), the acquisition of 50+ Beurs, the largest B2C trade fair in the Netherlands, and the acquisition of Gezondheid.be, the biggest health website in Belgium. These acquisitions boosted the Group's revenue by € 13.3 million in the first half of the year; last year's acquisitions have had an impact of € 6.8 million this year. Mediafin, Roularta's 50% joint venture, completed the acquisition of Luxury Leads, a luxury real estate platform, and the acquisition of Openthebox, a B2B data platform.

The revenue amounted to € 169.7 million, an absolute increase of € 28.0 million compared to the same period last year (or +19.7% YOY).

Two thirds of the revenue in 1H22 comes from magazine brands, compared to one third in 1H18, confirming Roularta Media Group's long-term vision of generating stable cash flow by these means and evolving from a B2B to a predominantly B2C environment.

The joint venture Mediafin (De Tijd/L'Echo) also performed well in 1H22. The revenue (at 100%) rose by 9.6% YOY to € 38.3 million, the EBITDA came in at € 10.1 million (+15.8% YOY) and the net result was € 4.4

million (+32.6% YOY) after depreciation of the De Tijd/L'Echo brands. For the 50% participation, this meant a contribution of € 2.2 million within RMG (+ € 0.5 million YOY) according to the equity method.

Digitisation is continuing within Roularta Media Group, with the extension of multiple digital methods for consuming content, tailored to the reader's wishes. The Roularta Media Group media brands are increasingly learning from each other's digital successes, with significant future synergies due to the use of tools across national borders.

The price rises for consumables in general and paper in particular compared to last year have impacted the gross margin: 81.0% in 1H22 compared to 84.0% in 1H21 or pro rata approx. € 5 million on the revenue for 1H22. We expect this tendency to continue over several quarters, but we do not expect it to increase any further. Thanks to the privileged relationship with paper manufacturers, as the biggest magazine printer in the Benelux and one that pays in cash, we have not suffered from a disruption to our supply at any time, despite the difficult European paper market.

An important factor to note is that 'Personnel charges' and 'Services and other goods', respectively 33% and 40%, have remained stable in 1H22 in comparison to 1H21 in terms of the percentage of revenue, which indicates a strict cost policy in the current economic climate of inflation and generally rising prices.

The EBITDA has ended at € 17.8 million, compared to

• 22.2 million last year, or double digit 10.5% of revenue. Last year the group booked a one-off capital gain, in line with the IFRS guidelines, of € 5.8 million due to the full acquisition of joint ventures. Without this one-off effect, the EBITDA would have amounted to € 16.4 million in 1H21. This year, a similar impact was achieved on the acquisition of 50+ Beurs & Festival, worth € 0.8 million. Thus the EBITDA in 1H22 has risen by € 0.7 million YOY, correcting for these one-off effects. If we make the same comparison between 1H22 and 1H19 (pre-covid year and therefore well representative), the EBITDA of 1H22 is €6.6m

REGULATED INFORMATION EMBARGO - 19 AUGUST 2022 AT 8.00 CET / ROULARTA MEDIA GROUP

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higher or +63.8%. The definition of the EBITDA has been slightly revised: increases/decreases of provisions and write-downs on stocks and amounts receivable are henceforth included in the EBITDA (please find more information in chapter 6.2.1 of the half-yearly report).

Depreciations in 1H22 generally rose due to the aforesaid acquisitions. This is why the total depreciations (including tangible fixed assets) are €

9.6 million in 1H22 or € 1.6 million higher than in 1H21. The 'Share in the result of associated companies and joint ventures' also includes another € 0.6 million in depreciations on brands and customer relationships.

Thanks to the strong EBITDA and despite higher depreciations, the final EBIT stands at € 8.3 million compared to € 6.6 last year, although the latter did include a one-off impairment of € 7.6 million and a one-off revaluation surplus of € 5.8 million.

Roularta Media Group in 10 key points

The financial charges (- € 0.2 million) and taxes (- € 10 million or an effective tax rate of 15.4%) are limited, given the net cash position of the Group (free from bank debts) and the extensive historic losses carried forward on the parent company. Last year, the taxes included the deferred tax revenue amounting to € 2.5 million resulting from the foundation of the Immovlan BV entity, whereby RMG sold its customer portfolio for a capital gain of € 8.3 million.

The net result in 1H22 ended at € 7.2 million. The result for the shareholders ended at € 7.7 million or € 0.66 per share, compared to € 0.72 per share in 1H21.

Roularta has maintained a strong balance sheet, even after paying out a dividend of € 11.8 million in 1H22 and the impact of the acquisitions on the cash flow, amounting to € 18.0 million. The cash position is € 81.5 million as compared to € 106.7 million at the end of 2021.

1. Roularta is continuing to book impressive results in a consolidated media landscape. Thanks to its strong balance sheet, Roularta provides a dividend of € 1.00 gross each year, ensuring one of the best dividend returns on the Belgian market.
2. Roularta is debt free: the cash position is almost € 82 million, and Roularta also has 1.4 million of its own shares, with a value of € 26.7 million on 30/06/22. These can be brought onto the market at a suitable time for a larger free float.
3. Roularta has a large reserve of tax-recoverable losses. Currently there are only € 5.5 million in deferred taxes on the books, taking into account the results of the next five years.
4. Roularta has a hypermodern printing works that serves all the major media companies in Benelux and the wider region.
5. In this half year, Mediafin has accounted pro rata for € 5.1 million EBITDA, although only € 2.2 million is included in Roularta's profit and loss according to the IFRS rules. Mediafin paid a yearly dividend of € 4.7 million to the Group in 1H22.
6. Roularta is a major player on the Dutch market, thanks to the recent acquisition of 20 magazines including EW, the Dutch counterpart to Knack.
7. Roularta owns powerful digital tools such as the digital kiosk, the app and the "My Magazines" websites, with high-value subscriptions that are accessible to the whole family. These will now be deployed beyond the national borders.
8. RMG has a strong team of 1,342 FTEs with strong media and digital talents of which 50% are women.
9. Roularta assumes that, in the context of repositioning its 100% portfolio, the most significant write-downs have already occurred.
10. Roularta is a trendsetter in the field of sustainability in the media sector.

REGULATED INFORMATION EMBARGO - 19 AUGUST 2022 AT 8.00 CET / ROULARTA MEDIA GROUP

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1. FINANCIAL KEY FIGURES FOR THE FIRST HALF OF 2022 1.1 Consolidated key figures

in thousands	30/06/2022	30/06/2021*	Trend	Trend (%)
of euros
INCOME STATEMENT
Sales	169,678	141,724	27,954	19.7%
Adjusted sales (1)	149,632	141,724	7,908	5.6%
EBITDA (2)	17,841	22,156	-4,315	-19.5%
EBITDA - margin	10.5%	15.6%
EBIT (3)	8,288	6,621	1,667	25.2%
EBIT - margin	4.9%	4.7%
Net finance costs	-170	-87	-83	-95.4%
Income taxes	-953	1,563	-2,516	-161.0%
Net result	7,165	8,096	-931	-11.5%
Attributable to minority interests	-527	-298	-229	-76.8%
Attributable to equity holders of RMG	7,692	8,394	-702	-8.4%
Net result attributable to equity holders of RMG - margin	4.5%	5.9%	1
Number of full time equivalents at closing date	1,342	1,268	74	5.8%
(4)

(*) Restated with new definition EBITDA

1. Adjusted sales = sales on a like-for-like basis with 1H last year, i.e. excluding changes in the consolidation scope
2. EBITDA = EBIT + depreciations, amortizations and impairments
3. EBIT = operating profit, including the share in the result of associated companies and joint ventures
4. Joint ventures (mainly Mediafin) not included

Consolidated key figures (€ per share)	in euro	30/06/2022	30/06/2021*	Trend
EBITDA		1.52	1.89	-0.37
EBIT		0.71	0.57	0.14
Net result attributable to equity holders of RMG		0.66	0.72	-0.06
Net result attributable to equity holders of RMG after dilution		0.66	0.72	-0.06
Weighted average number of shares		11,719,515	11,699,693	19,822
Weighted average number of shares after dilution		11,736,202	11,707,070	29,132
(*) Restated with new definition EBITDA

REGULATED INFORMATION EMBARGO - 19 AUGUST 2022 AT 8.00 CET / ROULARTA MEDIA GROUP

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2. DISCUSSION OF THE SEGMENT RESULTS

2.1 Media Brands

in thousands of euros	30/06/2022	30/06/2021	Trend	Trend (%)
INCOME STATEMENT
Sales	149,168	126,904	22,264	17.5%
Gross margin	116,685	100,874	15,811	15.7%
Gross margin on sales	78.2%	79.5%	1

The 'Media Brands' segment refers to all brands that are operated by RMG and its shareholdings.

Revenue from the Media Brands segment has increased by 17.5% or € 22.3 million, from € 126.9 million to € 149.2 million.

The largest increase here comes from the magazines (+ 25.4%), to a great extent due to the acquisitions (the magazines EW, Beleggers Belangen, Seasons, Roots, Kijk, Fiets, Delicious, Knipmode, Truckstar, etc. in the Netherlands), but also due to growth in the Belgian magazines Knack, Trends & Tendances, Libelle, Feeling, etc. The paid newspapers also rose by 5.5%. Roularta Local Media (i.e. De Zondag, Regiotalent, Mijn Stad, Roularta Digital, Immovlan, GoCar et Sterck) decreased only by 3.0%. De Zondag and the Zondagmagazine achieved striking growth of 39.0% and can largely compensate for the discontinuation of the Streekkrant and Steps magazine, together with 'Mijn Stad TV' (in shops) and digital localised advertising.

Subscriber revenuehas grown appreciably by + € 13.4 million, representing growth of 29.8% YOY thanks to the extra subscription portfolio of the acquired magazines. Excluding these acquisitions, a decrease of 2.2% was observed. This is mainly due to Sport/Voetbal-Foot magazine, which is appearing monthly rather than weekly in 2022. Newsstand saleshave risen by 15.6%, but without the acquisitions, they decreased by 3.6%.

In the first half of 2022, advertising incomerose by 6.2%, with growth in both print (+5.4%) and digital (+10.7%). Excluding acquisitions, advertising revenue is at a status quo.

Other revenuehas risen by 33.0% YOY (4.2% excluding acquisitions), thanks to readers' travel and events that have restarted after two difficult years of Covid-19.

The gross margin has decreased from 79.5% to 78.2%. The reason for the lower margin is the increasing price of consumables and higher production costs. In absolute value, the gross margin has increased by € 15.8 million to € 116.7 million.

2.2 Printing Services

in thousands of euros	30/06/2022	30/06/2021	Trend	Trend (%)
INCOME STATEMENT
Sales	41,132	31,741	9,391	29.6%
Gross margin	21,351	18,858	2,493	13.2%
Gross margin on sales	51.9%	59.4%	1	-100.00%

The 'Printing Services' segment refers to pre-press and print shop activities for internal brands and external customers.

The revenue from the Printing Services segment increased by € 9.4 million or 29.6%, from € 31.7 million to € 41.1 million.

The increase of € 9.4 million is a combination of a € 5.7 million increase in printing for third parties and a € 3.6 million increase in in-house printing. The former experienced a remarkable recovery this year, partly as a volume effect of the many advertising brochures for the French market printed on our heat-set presses, and partly as a price effect due to the steep increase in paper prices.

REGULATED INFORMATION EMBARGO - 19 AUGUST 2022 AT 8.00 CET / ROULARTA MEDIA GROUP

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