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(Press Release) Bertelsmann increases Group profit by nearly ten percent in the first half of 2011

• Group revenues rise to €7.2 billion
• Operating EBIT high again at €737 million
• Return on sales continues in double digits at 10.3 percent
• Group profit improves to €269 million

Gütersloh, August 31, 2011— In the first half of 2011, the international media company Bertelsmann built on the strong results of the previous year and further increased key indicators. For instance, the company increased its revenues and group profit once more and achieved a high level of operating profit again.

Group revenues from continuing operations increased by 1.9 percent to €7.2 billion after

€7.0 billion in the comparable period last year. Excluding portfolio and currency effects, organic growth came to 2.4 percent; all divisions contributed to this. Operating EBIT was €737 million, down only slightly from last year's record figure of €754 million. Return on sales amounted to 10.3 percent (H1 2010: 10.7 percent), putting it in the double digits once again. The Group profit rose by €23 million or 9.3 percent, to €269 million. This was due primarily to Bertelsmann's content businesses. A further contributor was a substantially improved financial result that reflects lower interest charges in the wake of successful debt reduction and the discontinuation of negative income effects from the buyback of profit participation certificates in early 2010. The Bertelsmann Value Added (BVA), which measures the profit realized above and beyond the cost of capital, reached €88 million in the first half of 2011 (H1 2010: €82 million).

"We are very satisfied with developments in the first half," says Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski. "We improved our revenues and Group profit as well as our central performance indicator, the BVA, a benchmark of value creation. For only the second time ever, return on sales reached double-digit figures in a half-year reporting period. This gives us the necessary impetus to resolutely move forward with our growth strategy. We have already made good progress in the past few months."