Q1 2015 Interim report January−March

Record sales & ongoing transformation

Q1 2015 Highlights

• Net sales up 1% at constant FX & up 1% on an organic basis
• Operating income before associated company income and non-recurring items of SEK 142m (118) including SEK 24m net positive effect of Swedish restructuring and copyright settlement in Scandinavia
• Total EBIT of SEK 415m (301) including SEK 195m (183) of associated company income and SEK 77m (-) of non-recurring items
• Net income of SEK 318m (159) and basic earnings per share of SEK 4.92 (2.43)
• Cash flow from operations of SEK 201m (195), with net debt of SEK 396m (738) equivalent to 0.2x trailing 12 month EBITDA (excl. non-recurring items)

Financial Overview

* Including MTG’s SEK 74m (USD 11.5m) Q1 2014 participation in USD 29.9m of non-recurring charges incurred by associated company CTC Media in Q4 2013. Including a net positive impact of SEK 18m in Q4 2014 relating to the closure of Raduga TV.

** Comprising in 2015 the SEK 77m capital gain from the sale of Swedish cable TV company Sappa. Comprising in 2014 the SEK 159m non-cash net impairment charge related to MTG’s interest in the Ukrainian satellite pay-TV platform; SEK 70m of organisational restructuring charges and other costs; and the SEK 76m capital gain from the sale of Zitius in Sweden.

President & CEO’s comments

Record Q1 sales & stable underlying profits
Sales were up in the quarter to record levels as enhanced efficiency levels in our traditional businesses continued to fuel the growth of our digital businesses, and even though last year’s performance was boosted by the Olympics. Profits were stable compared to last year when excluding the net positive effect of the restructuring in Sweden and a copyright settlement in Scandinavia, and this is despite significant FX headwinds and continued investments in our digital products. The growth in online viewing is more than compensating for lower linear channel viewing levels in the Nordic region, and our combined Nordic TV businesses grew their sales, and profits were stable despite the FX impacts and when excluding the abovementioned net positive effect. Our Emerging Market free-TV operations generated higher sales and improved profitability in seven out of eight markets as we took shares in generally stable or growing markets. Our Emerging Market pay-TV operations continue to be impacted by the geopolitical crisis and Russia’s ban on advertising on most pay-TV channels. Nice, MTG Radio and MTGx reported stable sales and lower losses on a combined basis.

Enhanced capital allocation
We continue to optimize our capital allocation and exited Sappa (Swedish cable-TV operator) and our FTV business in Hungary (subject to regulatory approval) in the quarter, in line with the previous exits from Zitius and Raduga. We are also taking ongoing action across the Group to focus and balance our costs and investments, in order to ensure that our products are as relevant and competitive as possible. At the same time, we are identifying and reviewing complementary and scalable digital investment opportunities, in order to concentrate our resources in areas that offer the greatest potential, which is why we have also recently increased our stake in Splay (biggest YouTube network in Sweden).

Russia update
We are exploring a range of options regarding our Russian operations and holdings, in order to comply with the changes to the Russian law regarding foreign ownership of Russian mass media companies from the beginning of 2016, and to seek to protect the stakeholder value that we have built up over a number of years. We have processes in place and will provide updates when we have significant further developments.

Outlook
We have now almost finalized the annual upfront agreements for our free-TV businesses, with price increases in most markets reflecting TV’s unique reach and superior return on investment. Viaplay continues to grow its subscriber base and usage levels, while our channel packages are more broadly available than ever before. We have also added new programming content or extended valuable existing rights to ensure that we have the best possible entertainment offerings in each market. We continue to face adverse FX headwinds that are inflating our US dollar content costs in the Nordics particularly, and also reducing the results from our Russian ruble denominated operations. We are taking actions across the Group to offset these effects as much as possible.

Jørgen Madsen Lindemann
President & Chief Executive Officer

“Our strategic transformation continues and we have more customers enjoying our content and services than ever before. The underlying business continues to perform well but we are being impacted by significant FX headwinds.”

Conference Call
The company will host a conference call today at 09.00 Stockholm local time, 08.00 London local time and 03.00 New York local time. To participate in the conference call, please dial:

Sweden:                  
+46 (0) 8 5033 6538

UK:                           
+44 (0) 20 3427 1908

US:                           
+1 646 254 3388

The access pin code for the call is 9769768. To listen to the conference call online and for further information, please visit www.mtg.com.

Any questions?
www.mtg.com
Facebook: facebook.com/MTGAB
Twitter: @mtgab
press@mtg.com (or Per Lorentz +46 73 699 27 09)
investors@mtg.com (or Stefan Lycke +46 73 699 27 14)

Stockholm, 22 April 2015

Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, President & Chief Executive Officer

Modern Times Group MTG AB
Skeppsbron 18
P.O. Box 2094
SE-103 13 Stockholm, Sweden
Registration number: 556309-9158

MTG (Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.)) is an international entertainment group. Our operations span six continents and include TV channels and platforms, online services, content production businesses and radio stations. We are also the largest shareholder in CTC Media, which is Russia’s leading independent media company. Our shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (‘MTGA’ and ‘MTGB’).

The information in this announcement is that which MTG is required to disclose according to the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act, and was released at 07:30 CET on 22 April 2015.

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