Interim report, 1 January – 31 March 2012

67% YEAR ON YEAR SALES GROWTH IN THE FIRST QUARTER
– INCREASED INVESTMENT IN GROWTH

CDON Group AB (NASDAQ OMX Stockholm’s Mid Cap market: CDON) today announced its financial results for the first quarter, ended 31 March 2012.

First Quarter

• Net sales up 67% year on year to SEK 954.3 (571.8) million and organic growth of 43% (22%)*
• Gross profit of SEK 135.6 (109.9) million with a gross margin of 14.2%, when excluding non recurring items of SEK 14.0 million the gross margin is 15.7%**
• Operating profit of SEK -12.1 (20.1) million and operating margin of -1.3%, including non recurring items of SEK 14.0 million
• Net income of SEK -13.1 (12.7) million
• Basic earnings per share of SEK -0.18 (0.19)

* Excluding Tretti AB
** There are non recurring items of SEK 14.0 million in the Group’s result for the quarter, of which SEK 7.0 million is attributed to warehouse relocation for Nelly.com and SEK 7.0 million is attributed to adjusted offset model for returns within Nelly.com.

Paul Fischbein, CEO and President of CDON Group, commented: “We have started 2012 with record sales in the first quarter and a continued strong sales growth of 67%. This confirms that the investments we made in 2011 and during the first quarter of 2012 are paying off in increased market shares. In the first quarter of 2012 we have doubled our organic growth from the same period last year.”

“Nelly.com was established outside the Nordic region in 2011 and has grown steadily since then. The combined markets outside the Nordic region went from being Nelly.com’s third largest market to becoming the second largest market in the quarter. Further, in April we launched a localised version of Nelly.com in the United Kingdom.”

“In the first quarter, we have, as planned, made heavy investments in Nelly.com’s geographical expansion outside the Nordics. Sales in Germany have outperformed our own expectations, however, as a result we experienced losses of approximately SEK 20 million in Germany in the period, which was higher than expected. Further, as we have experienced higher return levels in the German market, we have also adjusted the offset model for returned goods which resulted in a one-off charge of SEK 7.0 million.”

“Going forward, our strategy remains to focus our efforts on maintaining our high growth momentum while at the same time delivering overall healthy profitability for the full year. In order to facilitate our current pace of growth it remains necessary to invest in the Group’s infrastructure whilst of course closely monitoring our European expansion costs.”

 
The company will host a conference call today at 15.00 Stockholm time, 14.00 London time and 09.00 New York time.

To participate in the conference call, please dial:
Sweden:                                       +46 (0)8 5051 3793
International:                                 +44 (0)20 3364 5381
US:                                              +1 646 254 3367
 
The access pin code for the conference call is 6743862.
To listen to the conference call online, please go to www.cdongroup.com.

 
For additional information, please visit www.cdongroup.com or contact:

Paul Fischbein, President & Chief Executive Officer
Phone:                +46 (0) 10 703 20 00

Investor and analysts enquiries:
Martin Edblad, Chief Financial Officer
Phone:                +46 (0) 700 80 75 03
E-mail:                 ir@cdongroup.com

Media enquiries:
Fredrik Bengtsson, Head of Communications
Phone:                +46 (0) 700 80 75 04
E-mail:                 press@cdongroup.com

About CDON Group
CDON Group is the leading e-commerce group in the Nordic region. Established in 1999, the Group has continuously expanded its product portfolio and is now a leading e-commerce player in the Entertainment (CDON.COM, BookPlus.fi, Lekmer.com), Fashion (Nelly.com, Heppo.com Members.com), Sport & Health (Gymgrossisten.com, Bodystore.com) and Home & Garden (Tretti.com and Rum21.se) segments. CDON Group’s ten online stores attracted approximately 172 million site visits and two million unique customers in 2011.

The information in this announcement is that which CDON Group AB is required to disclose under the Securities Markets Act. This information was released for publication at 13:00 CET 18 April 2012.

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