(openPR) - • Almost 250,000 new members in final quarter as of December 31, 2006, takes total to 1.69 million; 149 per cent growth over 2005 results
• With 1.2 million members, XING is the clear market leader in German-speaking world
• Revenue target of €10 million reached for the 2006 calendar year; increase of over 200 per cent compared to previous year; revenues of €3.6 million generated in the final quarter alone
• Positive results before non-recurring charges associated with the IPO for both shortened financial year (July 1 to December 31, 2006) and final quarter
• Registration process now greatly simplified
Hamburg, March 6, 2007 – OPEN Business Club AG (International Securities Identification Number: DE000XNG8888) continues its profitable course of growth. The operator of XING, the international networking platform for professionals, added almost 250,000 new members in the last quarter of 2006, bringing the total to approximately 1.69 million. As of December 31, 2006, a total of 221,000 paying members were registered on the site, which corresponds to a total of 13 per cent of all members. Before factoring in non-recurring charges associated with the IPO were, the company achieved positive results in both the shortened 2006 financial year (July 1 to December 31, 2006) and in the last quarter of 2006 (October 1 to December 31). Furthermore, the company also reached their own targets for the 2006 calendar year, generating total revenues of approximately €10.1 million.
OPEN Business Club AG was able to increase the number of members registered on its online contact network, XING, by nearly 250,000 in the final quarter of 2006, for a total of 1.69 million registered members. In comparison with the previous year, the network grew by 149 per cent in 2006, from 0.68 million members to 1.69 million members. With around 1.2 million members in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, XING is the clear market leader in the German-speaking world.
As of December 31, 2006, the number of paying Premium Members exceeded 221,000, compared with approximately 189,000 as of September 30, 2006. This is equivalent to a Premium Member rate of approximately 13 per cent. At 1.9 per cent, the monthly churn rate remained very low in the final quarter, indicating a high level of customer satisfaction.
Based on the subscription-based business model, the high member growth was reflected in revenues: In the 2006 calendar year, OPEN Business Club AG generated revenues amounting to €10.1 million, compared with approximately €3.3 million* in the previous year (January 1 to December 31, 2005). This constitutes a growth of more than 200 per cent. The company reached revenues of around €6.4 million in the shortened 2006 financial year, and approximately €3.6 million in the final quarter.
OPEN Business Club AG was able to both improve its underlying profitability as well as continue on its growth path in the shortened financial year. EBITDA before non-recurring charges associated with the IPO amounted to approximately €1.4 million* in the reporting period from July 1 to December 31, 2006. This corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 23 per cent before one-off expenses*. Furthermore, the company reported after tax profits in the shortened financial year of EUR 1.1 million* (before non-recurring charges).
Lars Hinrichs, Founder and CEO, predicts a steeper growth curve for the current financial year: “Since the Initial Public Offering, we are now in a position to expand via acquisitions, as well as through our own strong organic growth. I’m confident that we will be able to register initial successes here in the first half of 2007.”
At the same time, OPEN Business Club AG is accelerating its course of international growth via viral marketing. Moreover, the front-end and back-end of the XING platform are being improved on a continuous basis. The registration process for new users has, for example, been shortened from nine down to four steps. Since the launch of this new version in mid-February 2006, the number of new registrations has increased significantly.
OPEN Business Club AG will release its final results for the shortened 2006 financial year and a forecast for the current financial year as part of the Press and Analyst Conference on March 29, 2007 in Frankfurt am Main.
Important notice:
Pro-forma results
Results marked with an * are unaudited pro-forma financial results that the company derived from its preliminary and past financial statements for the indicated periods in order to make these periods comparable and show non-recurring costs.
Cautionary note regarding preliminary results, pro-forma financial results and forward-looking statements
This press release contains preliminary results, pro-forma results and forward-looking statements. The preliminary results may change during their final review. While OPEN Business Club AG believes that its pro-forma financial results marked with an * are reflective of its recurrent trends and the on-going status of its business, there can be no assurance that its pro-forma results will accurately reflect these trends and status and therefore, its investors are urged not to rely solely upon the pro-forma results when making their investing decision and the pro-forma results should always be reviewed together with its actual financial results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current views, expectations and assumptions of the management of OPEN Business Club AG and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those described in such statements due to, among other things, changes in the general economic and competitive environment, risks associated with capital markets, currency exchange rate fluctuations and competition from other companies, changes in international and national laws and regulations, in particular with respect to tax laws and regulations, affecting OPEN Business Club AG, and other factors.
OPEN Business Club AG does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
About XING:
XING makes your professional network an active part of your life. Far more than a directory of business contacts, XING enables its members to discover professional people, opportunities and privileges through its unique discovery capability and advanced contact management tools.
With the successful IPO of XING as the first Web 2.0 company to go public, OPEN Business Club AG has had a long-term impact on the social networking trend amongst professionals. By focusing on the target group “business people worldwide”, the company is able to offer tailored features, thereby making networking and contact management simpler. Besides Headquarters in Hamburg (Germany), OPEN Business Club AG is also represented with offices in Beijing (China) and Zurich (Switzerland).
XING. Powering Relationships.
Daniela Hinrichs
OPEN Business Club AG
VP Corporate Communications
Tel. +49 40 419 131-19
Fax. +49 40 419 131-11 daniela.hinrichs@xing.com
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