Steady Growth de Lagardère Media sales : + 4.8% for the first 3 quarters

Lagardère Media sales for the first 3 quarters of 2001 rose 4.8% (4.1% on a like-for-like basis) to 5,592 M€.

Amid slowing economies, this sustained growth rate is evidencing again the quality of Lagardère Media’s portfolio of businesses and assets.

LAGARDERE SCA consolidated sales amounted to 9,441 M€ (compared with 8,451 M€ on a pro-forma basis), or an increase of 11.7%.

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• Sales of the “Lagardère Media” segment increased by 5.2% in the first 3 quarters of 2001, excluding changes in the group structure. Excluding the effects of exchange rates (primarily the increased growth of the US dollar), this growth amounted to 4.1%. The gross variation is 4.8%.

  This growth is due to the noticeable increase, on a like-for-like basis, of the Hachette Distribution Services and the Book divisions.

  Furthermore, although confronted with a sudden downturn of the radio advertising market, Lagardere Active, thanks to its excellent performance realized at the beginning of the year, and also to the development of its activity in the TV segment, posted a significant growth.

  Lastly, despite an exacerbated deterioration in the advertising market -strong spending decrease from the US advertisers, and a sharp slowdown in the rest of the world- Hachette Filipacchi Medias booked a slight sales decrease, on a like-for-like basis, thanks to the strength of its brands and the quality of its international network. 

• Sales of the “Automobile” segment increased in the first 3 quarters of 2001 by 2.8% on a like-for-like basis. This performance is all the more noteworthy as it is only based on the success of the Espace. The Avantime marketing will begin during the 4th quarter.

• Sales of the “High Technology” segment in the first 3 quarters of 2001 are represented by 15.14% of the sales of EADS while the corresponding period of 2000 was represented by 33% of the sales of Aerospatiale Matra for the first 2 quarters and by 15.14% of EADS for the 3rd quarter.

   As part of the first 3 quarters of 2000, presented on a pro forma basis, sales of Aerospatiale Matra have been replaced by 15.14% of EADS sales for the first 6 months.

  In accordance with the French accounting standards used by Lagardere SCA, when hedging against exchange rate fluctuation, sales generated in foreign currencies are converted at a rate determined by the hedging mechanism (rather than at the current exchange rate). EADS sales were restated to conform to these standards.

  Under these conditions, and taking into account the extent of the changes mentioned above, the gross variation between the first 3 quarters of 2000 and 2001 is not meaningful for the published sales.

  The strong increase in EADS sales (reported first 3 quarters of 2001 vs. pro forma first 3 quarters of 2000: + 31.1%) is mainly due to the changes in Airbus consolidation policy (fully consolidated in 2001 vs. consolidated by the proportionate method – 80% – in 2000).

   it should be noted that EADS confirmed its expectation to achieve 20% sales growth for 2001..