LONDON and MILAN, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Buongiorno S.p.A. (MTA STAR, Borsa Italiana: BNG), a leading multinational in digital entertainment, have today approved the preliminary financial statements for 2008, prepared in accordance with the IAS/IFRS.
Financial Highlights - Revenues of EUR316 million in 2008 (2007: EUR175 million), with a positive consolidated normalised EBITDA, up 84%, to EUR39.8 million (2007: EUR21.6 million). - Consolidated Profit for 2008 of EUR8.4 million (2007: EUR13.7 million). - Value of Production up 80% to EUR318.9 million (2007: EUR177.3 million). - Q4 2008 was the best in Buongiorno's history, with revenues of EUR83 million (Q4 2007: EUR46 million), and EBITDA before extraordinary expenses of EUR13.1 million (Q4 2007: EUR7 million). - The Board of Directors puts forward a proposal to the forthcoming General Shareholders' Meeting to authorize buy back for 10,000,000 ordinary shares.
Overview
Overall 2008 revenue and EBITDA figures were in line with the 2007 pro-forma data, calculated as the sum of the results of the Buongiorno Group and iTouch Group (combined revenues of EUR319 million and EBITDA of EUR40 million). The Q4 results were also in line with the pro-forma data for Q4 2007, with a marginal improvement in profitability: revenues amounted to EUR83.8 million and EBITDA to EUR12.7 million.
In 2008 Buongiorno significantly strengthened its presence in markets already served by the Company. It also expanded into markets not previously covered, the most important of which being South Africa, Australia (part of UK International), and Argentina. Please visit http://www.buongiorno.com/investors/investors_6.html for the announcement in full, including a detailed breakdown of revenues and EBITDA by each geographical area and business line.
Share Buy Back Plan
The Board of Directors today resolved to put forward a proposal to the forthcoming General Meeting of Shareholders to authorize the Board to buy back, or, sell the Company shares.
The proposal aims at enabling the Company to: offer shares to operators who might be interested in MA transactions with Buongiorno, without the need for capital increases, intervene in trough trading, hedging and arbitrage transactions so as to use this tool during abnormal fluctuations in the share price and to invest liquidity balances.
The proposal envisages that the Board be empowered to acquire up to 10,000,000 Ordinary shares of a nominal value of EUR0.26 each (equivalent in total to 9.4% of the current share capital), in one or more tranches, and on a rotational basis through to the approval of the financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2009, and in any event, within a period of no more than 18 months following the date of the related General Meeting resolution. Pursuant to Section 2357 of the Italian Civil Code, it is noted that the Company's share capital currently stands at EUR27,651,955.50 divided into 106,353,675 Ordinary shares of a nominal value of EUR0.26 each.
For further information, please contact: BUONGIORNO Eleonora Villanova Global PR IR Executive Tel. +39-02-582131 Email: eleonora.villanova@buongiorno.com ICIS UK Financial Press and Financial Analysts Fiona Conroy Tel: +44-207-651-8688 Email: Fiona.Conroy@icisnet.com
BUONGIORNO, Eleonora Villanova, Global PR IR Executive, Tel. +39-02-582131, Email: eleonora.villanova@buongiorno.com; ICIS, UK Financial Press and Financial, Analysts, Fiona Conroy, Tel: +44-207-651-8688, Email: Fiona.Conroy@icisnet.com
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