Q4 2015 Full year report January−December


Record sales driven by digital transformation
Q4 2015 Highlights

  · Sales of SEK 4,545m (4,371) and operating income of SEK 434m (478) including
M&A costs and adverse currency effects, but before SEK 63m (0) of non-recurring
items
  · Net income from continuing operations of SEK 375m (380) and basic earnings
per share of SEK 5.30 (5.34)
  · Total net income of SEK 375m (471) and total basic earnings per share of SEK
5.30 (6.70)
  · Cash flow from continuing operations of SEK 290m (256)
  · Net debt of SEK 2,124m (362) equivalent to 1.5x trailing 12 month recurring
EBITDA
  · Board of Directors to propose increased annual cash dividend of SEK 11.50
(11.00) per share, representing pay-out ratio of 86% (57) of net income from
continuing operations excluding non-recurring items

Financial Overview

+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|(SEKm)                    |   2015|   2014|   2015|   2014|
|                          |Oct-Dec|Oct-Dec|Jan-Dec|Jan-Dec|
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Net sales                 |  4,545|  4,371| 16,218| 15,746|
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Growth at constant FX     |     4%|     6%|     3%|    11%|
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Organic growth at constant|     0%|     2%|     1%|     4%|
|FX                        |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|EBIT before non-recurring |    434|    478|  1,268|  1,290|
|items                     |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Margin before non         |   9.5%|  10.9%|   7.8%|   8.2%|
|-recurring items          |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Non-recurring items (NRI) |     63|      0|   -512|   -155|
|*                         |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Total EBIT                |    497|    477|    756|  1,135|
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Net income, continuing    |    375|    380|    533|    816|
|operations                |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Basic earnings per share, |   5.30|   5.34|   7.45|  11.75|
|continuing operations     |       |       |       |       |
|(SEK)                     |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Net income, discontinued  |      0|     91|   -282|    357|
|operations **             |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Total net income          |    375|    471|    251|  1,172|
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Total basic earnings per  |   5.30|   6.70|   3.22|  17.10|
|share (SEK)               |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Net debt                  |  2,124|    362|  2,124|    362|
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|Cash flow from continuing |    290|    256|  1,051|  1,040|
|operations                |       |       |       |       |
+--------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+

* Comprising a net capital gain from the sale of subsidiaries and revaluation of
acquisition related liabilities in the fourth quarter; and a net capital gain
from the sale of subsidiaries (including revaluations) and restructuring charges
for the full year. Comprising in 2014 a non-cash net impairment charge,
organisational restructuring charges and other related costs, and a net capital
gain from the sale of a subsidiary.

** Comprising MTG’s interest in CTC Media, Inc, which is expected to be sold.


President & CEO’s comments

A year of further growth and improved underlying profitability
2015 was another record year for us. We have better products, more customers and
higher sales than ever before. The combination of this growth, our ongoing
transformation and the optimisation of our capital allocation, has enabled us to
deliver almost stable profits for the year despite the near SEK 400m combined
impact of FX headwinds and M&A costs. This clearly highlights that our products
are performing very well, and that the transformation is working. We are
proposing an increased dividend of SEK 11.50 per share, which is equivalent to
an 86% pay-out ratio.

A year of transformation
We substantially transformed the Group in 2015, as part of our journey from a
traditional broadcaster to a broad based digital entertainment company. This is
built on the solid foundations of our core broadcasting businesses, which we
have further strengthened by adding new sports, series and movie programming;
investing in our technical platforms; and adding new channels and services.

Viaplay, our streaming service, continues to perform above expectations
following the investments that we have made. We have substantially enhanced the
consumer product offering, and have now adjusted prices to reflect this. We have
also taken leading global market positions in the eSports and MCN spaces, and
these newly acquired businesses generated a near doubling of full year revenues
to almost SEK 1bn on a pro forma basis.

We have delivered on our commitment to review and optimise our business
portfolio. We bought majority ownership in a number of digital businesses in the
second half of the year, but also sold a cable-TV asset in Sweden, our free-TV
operations in Hungary and our Russian & international pay-TV channels
businesses, and we are in the process of exiting our investment in CTC Media.

We have also changed the way that we are organised, our cost structure and the
way that we buy content. We have moved from a product to a country based
organisation, in order to bring ourselves closer to the customer, and have
significantly improved the flexibility in our agreements to move programming
between products, in order to improve monetisation levels. The reshaping of the
organisation has involved painful but necessary decisions, and is expected to
generate savings of approximately SEK 600m, of which the majority is being
reinvested into the business and our future growth and development.

Outlook
Our aim is to accelerate our sales growth and increase our operating profits in
2016, due to the positive effects of the transformation process; the high level
of operational gearing in our emerging market free-TV operations; and the
positive sales impact of the content investments that we have made. These
benefits will gradually compensate during the year for the anticipated SEK 250m
of incremental adverse FX effects, and the additional costs for the new or
extended sports rights that we have acquired.

Jørgen Madsen Lindemann
President & Chief Executive Officer


“Our performance during 2015 clearly demonstrates that the transformation is
working. Our products have never been stronger and we aim to grow both our sales
and profits in 2016”


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 5065 3938
UK:              +44 (0) 20 3427 1914
US:              +1 212 444 0481

The access pin code for the call is 1170425. 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 Matthew Hooper +44 7768 440 414)
investors@mtg.com (or Stefan Lycke +46 73 699 27 14)

London, 3 February 2016

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 a leading international entertainment
group. Our shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX 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 3 February 2016.

This report has not been reviewed by the Group’s auditors.

Attachments

02026828.pdf