Axel Springer sees spin-off boost, eyes more digital

German publishing giant Axel Springer said Wednesday that net profit jumped by nearly a third last year due to a spin-off and that it would further invest in digital activities in 2015.
Sales went up by around eight percent to just over three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in 2014, with its digital sector accounting for more than half of the group's revenues, it said.
Net profit came to 236 million euros, boosted 32 percent by the sale of Springer's minority share in the real estate website iProperty.com, the group said in a statement.
Axel Springer chief executive Mathias Doepfner said the company had undergone "significant changes, both structurally and culturally".
"Axel Springer is today truly a digital publisher. During the course of this year, we will further invest consistently in the digital expansion," he said.
The group, which publishes the mass-circulation daily Bild and the conservative broadsheet Die Welt, has gradually turned more towards digital products, shedding regional newspapers and magazines that had been part of its stable.
It has invested in Internet sites, especially for real estate and jobs, and also bought the German rolling news channel, N24.
Looking ahead, the group said it expected "sustained growth" in revenues and earnings for the 2015 financial year, with advertising, including on the Internet, compensating for the fall in circulation revenues.
Underlying or operating profit, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), is expected to rise by eight or nine percent.