Bertelsmann eyes further acquisitions to drive US growth

By Chiara Holzhaeuser, Andrey Sychev and Klaus Lauer

BERLIN (Reuters) -German media, services and education conglomerate Bertelsmann is planning new acquisitions in the United States to accelerate growth there, it said on Wednesday, after the U.S. became its largest sales contributor for the first time in the first half of 2024.

“There will definitely be further acquisitions in the U.S.,” CEO Thomas Rabe told Reuters, adding that Bertelsmann was considering acquisitions across all its U.S. businesses, both in the small and medium-sized segments.

At 28.4%, the share of revenues coming from the U.S. has doubled from the same period in 2011. That was slightly higher than the previous biggest contributor Germany which brought in 28.2% of the half-year sales.

Bertelsmann’s investments hit 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in the January-June period, in line with its strategy that aims to boost growth through investments of 5-7 billion euros between 2021 and 2026.

We will come out at the upper end of the range,” Rabe said about the investment target.

The privately owned media group also raised its outlook for annual sales and core earnings (EBITDA) and reported a 60% jump in half-year net profit to 416 million euros.

Broadcaster RTL, a Bertelsmann subsidiary accounting for more than a third of its revenues, had reported a 30% rise in first-half profit earlier this month.

Bertelsmann, whose brands also include music business BMG and book publisher Penguin Random House, expects a moderate decline in reported group revenue and EBITDA, after previously forecasting a significant decline in both metrics.

The outlook takes into account the already completed sales of call centre firm Majorel and regional newspaper publisher DDV Mediengruppe.

For continuing operations, which do not take the divested businesses into account, Bertelsmann sees a significant increase in revenues and core earnings this year.

($1 = 0.8965 euros)

(Reporting by Klaus Lauer in Berlin, Chiara Holzhaeuser and Andrey Sychev in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)