T-Online reports Group EBITDA of EUR 104 million in 2002

In the 2002 financial year, T-Online International AG saw further steady growth in all key segments. Group revenues rose by 39 percent within the span of a year, amounting to EUR 1.58 billion for 2002. In non-access business, revenues even grew by 76 percent to EUR 339.2 million during the same period. Revenues generated by the access business amounted to EUR 1.25 billion in 2002. However, in the future there will be a stronger focus on the combined business model in the form of bundled products so that it will be more and more difficult to distinguish between non-access and access revenues.

Revenues

Despite the generally grim overall economic climate in 2002, T-Online increased its customer base in Europe to 12.2 million. This corresponds to an increase of 15 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. One notable development was the continued positive performance of the business in France, which grew by 253,000 customers to a current total of 1.031 million customers at the end of 2002. In the promising broadband market, the number of customers continued to increase as well: at the close of 2002, around 2.8 million T-Online customers in Europe were surfing the Internet via broadband lines.

This corresponds to a share of 23 percent of the total number of customers - making T-Online one of the leading players on the European broadband market. In its home market of Germany, a total of around 2.6 million customers utilized this high-speed Internet access technology, with about 1.6 million customers subscribing to the T-Online dsl flat rate and around one million customers using other rates. The subsidiaries abroad also reported sharp growth. In Spain, for example, the subsidiary added approximately 40,000 broadband customers within one year, while France added about 85,000.

Customers

Group EBITDA for 2002 as a whole amounted to around EUR 103.5 million. T-Online's EBITDA had already reached breakeven in the second quarter of 2002 - much earlier than planned. The EBITDA figure of EUR 103.5 million includes the proceeds from the sale of the T-Motion interest amounting to EUR 27.3 million from the second quarter. Compared to the prior year's figure of EUR -189.3 million, Group EBITDA therefore increased by EUR 293 million. In the fourth quarter alone - traditionally the strongest quarter due to Christmas business - EBITDA for the Group as a whole totaled EUR 53.2 million, which was more than the total for the first three quarters of 2002.

The reasons for the increase in EBITDA are the higher level of revenues in all areas, the successful measures to increase efficiency, such as improved capacity utilization and the international rollout of products, and the ongoing positive influence of economies of scale. The gross margin continued to perform positively as well, increasing from 39.8 percent in 2001 to 48.8 percent in 2002. In 2003, we anticipate this indicator to rise further. The continual increase in the 2002 financial year can be attributed to the higher level of revenues in the access and non-access areas, as well as to the improved utilization of purchased capacities.

EBITDA

*) including T-Motion effect amounting to EUR 27 million **) only 4th quarter in the 2001 financial year

The Group net result according to the HGB (German Commercial Code) amounted to EUR -459.3 million in 2002. This includes EUR 223.9 million non-cash-relevant writedowns of our minority interest in comdirect - effected already in the third quarter of 2002 - set up as a risk provision due to the share price performance of comdirect. The Group's result in accordance with HGB therefore improved by EUR 337.5 million as compared with the previous year's figure of EUR -796.8 million. According to US GAAP, the Group's result was EUR -205 million.