In addition to its core business, dpa operates a large number of business areas and new business fields in independent subsidiaries. Due to the chosen structure, the dpa result is highly dependent on the economic development and the associated profit contributions of the subsidiaries, which are generally connected via profit transfer agreements, as well as other participations. In 2021, they once again achieved high annual surpluses and delivered an overall contribution to earnings that marked a new high of 18.8 million euros (previous year: 15.7 million euros).
Within the framework of the existing profit and loss transfer agreement, news aktuell GmbH contributed the largest sum to the success of the dpa group with 9.8 million euros. The significant increase in the annual result was positively influenced in equal measure by the performance of the two core business areas ots-Verbreitung and zimpel, but also by strict cost management and Corona-related savings effects.
In 2021, dpa Picture-Alliance GmbH again succeeded in achieving a respectable result in the highly competitive picture market. Although this was slightly below the previous year’s amount of 2.3 million euros at 2.1 million euros, it also includes increased expenses for the expansion of the image database due to increased image volumes and the increasing production of moving image offers.
The photo agency Zentralbild GmbH again felt the effects of the Corona crisis on the culture and entertainment sector as well as on sports, but was nevertheless able to slightly improve its annual result and report a profit of 0.1 million euros.
As expected, the graphics subsidiary dpa-infografik GmbH was not quite able to match the level of turnover of the previous year in a market that continued to be difficult and also remained slightly below the previous year’s figure with a rounded result of 0.1 million euros.
dpa-infocom GmbH succeeded in increasing the already very good level of earnings of the previous year once again in the 2021 financial year and, mainly driven by its own product innovations in the area of data products and fact checks, achieved an annual profit of just under 4.0 million euros with a moderate expansion of production capacities.
The service companies dpa-IT Services GmbH and Rufa Rundfunk-Agenturdienste GmbH closed the financial year at a slightly higher level than in the previous year by expanding their business volume. In the case of IT GmbH this was mainly influenced by the bundling of activities of the dpa group and the takeover of the corresponding employees of other group companies. At Rufa GmbH it was characterised by the integration of the personnel of the acquired video unit of TeleNewsNetwork.
The situation was different at English Services GmbH, whose business result was mainly influenced by the realignment and streamlining of the English Service it declined slightly compared to the previous year.
dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten GmbH, in which dpa holds a 76 % stake, succeeded in the past year, despite a tense market environment, in slightly increasing its turnover to 4.9 million euros and also in increasing the previous year’s profit to now 0.7 million euros.
mecom Medien-Communikations-Gesellschaft mbH (50 % direct dpa shareholding and 10 % indirect shareholding) was able to record a significant increase in turnover, especially in the growth area of protected networks. On the one hand, the revenues from the project business increased, but fortunately the more sustainable operating revenues as well. In conjunction with some savings effects from the Corona crisis, mecom achieved a net profit for the year of more than 1.8 million euros, again setting a record compared to previous years.
dpa-digital services GmbH, which had generated positive but stagnating results at a low level in previous years, was integrated into the dpa parent company in the course of a merger in 2021 and will now be managed there as an independent profit centre in future.
The two holdings in Switzerland, awp Finanznachrichten AG (50 % dpa holding) and news aktuell (Schweiz) AG (100 % news aktuell GmbH holding), again developed very positively in 2021.
Market changes continued to be observed in the Swiss financial sector, especially in the banking sector, but these had virtually no negative impact on awp’s business figures. It was possible to keep turnover stable at a high level and to close the year with a profit of CHF 1.8 million at the previous year’s level.
news aktuell (Schweiz) AG, on the other hand, had to accept a small decline in turnover of CHF 0.1 million but it was able to maintain the previous year’s result due to cost savings, some of which were also pandemic-related, and again generated a surplus of CHF 0.7 million.