A similarly sharp decline can also be seen in other operating income, where lower income from the reversal of provisions and value adjustments was recorded compared with the previous year, accompanied by a slight decline in subsidies. 

At 106.9 million euros (previous year: 106.0 million euros), the total operating performance thus increased by 0.9 million euros.

The cost of materials increased by 0.7% or 0.2 million euros to 35.0 million euros, primarily due to the increase in expenses for IT and other purchased services, accompanied by a decline in sales-driven fee expenses in the image segment and in Custom Content.

In 2024, personnel costs increased year-on-year by around 1.1 million euros from 60.9 mil­lion euros to 62.0 million euros.

The development of personnel costs was particularly affected by the 5.0% adjustment of standard salaries as of November 1, 2024 and the payment of an inflation-adjustment bonus of 2,000 euros per employee. This was offset by a reduction of 0.25 million euros in the special allocation to the dpa provident fund and a decline in the number of employees by 10 positions. 

The annual average number of employees fell to 706 (previous year: 716). In addition, an average of 51 temporary staff were employed (previous year: 78). The proportion of female employees in the company remained virtually unchanged at around 52%, as in the previous year. The number of part-time employees rose to 164 (previous year: 159).

Depreciation and amortisation amounted to 2.6 million euros, 0.2 million euros below the previous year’s figure.

Other operating expenses fell by 0.1 million euros to 25.5 million euros and thus remained virtually unchanged despite the special expenses involved in the European Football Championship and the Summer Olympics, as well as the construction work at the Hamburg location, which continued to have a significant impact in 2024. The decline of 0.5 million euros in communications costs and the reduction of 0.4 million euros in other personnel and administrative costs, which are the result of targeted cost-cutting measures, played a decisive role here.

The financial result amounted to 19.9 million euros, compared with 19.5 million euros in the previous year, representing an increase of approximately 2.0%. In addition to higher earn­ings contributions from subsidiaries and shareholdings, which increased by a total of 0.3 million euros, depreciation and amortisation on financial assets fell again by 0.1 million euros.

This resulted in earnings before taxes of 1.6 million euros. The consolidated profit after taxes amounted to 1.4 million euros, the exact same as the previous year’s figure when rounded.

The executive board and the supervisory board propose to the shareholders’ meeting that the net profit for 2024 of 1,381,041.60 euros be added to the profit carried forward as of January 1, 2024 of 8,840,385.77 euros to form the balance sheet profit of 10,221,427.37 euros and carried forward to the next accounting period.

In addition to its core business, dpa operates a large number of business units and new business areas in independent subsidiaries. Due to the chosen structure, dpa’s results are highly dependent on the economic development and the associated earnings contributions of its subsidiaries, which are generally affiliated via profit and loss transfer agreements, as well as other shareholdings. In 2024, they once again generated a high net income for the year and made a total earnings contribution of 19.7 million euros (previous year: 19.4 million euros), marking a new record high.

Under the existing profit and loss transfer agreement, news aktuell GmbH made the largest single contribution to the dpa group’s success with 10.3 million euros. The decline in the annual result was equally impacted by the difficult market situation in a highly competitive environment and, for the first time, stagnating sales, as well as one-off expenses in connection with the renewal of the technical infrastructure and the product portfolio.

In 2024, dpa Picture-Alliance GmbH once again succeeded in increasing sales in the highly competitive image market and even achieved an unexpectedly significant increase in revenues in the area of rights management. Combined with consistent cost management, this contributed to the consolidated result, which at 3.1 million euros was almost twice as high as in the previous year. 

The graphics subsidiary dpa-infografik GmbH maintained the previous year’s revenue level in a market that remained difficult, thus once again achieving a positive annual result of 70 thou­­sand euros, which was even slightly above the previous year’s figure.

The financial year at dpa-infocom GmbH was marked by the scheduled relocation of the digital editorial department and the associated transfer of the “WebLines” product group to dpa GmbH on July 1, 2024. dpa-infocom nevertheless closed the year with earnings of 0.7 million euros, which was mainly attributable to the fact-checking and data products and projects units. Net income before profit transfer amounted to 3.1 million euros, almost matching the previous year’s level. 

The service company dpa-IT Services GmbH closed the financial year significantly below expectations due to positions not being filled or only being filled after several months of delay, but nevertheless at a slightly higher level than in the previous year, while Rufa Rundfunk-Agenturdienste GmbH and dpa English Services GmbH remained at approximately the same level. Operating expenses and thus the result of dpa-IT were positively influenced not only by the temporary vacancies but also by a structural change in management and a moderate wage agreement.

Rufa and the English Services were mainly characterised by the continuation of the business activities at almost the same cost level.

dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten GmbH, in which dpa GmbH holds a 76% stake, managed to slightly increase its revenue to 5.1 million euros in the past year despite a challenging market environment, while also increasing its profit by 0.1 million euros to 0.9 million euros.

mecom Medien-Communikations-Gesellschaft mbH (dpa holds a 50% direct stake and a 10% indirect stake) was unable to maintain the revenue level of previous years, which had been characterised by significant project business in the secure networks segment. Fortunately, however, the commissioning of central product components and additional fixed stations enabled more sustainable operating revenues from MoWaS (modular warning system) to be increased by over 1 million euros compared with 2023. mecom thus achieved a respectable net profit for the year of 1.3 million euros, but as expected, this was significantly below the previous year’s figure of 1.8 million euros.

awp Finanznachrichten AG (50% stake held by dpa) once again performed very well in 2024. Although the changes in the Swiss financial sector were noticeable, the company once again managed to close the year with a slight increase in revenue and a profit of 1.8 million Swiss francs, on a par with the previous year.

On the other hand, news aktuell (Schweiz) AG suffered a decline in revenue and, combined with one-off expenses for the management restructuring, was unable to maintain the previous year’s result. Following 0.5 million Swiss francs in 2023, the surplus in 2024 was only 0.3 million Swiss francs.