Bastei Lubbe AG, a general-interest publishing group listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN DE000A1X3YY0), held its annual general meeting as a digital event without shareholders attending in person. The meeting approved the proposed resolutions and an attractive dividend proposal, demonstrating shareholder confidence in the company's strategy.
The 2025/2026 financial year was characterised by an attractive programme featuring top-selling titles from various publishing brands. Continued community growth, with a sharp rise in reach and visibility in relevant media, further underpinned the success of this model, which is increasingly being copied by competitors. At the same time, Bastei Lubbe used the past financial year as a year of further development, making sustainable investments in new segments, products and services for the future. The Executive Board highlighted in particular the product innovation shelfie.audio, which makes audiobooks a physical experience once again; the new literary imprint Pfaueninsel; the acquisition of Papertoons, Germany's first manhwa and manga publisher; and the successful entry of the community brand LYX into the US market.
CEO Soheil Dastyari explained in his speech that the past financial year was enormously productive, whilst also being economically challenging. The company was able to make various targeted investments in new offerings on the market and, in line with its corporate strategy, provide new impetus to broaden its scope and drive sustained growth. Chief Financial Officer Mathis Gerkensmeyer added that despite the economically challenging financial year, the company was able to significantly increase its cash flow. Together with a solid balance sheet, this provides a sound financial basis for once again reliably sharing the company's success with shareholders through a payout ratio of 50 per cent.
The Annual General Meeting discharged the boards with overwhelming approval and resolved to distribute a dividend of EUR 0.25 per share for the 2025/2026 financial year. With a total payout of EUR 3,300,025.00, the dividend represents a payout ratio of 50 per cent of distributable profit and is therefore at the upper end of the defined dividend strategy (40 to 50 per cent payout ratio). Based on the XETRA closing price of EUR 7.00 on 8 September 2026, this represents a dividend yield of 3.6 per cent.
With a line-up of top-class bestsellers, Bastei Lubbe has also kicked off the new financial year 2026/2027 with further revenue growth. This was partly due to the huge success of top titles and SPIEGEL bestsellers such as 'Traume aus Feuer' by Florian Illies and Lucy Astner's novel 'Kein Sommer ohne August'. In addition, the strong sales of the paperback edition of Ken Follett's novel 'The Armour of Light' and Eva Almstadt's crime novel 'Akte Nordsee - Die letzte Predigt' contributed to the strong performance in the first quarter.
As of the time of the vote, the proportion of the share capital represented at the meeting amounted to a total of 79.62 per cent. The detailed voting results and the Executive Board's presentation can be found at bastei-luebbe.de/unternehmen/investor-relations/hauptversammlung (German language).
Bastei Lubbe AG is the leading independent publishing group in Germany. Based in Cologne, it publishes books, audio books and e-books featuring high-quality popular entertainment as well as periodical novel booklets. In total, the Company owns more than 14 imprints. Bastei Lubbe sees itself as an innovation driver in the industry and has successfully established several rapidly expanding community-driven business models, among other things. Bastei Lubbe AG is also a pioneer of digital media, producing thousands of audio and eBooks, which are distributed via all digital exploitation channels. The Group generates annual revenues of over EUR 118 million (2025/2026 financial year). Its shares have been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) since 2013. Further information can be found at www.bastei-luebbe.de.
