Egmont mosaik

Egmont doubled its result and delivered strong content and growth across its businesses in 2021. Revenue climbed EUR 500m to EUR 2.1bn.

15.03.2022

Revenue climbed 34% to EUR 2.1bn. Half of the revenue growth of more than EUR 500m was organic, while the rest was a result of Egmont becoming the sole owner of Norway’s largest book publisher, Cappelen Damm, and Norwegian TV distributor RiksTV, acquiring e-commerce company Royal Design Group and increasing its holdings in a number of growth businesses. 

Earnings before tax (EBT) came to EUR 246m, or EUR 168m before non-recurring gains, which is twice the figure for 2020. This reflects a highly successful year in terms of films, TV, computer games, magazines, books, digital agencies and e-commerce alike. The non-recurring gains were due to value adjustments following the acquisition of part-owned businesses under IFRS accounting rules. 

“I’m delighted with 2021 in terms of revenue, earnings and strategic development,” says Egmont’s President and CEO, Steffen Kragh. “We’re reaping the rewards of Egmont’s strategy of focusing on strong content and building growth businesses based on people streaming more, gaming more and shopping online more. This record year gives us a strong platform from which to deliver even more stories, journalism and unique content in the coming years.” 

Egmont recently unveiled its 2025 strategy: ”Grow with the Modern Consumer – Scale Up & Stand Out”. This entails investing EUR 6.7bn in content over a five-year period to take revenue to EUR 2.7bn in 2025, EUR 600m more than in 2021. As part of this, five business areas – digital books, TV streaming, computer games, agencies and e-commerce – are to double their revenue during the strategy period. 

Egmont is a commercial foundation with a dual purpose: to develop modern media and to help children and young people at risk. The Egmont Foundation had charitable activities of EUR 13m in Denmark, Norway and Sweden during the year. Most recent, Egmont has established a refugee programme and will grant EUR 4m to help Ukrainian refugee children, young people and their families upon arrival in Scandinavia.

Key figures (EURm) 

2021 

2020 

Revenue 

2,073 

1,542 

EBITDA 

390 

225 

EBT 

246 

85 

Equity 

1,098 

886 

Further information:
 

Jesper Eising 
Head of Press 
+45 29603019 
jesper.eising@egmont.com 

Amanda Justesen 
Vice President, Communications & Public Affairs 
+45 29478526 
amanda.justesen@egmont.com

Photos for media use: www.egmont.com/media-archive

TV 2

Revenue: EUR 618m (464m). Operating profit after result from associates: EUR 50m (45m) 

  • TV 2 is Norway’s largest commercial public-service media house and delivers news, sports and entertainment through eight TV channels, the streaming service TV 2 Play and the news site tv2.no.
     
  • 2021 was a strong year for TV 2, which gained market share. Its share of the commercial market in the 20-49 year target group climbed four percentage points to 52.3%, and its overall market share in the same age group increased by 1.7 points to 31%.
     
  • TV 2’s main channel enjoyed strong viewing figures for both new and familiar programme formats, such as reality series Kompani Lauritzen and talent show Norges nye megahit.
     
  • Viewers continued to flock to Nyhetskanalen, Norway’s only 24-hour news channel, which had an 8% audience share in the commercial market, up one point on 2020.
     
  • TV 2 Play saw further growth and reached 780,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
     
  • TV 2 also became the sole owner of RiksTV, which distributes pay TV in the Norwegian terrestrial digital network and operates the streaming service Strim.

Nordisk Film

Revenue: EUR 472m (366m). Operating profit after result from associates: EUR 72m (15m) 

  • Nordisk Film produces and distributes films and series in the Nordic region, operates cinemas in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and has substantial computer game and digital gift card businesses.
     
  • Revenue and earnings both improved in 2021, driven in part by films, series and computer games. The figure for earnings includes non-recurring gains of EUR 15m due to value adjustments on the acquisition of part-owned companies.
     
  • Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, produced by Zentropa, won an Oscar. Checkered Ninja 2 was the highest-grossing Danish film ever, with 930,000 tickets sold. Nordisk Film was also behind the Department Q film The Marco Effect and the Christmas series Cosmic Christmas on Danish TV 2. In Norway, part-owned Fantefilm premiered The Burning Sea, while Three Wishes for Cinderella was the biggest Norwegian film of the year. In Sweden, the Bamse and Sune children’s series were once again turned into popular films.
     
  • Nordisk Film’s 46 cinemas in Denmark, Norway and Sweden were forced to close for five months. This led to a substantial drop in revenue and heavy losses for the cinemas despite support from public compensation schemes. However, they also had considerable support from the public and saw record visitor numbers during the autumn.
     
  • Nordisk Games has a portfolio of seven European computer games companies which saw solid growth in both revenue and earnings in 2021. Nordisk Games invested in UK company Supermassive Games and increased its holdings in Star Stable Entertainment, Nitro Games and Flashbulb Games. Avalanche Studios enjoyed success with hunting simulator The Hunter, Flashbulb Games launched Rubber Bandits, Supermassive Games released House of Ashes, and MercurySteam’s Metroid Dread was named Game of the Year by Time Magazine.
     
  • Nordisk Film distributes PlayStation in the Nordic region and the Baltic States and saw strong demand for PlayStation 5.
     
  • GoGift delivered double-digit growth in digital gift card solutions and is the Nordic market leader.

Story House Egmont

Revenue: EUR 851m (645m). Operating profit after result from associates: EUR 79m (47m) 

  • Story House Egmont has businesses in three areas: media, e-commerce and agencies.
     
  • The strong increase in revenue in 2021 was driven mainly by e-commerce and agencies, but there was also growth in the media business. Earnings grew strongly in the media and magazine business due to higher advertising and print sales.
     
  • Story House Egmont has magazines and digital media in the Nordic region, Northern and Eastern Europe and a few markets further afield, including China. The media business performed particularly well in 2021 in both the Kids and Consumer categories.
     
  • Story House Egmont acquired Swedish company Royal Design Group during the year and invested further in a number of companies in the e-commerce portfolio, which now comprises: Fjellsport, Outnorth, SkittFiske, Bagaren och Kocken (including KitchenOne and Robotexperten), Royal Design (including Rum21), Med24, Nicehair, Garnius and Jollyroom. The e-commerce companies put in a strong performance in 2021: average organic growth was around 20%, and total portfolio revenue including non-consolidated minority holdings climbed from EUR 546m to EUR 763m.
     
  • Story House Egmont also has a portfolio of seven Nordic agencies – s360, KAN, Ingager, Markedspartner, Klintberg Niléhn, Core Content and Okto – which are leaders in areas such as performance marketing and delivered organic revenue growth of 30% on average and a profit margin of around 20%.

Egmont Books

  • Egmont Books comprises the Norwegian publishing house Cappelen Damm and Danish book publisher Lindhardt og Ringhof. Egmont became the sole owner of Cappelen Damm in 2021, resulting in a non-recurring gain of EUR 55m from adjustments to the value of its original holding.
     
  • Cappelen Damm owns the distribution business Sentraldistribusjon and co-owns the Norwegian streaming service Storytel AS.
     
  • Cappelen Damm released more than 2,000 new titles in 2021 and had a very good year, with revenue growth driven by a strong range and sharp growth within education.
     
  • These titles included the year’s two bestselling books in Norway: Abid Raja’s autobiography Min Skyld and Lucinda Riley’s The Missing Sister. Erlend Skjetne won the Brage Prize in the youth category for his debut novel Eit anna blikk. Cappelen Damm also published novels from the likes of Kazuo Ishiguro, J. M. Coetzee, Patrick Modiano and Lars Saabye Christensen.
     
  • Lindhardt og Ringhof posted record revenue and solid earnings, and acquired five publishers during the year, including in Denmark and Germany. Sales of print books grew by 6%.
     
  • Lindhardt og Ringhof released new books from authors such as Knud Romer, Anne-Cathrine Riebnitzsky, Mich Vraa, Alex Schulman, Karl Ove Knausgård, Amanda Gorman and Thomas Korsgaard, who was awarded the Golden Laurel.
     
  • Digital publisher SAGA acquired 24,000 new digital book rights during the year and now has more than more than 100,000 digital rights in more than 30 languages worldwide.
     
  • Lindhardt og Ringhof was also the largest supplier of digital teaching materials to primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark in 2021.

Charitable activities

  • Egmont is a commercial foundation. Part of the profit generated by the media business is distributed to charitable activities helping children and young people at risk and supporting film talent (through the Nordisk Film Foundation), while the remainder is reinvested in developing the media group.
     
  • The Egmont Foundation had charitable activities of EUR 13m during the year, including EUR 0.7m via the Nordisk Film Foundation. Since 1920, Egmont has donated a total of around EUR 450m in today’s money.
     
  • The Egmont Foundation’s ambition is for all children and young people to be able to have a quality education by 2030, in line with the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal.
     
  • The foundation has previously supported initiatives in Denmark and Norway, and expanded its activities to include Sweden in 2021, the first two donations there being to Barnens Rätt I Samhället (BRIS) and My Dream Now.
     
  • The Egmont Foundation chose child poverty as its theme for the year in 2021. The Egmont Report 2021 concluded that a childhood spent in poverty means an increased risk of not completing an education, as well as a risk of diminished well-being and exclusion.
     
  • The foundation has earmarked up to EUR 13.4m in the period 2022-25 for the initiative A Helping Hand, which provides acute support for financially vulnerable children, young people and families. This support is grant-based and awarded via selected partner organisations in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Egmont donated EUR 2.2m through the initiative in 2021.
     
  • The Covid-19 pandemic had a considerable impact on children and young people in Scandinavia once again in 2021. Many vulnerable children and young people needed considerable support during the lockdowns and after the reopening of the economy. In total, the Egmont Foundation contributed Covid-related support of EUR 1.7m to a variety of organisations.
     
  • The foundation continued to support the Learn for Life programme for children in care, which the foundation itself set up to ensure that more children and young people in foster care receive an education.
     
  • The foundation supported two good causes in Norway during the year: the Norwegian Women’s Public Health Association and the Crown Prince Couple’s Foundation.
     
  • The Nordisk Film Foundation sent 61 film talents out into the world through its travel grants and supported four major initiatives in areas such as the use of new technology in movie production.