XING CEO Vollmoeller: “We delivered"

• Total revenues grew by 21 per cent, EBITDA rose by 31 per cent
• Record member growth in 2016
• XING AG Executive Board proposes an increased regular dividend and payment of a special dividend

Hamburg, 23 February 2017 –XING AG, operator of the leading online business network in German-speaking countries, is today publishing its preliminary results for 2016. According to these preliminary results, the Company enjoyed record member growth and revenues. Total revenues grew by 21 per cent, EBITDA rose by 31 per cent XING’s total revenues for 2016 came to €148.5 million, an increase of 21 per cent over the previous year (€122.9 million). The EBITDA rose by 31 per cent to €47.9 million (FY 2015: €36.6 million), while profits grew by 34 per cent to €23.6 million (FY 2015: €17.6 million). Every segment of the business saw double-digit growth, in turn contributing to the revenue growth achieved in 2016. The main source of revenues was the B2C business whose paid memberships accounted for 52 per cent of revenues. This equates to a 14 per cent increase to €77.2 million (FY 2015: €67.9 million). In total, XING acquired almost 48,000 new paying members during 2016, an increase of around 2,000 over the previous year, with 929,000 members using XING’s paid products (Premium, ProJobs and ProCoach). The B2B E-Recruiting segment was again the largest growth driver with revenues rising 33 per cent from €40.8 million in 2015 to €54.4 million in 2016. Revenues from Advertising & Events, the smallest revenue-generating B2B segment, increased by 13 per cent to €13.5 million (FY 2015: €11.9 million). Thomas Vollmoeller, CEO at XING AG, said: “In 2013 we set a target of doubling revenues between 2012 and 2016 – and we delivered. We also more than doubled our EBITDA and member growth during that same period. XING again saw extremely healthy, unabated growth during 2016 with double-digit increases seen across the board. And we’re also extremely well-prepared for the future.” Record member growth in 2016 In total, around 1.8 million people registered on the platform as new members, which is the highest figure the company has ever seen in a single year. As of the end of 2016, XING had 11.4 million members in its core German-speaking market. This strong new-member growth has carried over into 2017, with XING almost reaching the 12-million member mark. XING continued to develop its News segment in 2016 by building on its status as one of the largest distributors of business news in German-speaking countries. XING’s own content offering, Klartext, celebrated its first birthday. Up until now, Klartext attracted over 6 million views for articles written by over 700 authors, including names such as Dr. Frank Appel, Chief Executive Officer of the Deutsche Post DHL Group, Andrea Nahles, Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Heiko Maas, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, musician Peter Maffay, professional footballer Philipp Lahm and cabaret artist Dieter Hallervorden. On average, each article receives almost 200 comments from XING members (almost 55,000 comments have been posted to date). This is indicative of a further increase in the already high level of activity on XING. XING also focussed on several new target groups during 2016, and one of these focal points was students. To this end, XING rolled out XING Campus, a new kind of job guidance that uses students’ and recent graduates’ course of study as a basis for showing them which professions their qualification is best suited for. XING achieves this by analysing the careers of almost 12 million member profiles. XING Campus also has more than 100,000 internships, working student jobs and final thesis places available to students. XING also introduced new offerings for business customers. Of particular note here is the XING ReferralManager, which was rolled out at the Zukunft Personal trade fair in Cologne. The XING ReferralManager is XING’s new digital solution to help companies fill their current vacancies swiftly, effectively and at low cost by way of employee referrals. It uses an intelligent algorithm to identify matching candidates from among employees’ contact networks. The employee can then contact that person about the vacancy or share it on social networks to enhance reach. The XING ReferralManager is an evolution of eqipia, a program that XING AG acquired in spring 2016. XING AG Executive Board proposes an increased regular dividend and payment of a special dividend On the basis of the company's preliminary unaudited figures for the 2016 fiscal year the Executive Board of XING AG today resolved to put forward a proposal to the Supervisory Board to increase the regular dividend by 33 percent from EUR 1.03 per share to EUR 1.37 per share. The Executive Board also resolved to propose to the supervisory board an additional special dividend distribution of EUR 1.60 per share. XING's liquid assets of EUR 83 million as of the end of 2016 and its cash-generative business model enable it to pay out a special dividend without compromising its continued growth strategy. After approval of the audited consolidated financial statements by the Supervisory Board, the dividend distribution proposal is to be presented to the Annual General Meeting for resolution. Subject to approval by the Supervisory Board at its plenary meeting to be held on 21 March 2017, and the respective shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 16 May 2017, the total dividend payment will amount to around EUR 16.7 million. About XING The leading online business network in German-speaking countries supports its members in mastering the transformations taking place in the world of work. XING helps its almost 12 million members to balance their professional and private life as well as possible within an environment defined by a lack of skilled workers, digitalisation and changing values. To this end, members can visit XING Jobs to look for vacancies that appeal to them, stay up to date with news offers by XING, or browse the German-language portal XING spielraum to find out about the trends and changes taking place in the new world of work. At the start of 2015, XING added Jobbörse.com, the largest jobs search engine in German-speaking countries, to its portfolio. Before that, XING had acquired kununu, which as the principal employer review platform in German-speaking countries served to strengthen XING’s leading position within the field of social recruiting. XING was founded in Hamburg, Germany, in 2003, has been publicly listed since 2006, and listed on the TecDAX since September 2011. Members can meet and exchange views in around 80,000 groups, while also getting together at more than 150,000 business-related events every year. XING has more than 900 employees at offices in Hamburg, Munich, Aschaffenburg, Barcelona and Vienna. Visit www.xing.com for more information.