At today's meeting of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bahn AG in Essen, Chairman and CEO Hartmut Mehdorn presented details of the company's business development in the first three quarters of 2005. Group revenues, compared with the corresponding figure for the same period in the previous year, are up EUR 752 million to EUR 18.5 billion. This is 4.2 per cent more than in 2004. In terms of operating profit, DB AG's performance has also improved, ending up with just under EUR 200 million more than in the first three quarters of the previous year.
It is expected that the operating profit after interest of around EUR 400 million planned for 2005 will be achieved. Mehdorn: "The company is right on track, and in line with its financial planning.“ Major contributions to the improvements in operating profit came from the Passenger Transport division and the Schenker business unit. "We are convincing more and more customers in Germany of the benefits of rail travel," said DB's CEO, "and at the same time we are very successful worldwide with our transport and logistics activities. We will continue to stay on the course we have taken."
At the meeting held today, the Supervisory Board also approved the sale of the DB subsidiary Deutsche Eisenbahnreklame (DERG) to Ströer Out-of-Home Media AG, one of Germany's largest outdoor advertising specialists. DB AG is thus continuing on its policy of divesting activities that are not part of its core business.