ADB Group delivers mid-period business update

GENEVA — Advanced Digital Broadcast Holdings S.A. (SIX: ADBN) reported today an update on the development and selected results of its Q1/2009 business.

The Group’s business progressed favourably during the first quarter of 2009, driven mainly by the strong demand from cable and satellite segments. A visible shift towards high-end products needed by increasingly sophisticated services offered by the operators continued, growing the Group’s revenue proportion from high-definition (HD) and PVR set-top boxes. Consequently, the sales of HD-TV products represent today a significant majority of the Digital TV Segment Equipment revenue, while those equipped with the PVR function generate slightly more than half of it.

The Group recorded also the sales of its IPTV products reaching a landmark of 1.5 million units shipped to-date – all of them with Advanced Video Coding (AVC) and most of them featuring high definition TV capability. This positions the Group amongst the leading IPTV equipment providers in the world.

The order book for the first half year is full, driven mostly by continuing strong operator demand and a favourable product mix. The Group has also increased its visibility and coverage for the rest of the year.

In the area of business development, the Group recorded the following achievements during the first quarter of 2009:

• The Group signed a contract with TFN Media, one of the top five MSOs in Taiwan for the delivery of a complete system solution, including digital TV headend, related MHP software and the set-top boxes for TFN Media’s deployment of advanced interactive digital cable services,
• In early 2009, the Group unveiled a broad-reaching partnership with Sony, focusing on the Group’s tru2way compliant set-back box technology and its commercial applications.
• The Group has started supplying Yes, one of its top ten customers, with advanced high definition digital video recorders. This agreement follows an initial supply of HD set-top boxes, when Yes launched successfully its high definition service in 2007
• Osmosys launched its MHP 1.2 software, a powerful tool needed for a cost-effective and open standards compliant solution, seamlessly bridging two worlds: today’s digital cable broadcast TV and rapidly growing, next generation Internet Protocol (IP) based digital TV systems.

The Group’s financial results for the first quarter of 2009 were equally positive: revenue, gross margin, EBIT and cash generation were in line with expectations.

During the first quarter, the Group also successfully closed its share repurchasing program launched in September 2008. The Group owns today a total of 617,589 of its registered shares, or 9.98% of its issued and outstanding share capital.

Andrew Rybicki, Chairman and CEO, commented: “Considering the overall macroeconomic situation, it is satisfying to see that the digital pay-TV industry is holding up as expected or better. We see our customers using the industry momentum to upgrade their services, and launching new ones. This obviously reflects positively on our business. It is worth noting though that this is only the first quarter of a year of worldwide uncertainty, and therefore we remain prudent in our overall stance. However, we are pleased to confirm the guidance given on 24 February 2009, at our latest earnings release.”

The management of ADB Group will hold a conference call today to comment this business update at 13:00 CET.

To connect to the conference call, participants should dial the following number: +41 (0) 44 580 65 22
To ask a question, participants will be required to dial: 01.