action press acquires ddp: one of the world's largest photo agencies has been created in Germany

action press now with 110 million digital assets in inventory, up to 50,000 new photos daily - 5,000 photographers and video producers in 120 countries - 130 partner agencies

Frankfurt am Main/Hamburg, September 2, 2021 - It is the second takeover after the acquisition of the photo assets of the smaller competitor face to face GmbH in February 2021 and one of the largest in the entire industry of photo databases: action press AG (Frankfurt am Main), parent company of action press international GmbH, a media agency founded in Hamburg in 1970, today signed a purchase agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in ddp Media GmbH (Hamburg).

After the takeover, the editorial staff of the entire group will process up to 50,000 new national and international photos and videos from 5,000 photographers and video producers as well as 130 partner agencies from 120 countries every day.

ddp is the new subsidiary of action press - synergy effects expected

The ddp photo agency group, whose name can be traced back to ddp Deutscher Depeschendienst founded in Hamburg in 1971, includes Picture Press, Intertopics and FoodCentrale photo agency brands in addition to ddp media GmbH (Hamburg), laif Agentur für Photos & Reportagen GmbH (Cologne) and Stella Pictures AB (Stockholm) companies.

The acquisition of ddp media GmbH, which now belongs to action press AG, significantly expands the range of products and services offered by the action press group. Photo reports and features from all over the world, studio portraits of well-known personalities from politics, business and society, high-quality travel, creative and title productions, food content and recipe services, as well as photo syndication for publishers such as The New York Times, USA today, The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, Mondadori Photo, Gruner & Jahr and the Klambt media group, will enable the editorial range of services to be expanded significantly. The management of action press expects a positive contribution to the Group's earnings in the first fiscal year after completion of the acquisition due to synergy effects.

Global Payer: action press Media Group

action press has long since joined the ranks of key players such as Shutterstock, Getty Images and Adobe. Publishers, media companies and corporate customers will find a wide range of topics and a selection of current productions and archive material at the action press media group. 110 million photos as well as photo reports and features from the areas of entertainment, politics, business, aristocracy, lifestyle, stock photography, current affairs and sports can be researched online in the agency databases. The action press group, which was relaunched in August 2020, sees itself not only as an interface between photographers, video producers and media customers. It also offers publishers and TV broadcasters the opportunity to have in-house productions syndicated worldwide by their agencies. Media companies can outsource some or all of their editorial work processes. In this case, the 55 action press editors take over photo research, organize commissioned photo productions and take care of the clarification of photo rights.

action press syndicates and manages the daily reporting of 30 German regional newspapers of the Regio-Group, which was established in spring 2021. Local news, reports, features and sports reports are turned into breaking news of national importance. In July 2021, action press presented the first video database to national and international media customers. The database contains thousands of video productions from the areas of entertainment, news, lifestyle and features. TV stations, online and other media companies now have the opportunity to download videos around the clock and thus meet editorial deadlines.

The agency group also organizes national and international photo assignments, photo shoots, reports and video productions for companies and offers event, sponsorship, PR, reportage and company-specific commissioned photography for the entire corporate sector.

The purchase price of a mid-single-digit million amount will be financed from existing liquidity and newly raised debt capital, which will be provided, among others, by the shareholder Deutsche Balaton AG (Heidelberg) via a bond.

The shares of action press AG have been traded since May 2021 in the general over-the-counter market of the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange under WKN A2TSNU (ISIN DE000A2TSNU7). In 2022, the shares are to be listed on the Xetra stock exchange. The share capital of action press AG amounts to 22.05 million euros.

The Management Board of action press AG is made up of Professor Moritz Hunzinger (Frankfurt am Main), who had already acquired a majority stake in action press in 1999 as CEO of the listed infas Holding AG (formerly Hunzinger Information AG) for 20 million deutschmarks and headed it until 2004, and Ulli Michel (Hamburg), who has been Managing Director of action press in Hamburg since 2010. Hunzinger: "Since day one, action press has delivered the information edge. Following the acquisition of ddp, action press will continue to grow strongly, and not just organically. We will soon evaluate our digital assets and make valuable photos digitally tradable as tokens broken down into digital units as a whole or in parts."

Advisors: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek; RA WP StB Prof. Dipl.-Vw. Dr. jur. Heinz-Christian Knoll, mwb fairtrade Wertpapierhandelsbank AG; Notaries: FM Notaries Funke Mühe;

Queries:

- Prof. Moritz Hunzinger: moritz.hunzinger@actionpress.de, +49 171 60 333 20
- Ulli Michel: ulli.michel@actionpress.de, +49 172 253 73 03

https://www.actionpress-ir.de/

action press international gmbh
Oehleckerring 9a-13
22419 Hamburg

action press AG
Wielandstr. 3
60318 Frankfurt am Main