Corporate

As previously announced, press rumours published today regarding a supposed interest in the French publishing group Editis, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore SpA reaffirms and underlines that no such interest has been shown and that there are no negotiations underway.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today announced, as per Art. 2.6.2 of the regulations governing markets organised and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A., its calendar of corporate events for 2008:

• thursday 20 March 2008: Board of Directors meeting to approve the company’s annual financial statements and balance sheet for the year ended 31 December 2007;
• wednesday 14 May 2008: Board of Directors meeting to approve the company’s report on the first quarter of 2008;wednesday 30 July 2008: Board of Directors meeting to approve the company’s interim report for the first six months of the year to 30 June 2008;
• thursday 13 November 2008: Board of Directors meeting to approve the company’s report on the third quarter of 2008.

The Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders to approve the Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2007 will be held on Tuesday 22 April 2008, on first calling, or Wednesday 23 April 2008, on second calling.

Analysts’ presentations of the results for the full year to 31 December 2007, the interim report to 30 June 2008 and the reports on the first and third quarters of 2008 will be held on the dates of the respective meetings of the Board of Directors.

Any eventual changes to the above calendar will be promptly communicated to the market.

***

As per Art. 82, para. 2 of the Consob adopted with resolution n° 11971/1999 and subsequent modifications, the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year to 31 December 2007 approved by the Board of Directors will be available to the public at the corporate offices and the Borsa Italiana S.p.A. by 30 March 2008.

The company is consequently exonerated from the publication of the report on the fourth quarter of 2007.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today announced that Enrico Selva Coddè has been appointed as the Mondadori Group’s new head of personnel, organisation and information systems.

Born in Milan in 1961, Enrico Selva Coddè holds two degrees, in engineering and in philosophy. He began his career at Olivetti in 1987, where he worked in planning and logistics until 1991, the year he first joined Mondadori. Until 1999 he worked at Mondadori as head of human resources in the Direct Marketing, Advertising and Magazine sectors. From 1999 to 2002 he was head of operations at Rizzoli Newspapers.

In 2002 he became general manager of Giulio Einaudi Editore, before being appointed managing director in 2003, where he made a decisive contribution to the excellent results of the Turin-based publishing house, and making it Italy’s third biggest publisher.

Selva takes over from Gianfranco Righi, the Group’s head of personnel since 1994, who has taken over responsibility for the Group’s Special Projects and will report directly to the deputy chairman and chief executive, Maurizio Costa.

The Board of Directors of Mondadori Pubblicità, today appointed Angelo Sajeva, nominated managing director on 5 November 2007, also as chairman of the company.

The Board also examined the new organizational structure of the company, which foresees two new deputy general managers (“Living e Style” and “Grandi Mercati”), that will work alongside the deputy general manager “Operation” with a view to achieving an even broader control of the most important strategic sectors in the advertising market.

Following appropriate authorisations from the Italian competition body, Mondadori Retail S.p.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., today finalised the definitive agreement for the acquisition of the entire share capital of Messaggerie Musicali S.p.A.

The operation was completed in line with the preliminary agreement signed on 22 November and previously announced to the market. The value of the transaction is €24 million.

The acquisition of Messaggerie Musicali will allow Mondadori to add to its existing network the two megastores – which will be managed directly by Mondadori – in Via del Corso in Rome and Corso Vittorio Emanuele/Galleria del Corso in Milan, further developing its position in two cities of particular relevance and expanding its assortment of books and multimedia products.

In addition, Milan will also see the opening in the spring of 2007 of a new megastore – the Duomo Center – in Piazza del Duomo, in a prestigious location of architectural value.

The inclusion in the Mondadori chain of outlets of this new sales outlet and the store in Corso Vittorio Emanuele/Galleria del Corso will result in a significant increase in the sales space dedicated to books and multimedia products, which, including the existing Multicenter in Via Berchet, in the centre of Milan alone will rise from 2,500 to over 10,000 square metres.

Overall the network of retail outlets operated by Mondadori in Milan and Rome will amount to a floor space of over 25,000 square metres.

In the context of the Group’s development plan in the retail sector and the optimisation of its presence in the Milan area, Mondadori Retail has also reached an agreement for the sale, to Corso Vittorio Emanuele 2428 Retail S.r.l., at a price of €14.25 million, of the business activity in the retail space currently occupied by the Libreria Mondadori bookstore in Largo Corsia dei Servi in Milan.

The activities of the bookstore will move to the nearby Messaggerie Musicali store in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and will provide customers with an expanded offer along with a marked continuation of service.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore today announces that, following antitrust authorisations from the competent European bodies, it has formally closed the transaction, originally communicated to the market on 19 June, for the acquisition of Emap France. The total amount paid is €551 million, including contractual adjustments for an amount of €6 million.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. announced that it had finalised, through its subsidiary Monradio S.r.l., the acquisition of the business activities concerning:

– the exercise of the radio broadcasting activities of Radio 101 One-O-One;

– the exercise of radio broadcasting activities associated with the airing in the Italian territory of a foreign radio station.

The transaction was completed as per the agreement reached by the parties on 30th July 2004 and previously communicated to the market.

The final price – following completion of technical, legal, accounting and fiscal due diligence – has been fixed at €39.6 million.

Mondadori has also acquired 10% of Rock FM S.r.l., the holder of two local commercial radio licences (Rock Fm and Radio Milano International) on the basis of an evaluation of €2.7 million for 100% of the company: 90% of Rock FM S.r.l. is owned by the Greek company Attica Publications S.A. (of which Mondadori owns 40%), which is already active in the radio sector through the station Athens Radio Dee Jay.

The Board of Directors of Monradio has deliberated to entrust the operating management of the new radio business to Carlo Mandelli, who has been appointed company’s Managing Director. The Chairman of the company is Maurizio Costa.

The acquisition remains subjected to authorisations from the Italian competent Authority.

Following legal authorisation and the positive results of duediligence, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today exercised the contract as per thepreliminary agreement stipulated on 16 July – and already communicated to the market– forthe acquisition of 70% of the share capital of Edizioni Piemme S.p.A.

The definitive price, fixed on the basis of the results of due diligence, is of €14.107 million.

This operation will allow Mondadori to significantly strengthen its position in thechildren’s books segment and also acquire a portfolio of established authors in the fictionand non-fiction area.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today signed an agreement to take a stake in Attica Publications S.A., a Greek publishing company listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mondadori will buy from the founding partners (owners of 80% of the share capital, the remaining 20% is on the market) an initial stake of 20% at a total cost of €18.2 million.

The agreement also gives Mondadori a call option on a further 20% of Attica that can be exercised over the next 18 months. This would bring Mondadori’s stake to 40%, equal to the stake of the current majority shareholder.

Mondadori will have the right of representation on the Board of Directors of Attica from the next AGM. Should Mondadori decide to exercise its call option, the number of Mondadori nominated representatives on the Board would consequently increase.

The Attica Group, founded in 1994 as a magazine publisher, was listed on the Athens Stock Exchange in 1999. The capital raised by the IPO was invested in the core business with the launch of nine new titles and the acquisition of local publishing companies. Subsequently,

Attica has implemented a process of diversification that has turned company into an integrated multimedia operator in the media sector, with an articulated presence in a number of areas: magazines, radio, and film, video, DVD and recorded music distribution.

With 2002 revenues of more than €72 million and a high level of profitability, the Attica Group is the advertising market leader and has the second highest level of circulation. The company has a portfolio of products that ranges from its own original titles to titles published under licence from prestigious international publishing groups, including Hearst and Groupe Figaro; a balanced mix of titles covering the women’s, television, men’s and specialised segments.

Attica’s presence in Eastern Europe – Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria – is already significant and the expansion policy for this region is based on the launch of titles with a strong brand able to achieve immediate results in terms of circulation.

Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of Mondadori, claims that the agreement «is the first step in a pre- announced strategy for expansion into other European markets. Attica is the Greek market leader in magazines and has a profitable and growing business. As far as Eastern European markets are concerned, this agreement will give us a geographically diversified platform for the launch of Mondadori titles.» Costa underlined the experience and dynamism of the management team, adding that, «we will work with our partners to exploit the synergies that derive from their detailed knowledge of the local markets and our consolidated editorial know-how.»

«Overall, this operation is entirely consistent, both with our strategic vision and from the point of view of profitability,» concluded Costa.

The participation of Mondadori in Attica Publications’ share capital signals the beginning of a new, even more dynamic development of the group in the future. Mondadori’s expertise, along with its international influence, will contribute to the further expansion of the company, both in the local market as well as in the developing markets of Eastern Europe.

From now on, Attica Publications becomes an active player in the European market place.

Together with Mondadori’s management, we are determined to create a media company that will play a significant leading role in the whole region.

An extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore today approved the partial split of the subsidiary Elemond: the company will transfer, to the parent company Arnoldo Mondadori, its stakes in Einaudi and Mondadori Printing, its specialised magazine business and property holdings.

The split, that will not involve any equity exchanges given that the split company is already wholly-owned by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, that will become effective on 1 April 2002, as part of a larger project aimed at re-organising the Elemond Group.

The project, approved by the Board of Directors at a meeting on 13 November 2001, aims to simplify the corporate structure and to align the business in which the Elemond goup is involved.

In fact, after the split approved today, the company will focus on its role as a an operating holding company for the Mondadori Group’s activities in the art and illustrated books sectors, the organisation of exhibitions and the management of museum bookshops.