L Brands Reports February 2018 Sales

Bertelsmann Investments (BI) is acquiring a stake in Ada Health, a leading European start-up in the digital health sector, thus strengthening its commitment to the promising business field of digital health. In 2016, an entrepreneur, a neuroscientist and a doctor founded the start-up Ada Health in Berlin-Kreuzberg with the aim of harnessing artificial intelligence for the early diagnosis of diseases by patients themselves. As a pioneer in the field of digital health, Ada Health developed a medical platform and an app, which is now available in seven languages, that helps people quickly and easily make an initial medical diagnosis based on their symptoms - and has already done so millions of times. Together with other investors, Bertelsmann Investments (BI) is now taking a stake in the successful company. In an extension of the financing round B, which had already brought Ada Health 90 million US dollars in May 2021, BI and the investors Farallon Capital, Red River West are together providing a further 30 million US dollars for the expansion of the business. Ada Health is thus one of the first investments by Bertelsmann Investments in the digital health sector.

Urban Outfitters, Inc. announced net income of $89 million and record third quarter earnings per diluted share of $0.89 for the three months ended October 31, 2021. For the nine months ended October 31, 2021, net income was $270 million and record first nine-month period earnings per diluted share were $2.71. Total Company net sales for the three months ended October 31, 2021, were a record $1.13 billion. Net sales increased 14.6% compared to the three months ended October 31, 2019. Comparable Retail segment net sales increased 14%, driven by strong double-digit growth in digital channel sales, partially offset by mid-single-digit negative retail store sales primarily due to reduced store traffic. By brand, comparable Retail segment net sales increased 55% at the Free People Group, 9% at the Anthropologie Group and 7% at Urban Outfitters. Total Retail segment net sales increased 16%. Wholesale segment net sales decreased 15% primarily from reducing the Free People Group’s sales to promotional wholesale custom ers. For the nine months ended October 31, 2021, total Company net sales increased 14.3% compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2019. Comparable Retail segment net sales increased 16%, driven by strong double-digit growth in digital channel sales, partially offset by low double-digit negative retail store sales due to reduced store traffic resulting from temporary store closures and occupancy restrictions in Europe and Canada. Wholesale segment net sales decreased 23% primarily from reducing the Free People Group’s sales to promotional wholesale customers.

First quarter-to-date service performance scores covering the period Oct. 1 through Nov. 26 included: *First-Class Mail: 91.1 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 2.6 percentage points from the fourth quarter. *Marketing Mail: 92.4 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fourth quarter. *Periodicals: 83.4 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of .6 percentage points from the fourth quarter. The Postal Service anticipates that between 850 million and 950 million packages will be delivered for the holidays. The total number of letters, cards and packages processed and delivered between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is estimated to be more than 12 billion.