AND Global X Ftse Andean 40 Etf (delisted)

AND achieves positive and strong results for 2014

Capelle aan den IJssel, 17 March 2015 - AND International Publishers NV achieved positive and strong results for 2014. AND realized a revenue of € 4.8 million and a profit of € 2.6 million. Earnings per share amounted to € 0.69 compared to € 0.33 in 2013.

AND Chief Executive Officer Hugo van der Linde: "Similar to 2013 AND achieved positive and strong results in the financial year. At the same time the strong expansion of our navigation maps is on schedule."

Course of events in 2014
Early 2014 AND signed the first contracts within the track and trace market. AND has developed the AND Trip Registration Platform which is based on the AND LBS Platform. This track and trace solutions module consists of a mapping API and accurate (reverse) geocoding based on the AND proprietary maps.

At the Mobile World Congress in February AND brought its mapping and location services to Ubuntu with an easy to use mobile application. AND developed a map viewer with the proprietary AND navigation maps of Europe to start showing the capabilities of AND for Ubuntu on phones.

End of April AND signed an important agreement with ALK Technologies Inc. from Princeton to create a high quality navigation map of the United States and Canada.  ALK committed itself to buy the enriched navigation map to use this map in its own products. This agreement contributed substantially to the revenue and results in 2014.

This established navigation company has sold to AND an exclusive license of its own navigation map of the United States and Canada, which is already extensively used within various navigation applications, systems and logistic solutions. AND is exclusively entitled to deliver the map to third parties.

Together with its current Western European navigation map AND will double its coverage of navigation maps. With this increase in coverage AND expects to further attract global customers.

The upgrade and enrichments program is planned to run until mid-2015. This upgrade program is on schedule.

During the last quarter AND executed several customized services for various customers relating to the analysis and improvement of location data.

Financial position
Revenue increased from € 4.3 million to € 4.8 million. Revenue from the contract for the creation of the navigation map of the United States and Canada contributed an important part to the revenue in the 2014.

Total operating expenses increased to a total of € 3.4 million in 2014. The investment and development of the navigation map of North-America resulted in an increase of both personnel expenses and amortization. Compared to 2013 personnel expenses increased by € 0.4 million to € 2.0 million. Amortization charges on intangible fixed assets increased by € 0.1 million to € 0.5 million. Share based compensation expenses decreased from € 0.2 million to € 0.1 million.

Costs spent to the development of the map of North-America have been capitalized and amounted to € 1.3 million in 2014. As a result net operating expenses decreased from € 3.1 million in 2013 to € 2.1 million in 2014.

In 2014 AND invested substantially in the development of the navigation map of North-America. The total investment amounted to € 4.7 million. Intangible fixed assets increased to € 10.5 million at the end of 2014 as a result of this investment.

Net cash flow amounted € 1.7 million negative resulting in a total balance of cash and cash equivalents of € 3.8 million at the end of 2014.

Thanks to the achieved results total assets increased by € 2.7 million to € 16 million in 2014. As in 2013 AND has no bank debts. By the end of 2014 shareholders' equity amounted to around 81% of total assets.

Dividend
Based on the agreement for the creation of high quality navigation maps of North-America, and the positive result for 2013 AND already made a payment from its reserves of gross € 0.10 per share to its shareholders in May 2014. AND has no intention to pay a dividend for the financial year 2014 also. In addition to the current investment in its expansion of maps AND sees various opportunities to invest in technology and markets to strengthen its capabilities and position. Also AND expects no earlier than 2016 a more substantial contribution to its revenues from the enriched navigation map of North-America which is currently under construction. Although it is the intention of AND to make an annual payment to shareholders, if permissible, and taking into account the current dividend policy, a payment to shareholders in the financial year 2015 for these reasons is not obvious.

Market trends
The strong growth of smartphones with GPS and tablets with location positioning created a mass market for location based apps which are offered through various App Stores. Besides apps for navigation also many other apps make use of location services such as weather, chat and photo apps. Many of these apps make us of the standard APIs (Application Programming Interface) as they are offered within the SDKs (Software Development Kit) of the mobile OS. Also a market for wearables like smart watches starts to develop.

In recent years the sales and margins of PND players have come under strong pressure. The sales numbers in both the market in Europe and the United States have fallen. This downward trend continued unabated in 2014.

With the presence of free location based services also the awareness among companies about the importance of location within their business processes has increased enormously. Furthermore, there is an increasing need to use cloud-based services. AND offers its LBS (Location Based Services) platform as a good solution to fulfill this need. Also AND observes an increasing need for customized services and a higher willingness from customers to pay for services in addition to map licenses only.

The need for location based services as part of the connected car is accelerating in the automotive market. At the request of established parties within the automotive market AND currently investigates the opportunities within this market.

Although the need for digital global maps and location based services is still growing, the number of map providers with global coverage is very limited. In response AND already made an important step in its ability to offer detailed-level maps of North-America in addition to its  maps of Western Europe. Also AND investigate the opportunities to further increase this coverage in the future.

Strategy
AND is the independent company in the global map market for digital maps for location based services. This offers opportunities and AND will continue to improve and extend its existing maps more effectively. In addition AND will increase its added value by offering its maps and data as customized services.

Outlook for 2015
The year 2014 was a good year again for AND. The economic conditions, market developments and business models in the market for digital maps are still highly uncertain. The results will depend among others on the strength of economic recovery, the developments in the market for navigation and location-based services. Also AND is still highly dependent on a few large customers and new orders to be acquired. In the course of 2015 AND expects to complete the enriched map of North-America and to execute test and pilot projects with prospects and therefore expects a more substantial contribution to its revenues from this enriched map no earlier than 2016. AND is positive regarding new opportunities within the current fast changing technology and market developments. AND does not provide a financial outlook for 2015.

Risks
For a detailed description of the risk factors that apply to AND International Publishers NV and its subsidiaries, you are referred to the annual report for 2014.

The Annual General Shareholders' Meeting takes place at 1 May 2015 in Rotterdam. For a detailed explanation of the figures reference is made to the financial statements of 2014 on www.and.com.

Rotterdam, 17 March 2015

CEO
H.F. van der Linde

This is a translation of the Dutch press release. In the event of any discrepancy, the Dutch version will prevail.

For more information
Contact: Hugo van der Linde, Tel. +31 (0)10 8851200, or check www.and.com.

The final figures for 2014 in this press release have been audited

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