| | The Management Board of Agora S.A. with its registered seat in Warsaw ("Company") hereby informs that on February 1st, 2018, in accordance with the Act of March 13th, 2003 on Special Rules for Termination of Employment for Reasons Not Attributable to Employees, resolved to initiate the consultation on group layoffs with the trade unions operating in the Company. Additionally, in accordance with the Act of April 7th, 2006 on informing and consulting employees, the Company's works council shall also be consulted on the group layoff process.
The reason for the planned restructuring measures, including restrictions on employment, is the ongoing decrease of revenues from sales of print services in the coldset technology in which Agora Group’s printing plants specialize. This trend mainly results from the condition of the press market in Poland - the main client of the Company’s coldset printing plants. Services commissioned by clients from other market segments, including those realized in the heatset technology, present a significantly smaller share in the Group’s print activity; due to infrastructural constraints, they never were, nor are able to compensate the decrease of revenues from coldset printing services.
Considering the current condition of the press market as well as negative forecasts regarding the prospects for its further development and progressive digitization of the media, it is not possible to stop the downward trend in the coldset printing business. Therefore, the Management Board of the Company decided that it is necessary to take decisive restructuring measures aimed at reducing operating costs of the printing plants and optimizing the operational processes so as to limit the negative impact of decrease of the number of volumes of print on the financial condition of the Print segment, i.a. by adjusting the employment structure to the current volume of services provided by Agora's printing plants.
The intention of the Management Board of Agora SA is to lay off up to 53 employees of the Print segment of Agora Group (which is 16.3% of employees of this segment - including 1.9% of employees in the Company and 17.1% of employees of Agora Poligrafia Sp. z o.o., as at February 1st, 2018) between February 21st and March 23rd, 2018.
The Company shall go through these difficult changes in a thought out manner and with care for its employees, offering the dismissed employees a range of protective and supportive initiatives.
On February 1st, 2018 the Management Board of the Company shall request the trade unions operating at the Company and the Company's works council to join in the consultation on collective redundancy process and shall provide the relevant Labor Office with information on the intention to execute group layoffs in the Company.
The Company shall publish a consecutive regulatory filing on collective redundancies after the required by law process of consultation with trade unions and works council operating at the Company is finalized. This regulatory filing shall also include information on the estimated amount of provision related to the restructuring of employment in Agora S.A. and in Agora Poligrafia Sp. z o. o. which will be fully charged to the result of the Company and of Agora Group in the 1st quarter of 2018. The final data regarding the amount of the provision and the effect of employment restructuring on the financial results of the Company and of Agora Group shall be published in the financial statements of the Company and of Agora Group for the 1st quarter of 2018 .
Legal basis: article 17, paragraph 1 of the Regulation of the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No. 596/2014 of April 16th, 2014 on market abuse (Regulation on Market Abuse) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and the Commission Directive 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC (Acts. Office. EC L 173, 06.12.2014).
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