Annual General Meeting elects new Supervisory Board and Management Board presents Three-Pillar Strategy to realign Business Units and deliver profit and sustainable growth

• The Management Board presents an ambitious growth vision: the Three-Pillar Strategy
• After consolidation in the current year, it is planned to achieve significant growth in the next two years, break-even in 2022 and a clearly positive result in 2023
• Shareholders approve all agenda items with a large majority

July 5, 2021, Karlsruhe (Germany) – asknet Solutions AG, a leading procurement, e-commerce and payment specialist with a dominant position in the German-speaking academic market, held today its Annual General Meeting, during which the company's Management Board, Christian Herkel (CEO) and Florent Guillomeau (CFO since June 1, 2021), presented the outline of the company's new strategy.

The new strategy is the outcome of an intensive process initiated by the Management Board at the end of 2020, right after the company had emerged from an important organizational realignment and when the first noticeable improvements had been achieved. The process involved both the Senior Management and the Supervisory Board, aided by external consultants.

The result is asknet Solutions AG's Three-Pillar Strategy and a clear roadmap for the years 2021 through 2023:

• The first pillar of the strategy focusses on the plan to expand the Academics business to the entire education sector. The goal is a 75% increase of Academics gross revenue by the end of 2023.
   
• The second strategic pillar covers the repositioning of the eCommerce business and the achievement of scalable growth of the eCS platform. Here, asknet wants to achieve a doubling of eCS sales by the end of 2023.
   
• The third pillar addresses the "New Pipeline" of products and services. Here, the aim is to deliver innovative solutions and to establish new strategic partnerships. The New Pipeline developments are expected to contribute 15% of the total company’s gross profit in 2023.

Additional details, including the measures to be taken to achieve these targets can be found in the management presentation at https://asknet-solutions.com/investors/annual-general-meetings.html.

Florent Guillomeau, CFO of asknet Solutions AG: “Our new strategy represents an ambitious growth vision combined with clear targets. After consolidation in the current year, we intend to grow steadily in 2022, reaching break-even by the end of that year, and to achieve a clearly positive result in 2023.”

At the Annual General Meeting, the candidates standing for election to the Supervisory Board of asknet Solutions AG were elected with a large majority by the shareholders in attendance. The previous members of the Supervisory Board were no longer available for re-election. New members of the Supervisory Board are Mr. Manfred Danner – Board Member of Mountain Alliance AG, Mr. Massimiliano Iuliano - Board Member of Youngtimers Asset Company AG (former Smith Circle AG) and Delegate of the Board of Directors of The Native SA (to be renamed into Youngtimers AG), and Mr. Andreas Lammel – newly appointed Executive Director and Head of Operations at CORESTATE Bank GmbH (before Head of Paying Agency, CACEIS Bank – German Branch). Following the Annual General Meeting, the new Supervisory Board elected Manfred Danner as its new Chairman and Massimiliano Iuliano as Deputy Chairman.

Christian Herkel, CEO of asknet Solutions AG: "We are engaged in a continuous, constructive dialog with our shareholders and look forward to working with the new Supervisory Board. Our management team, redesigned and significantly reconfigured since June 2020, today represents a good mix of experience, expertise, and new way of thinking. With our new strategy, the team is determined to bring the company to profitability and sustainable growth by the end of the year 2023."

Viable progress has already been made in implementing the new strategy in the first half of the financial year 2021. In the eCS area, the organizational realignment is making great strides. In the Academics business unit, the IBM partnership is being continuously extended through additional license sales. In the New Pipeline area, an experienced Business Development team is leading the expansion in the education market. This includes the roll-out of the partnership with Blackboard Inc, signed in late 2020.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Annual General Meeting was held, for the second time, in a virtual form. The participation quota represented 80.28% of the share capital. The shareholders of the company approved all items on the agenda with a large majority.

The final voting results as well as the presentation of the Management Board including the new strategy will be available on the asknet Solutions AG website at https://asknet-solutions.com/investors/annual-general-meetings.html.

About asknet Solutions AG
asknet Solutions AG, founded in 1995, is a leading procurement, e-commerce and payment specialist focusing on the academic universe. The company offers software procurement and sales services for European academic institutions, including professors, students and alumni. The procurement portals offered by asknet are used by more than 80% of German universities of higher education. asknet Solutions AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Ticker: ASKN; ISIN: DE000A2E3707).

Contact
Magda Gajny
+49(0)721/96458-6116
investors@asknet.com