Schiphol, the Netherlands - 27 February 2019. GrandVision NV (EURONEXT: GVNV) publishes Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2018 results.
2018 Highlights
Revenue increased by 10.3% at constant exchange rates to €3,721million (FY17: €3,450 million) with comparable growth of 3.4%

Adjusted EBITDA (i.e. EBITDA before non-recurring items) increased by 6.2% at constant exchange rates to €576 million (FY17: €552 million)
Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased by 50 bps to 15.5% mainly due to the margin dilutive effect of acquisitions
Adjusted EPS was €0.91 (FY17: €0.97) despite a higher operating result as 2017 EPS benefited from a one-off €38 million gain due to the remeasurement of the 30% interest in Visilab
The total number of stores expanded by 94, to 7,095 (FY17: 7,001)
Supervisory Board proposes a dividend of €0.33 per share. The shares will trade ex-dividend as of 30 April 2019
GrandVision will host an analyst call on 27 February at 9am CET. Dial-in details are available at investors.grandvision.com and at the bottom of this press release.

Management Comments
Stephan Borchert, GrandVision's CEO, commented "2018 represents a transitional year and marks the beginning of an
exciting journey to drive GrandVision through its next phase of growth.
For full year 2018, our revenues grew by 10.3% at constant exchange rates and our financial performance was strong,
with EBITDA growth of 6.2%. We also know our customers appreciate us more than ever before, as reflected in our
average Net Promoter Score (NPS) which has increased to over 60. Our strategic priorities are sharper than before and
are helping us to drive further growth and long-term value creation for our stakeholders.
Our expansion generally progressed well in our focus markets. Of course, there are years in which we acquire more
companies or enter new geographies than in other years. However, the focus during this year was to integrate the
businesses we acquired at the end of 2017. In particular, we successfully integrated the Tesco Opticians stores in the
United Kingdom and rebranded them to Vision Express. Through this acquisition we now have a stronger business in
the UK with higher proximity to our customers.
In the Americas & Asia segment, we significantly improved our profitability. Over the past few years, we built up scale
in important growth markets like Mexico and Turkey, and are now seeing benefits of that operating leverage in our
margins for these markets. This year, our focus in the segment was on improving the effectiveness of our operations
and the quality of our store network, which we achieved by closing underperforming stores in a few markets. Overall,
we now have a stronger business in the region with improved margins, but still significant room for further
improvement remains.
In 2018 we also sharpened our digital strategy with a clear and accelerated roadmap for our omni-channel and pure
play e-commerce business. We continued to strengthen our e-commerce activities through the acquisition of
Linsenmax in Switzerland and the launch of Lenstore in Germany. Also, we went live with our new global omnichannel platform in Portugal as a test market. This successful pilot will enable us to equip many more markets with a
state-of-the-art system at a very fast pace. Overall, our e-commerce sales grew by 60% during the year from a small
base.
Looking ahead to 2019, we have strengthened our competitive position in Southern Europe through the acquisition of
Óptica2000 in Spain, making us the third biggest optical retail brand in the country. In addition, the acquisition of the
market leading online player Charlie Temple in the Netherlands improves our digital offering and provides a platform
for further international expansion.
At the same time, the increasing political and economic uncertainty in some of our markets might pose some
challenges in the short-term as consumer sentiment weakens. However, GrandVision is well positioned to deliver on its
long-term value creation strategy, while achieving its medium-term targets. We will see the world changing at a faster
pace going forward, presenting us with new opportunities."
Outlook and medium-term financial objectives
GrandVision reconfirms the following medium-term objectives laid out at its Capital Markets Day on 20 September
2018:
• Medium-term average revenue growth target of at least 5% at constant exchange rates maintained, which includes
on average at least 3% comparable growth, at least 1% contribution from store openings and at least 1%
contribution from small acquisitions
• An increase of medium and large M&A to deliver additional revenue growth, while maintaining financial discipline
• Adjusted EBITDA growth in line with total revenue growth as organic margin expansion will continue to be offset by
segment mix and the initially dilutive impact of acquisitions
• Capital expenditure to remain at 4-6% of revenue
• Dividend payout ratio to remain at 25-50% with the intention to increase dividend per share over time.
For 2019, GrandVision expects revenue and EBITDA growth to be broadly in line with the medium-term objectives.

2018 Dividend
GrandVision’s Supervisory Board proposes a dividend of €0.33 per share for the fiscal year 2018, subject to
shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting on 26 April 2019. The dividend represents a payout of 38.7% of net income attributable to equity holders, compared to 35.6% for 2017.
GrandVision intends to pay an ordinary dividend annually in line with our medium- to long-term financial performance, and expect to increase the dividend-per-share over time. As a result of this policy, we are targeting a dividend pay-out ratio of 25-50%.
If approved, the shares will trade ex-dividend as of 30 April, 2019. The record date will be 2 May 2019.

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