Information on the business segments

The most important segment Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe generated a net income of CHF 128.7 million. The increased demand is based on the broad diversification of the markets and, in particular, significantly stronger demand from Asia compared to 2016. The best results in its history were achieved, both in terms of visitor numbers and transport income. With 1,041,500 visitors, more than a million guests travelled to the Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe in the reporting year, for the second time since 2015. The transport income segment increased by 14.8% to CHF 107.2 million. The high number of visitors had a positive effect on the Top of Europe shops, which also achieved a new record with sales of CHF 7.5 million. After a slower previous year, it paid off for Jungfrau Railways to once again intensify its active involvement in Asian markets, in order to improve customer satisfaction through quality measures and to further strengthen the "Jungfrau – Top of Europe" brand. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to CHF 66.6 million, accounting for 75.9% of Group EBITDA.

Slightly better than the previous year, but still at a low level, was business development in winter sports. Business performance was below average from the beginning of 2017 until the end of the season in spring 2017. Thanks to a pleasing start to the season, the result improved from mid-November. The number of skier visits across the Jungfrau Ski Region rose by 3% year-on-year to 936,500, and the Group's share of the transport business revenue rose by 6.5% to CHF 20.7 million. With net sales of CHF 26.1 million, the segment achieved an EBITDA of CHF 0.3 million. The winter sports segment continues to make a significant contribution to the other divisions.

The Experience Mountains continued to develop very positively. All participating railways – the Harder Railway, First Railway and the Lauterbrunnen-Mürren Mountain Railway – achieved new records in transport revenue. Overall, this increased by 21.1% to CHF 15.9 million. The extension of the seasonal opening times and the independent positioning of all Experience Mountains are paying off. In this context, the sales increase of 45% to CHF 2.4 million in the adventure offers in the Grindelwald-First area and the increase in traffic revenue by 39.5% to nearly CHF 4 million at the Harder Railway are noteworthy. Overall, segment sales for the Experience Mountains increased by 19.2% to CHF 22.0 million and led to an EBITDA increase of 34.3% to CHF 10.2 million.