Schibsted ASA (SCHA/SCHB) - Interim Report Q1 2024

Today, Schibsted released its Q1 2024 results.

Commencing a transformational year to realise our full potential

“In the quarter, we made important progress related to the major, structural changes which we announced in November and December. Alongside these processes, we are currently developing comprehensive measures to adjust the organisation and cost base for a new setting and a more challenging macroeconomic environment,” CEO Kristin Skogen Lund says.

“We were pleased to see that the Adevinta offer, which values our current stake at approximately NOK 40 billion, received all required regulatory approvals which leads to an expected settlement of the transaction on 29 May 2024. In March, we could announce a final agreement with the Tinius Trust, relating to the sale of our news media operations. The transaction, which will be presented to the Annual General Meeting for shareholder approval, is a key milestone in transforming today's Schibsted into two more focused companies. Finally, we concluded our work on the capital return package related to the cash proceeds of the two transactions, amounting to a total of approximately NOK 29 billion. The proposed package is in line with our focus on shareholder returns and a strong financial position,” CEO Kristin Skogen Lund says.

“Operationally, our financial performance in Q1 was negatively affected by the continued volatile macroeconomic environment and the structural changes in the company. Underlying¹ Group revenues decreased by 1 per cent to 3,794 million compared to the same period last year. EBITDA ended at 454 million, up 7 per cent due to News Media,” CEO Kristin Skogen Lund says.

“Nordic Marketplaces saw a solid, double-digit increase in average revenue per ad, ARPA, across most verticals, and transactional revenues continued to grow well. This resulted in an underlying¹ growth of 9 per cent in Classifieds revenues despite the volatile macroeconomic environment which continued to affect volumes, and proves our strong business model. Total underlying¹ revenues for Nordic Marketplaces increased by 6 per cent, affected by declining advertising revenues. EBITDA ended at NOK 411 million, down 2 per cent compared to Q1 last year. The decrease is mainly explained by investments in transactional models and the transition towards a unified technology platform. Concurrently, the ongoing reorganisation of the Group is hampering the implementation of cost measures,” CEO Kristin Skogen Lund says.

“Despite a volatile advertising market and a continued decline in the print business, News Media’s profitability improved considerably compared to Q1 last year as a result of cost reductions from the cost programme which was announced last year,” CEO Kristin Skogen Lund says.

“In Growth & Investments, macroeconomic factors continued to lead to reduced demand for Lendo and Prisjakt, resulting in a revenue decline. To address the uncertainty and downturn in these businesses, we have started to implement cost measures which led to lower operating costs and partly mitigated the decline in EBITDA,” CEO Kristin Skogen Lund says.

“While we are happy with and proud of our achievements over the last few months related to the aforementioned transformational transactions, we acknowledge that the cost development needs to be addressed in Nordic Marketplaces, and Schibsted Marketplaces as the remaining company. The ongoing reorganisation associated with the separation of our media business is currently creating constraints on our ability to take necessary cost measures. While this is anticipated to impact our financial performance adversely in the short-term, we want to emphasise the temporary nature of these effects. We are actively updating our strategy for Schibsted Marketplaces and developing comprehensive measures to adapt the organisation and cost base to the new setting. Schibsted Marketplaces continues to operate robust businesses with unique market positions and our ambitions remain high. We are eager to share the results of our strategic work at the upcoming Capital Markets Day, scheduled for Q4 this year,” CEO Kristin Skogen Lund says.

This quarter's highlights

●    Group: Revenues of 3.794m, down 1% YoY on an underlying¹ revenue basis. EBITDA of 454 million, up 7 per cent due to News Media.
●    Nordic Marketplaces: 6% underlying¹ revenue growth, while Classifieds revenues were up 9% driven by ARPA. EBITDA of NOK 411 million, down 2 per cent YoY driven by investments in transactional models and the transition towards a unified technology platform. Ongoing reorganisation of the Group is temporarily hampering the implementation of cost measures.
●    News Media: Significant profitability improvement, driven by reduced costs. EBITDA of NOK 61 million, up from break-even EBITDA in Q1 last year.
●    Delivery: EBITDA of NOK 1 million, slightly up YoY, despite continued revenue decline due to reduced costs.
●    Delivery: Revenue decline of 12 per cent. EBITDA of NOK 20 million, significantly up YoY and QoQ, driven by improved profitability in Helthjem.
●    Growth & Investments: 12 per cent underlying¹ revenue decline, driven by Lendo and Prisjakt which are affected by macroeconomic factors. Cost measures partly mitigated the decline in EBITDA which ended at NOK 40 million.
●    Decided to temporarily pause current financial targets for Nordic Marketplaces.

	First quarter			Full Year
(NOK million)	2024	2023	Change	2023
Schibsted Group
Operating revenues	3,794	3,776	0%	15,756
- of which digital	2,772	2,670	4%	11,383
EBITDA	454	423	7%	2,519
EBITDA margin	12%	11%		16%

¹ Foreign exchange neutral basis 

Alternative performance measures used in this release are described and presented in the section Definitions and reconciliations in the quarterly report.

Programme for the day, 26 April 2024:

07:00 CET
Publication of the Q1 results including interim report, presentation, and financials and analytical information.

09:00 CET
CEO Kristin Skogen Lund and CFO Per Christian Mørland will present the Q1 results as a virtual live webcast, followed by a Q&A session at which also EVP Nordic Marketplaces and Delivery Christian Printzell Halvorsen will attend. The presentation and following Q&A session will be held in English. The webcast can be viewed live at:
https://channel.royalcast.com/landingpage/hegnarmedia/20240426_1/

For the Q&A at the end of the presentation, we invite analysts to ask questions in a live format by using the raise-hand-feature in Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams link: 
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MmRmM2VmOGYtN2VhMy00ODI1LWE2YTEtNTRiNjgyNWMxOTM1%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%226f6d5d78-35df-4e19-83aa-7efcf9b475bc%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%222475081b-3683-4421-90d7-20303166e40e%22%7d

Meeting-ID: 379 326 598 028
Password: yF8Boq

It will also be possible to send in written questions through the webcast player.

A recording of the presentation will be available on our IR website shortly after the live webcast has ended.

Oslo, 26 April 2024
SCHIBSTED ASA