Scout24 SE accelerates revenue growth and increases profitability in the first half of 2024

Scout24 SE accelerates revenue growth and increases profitability in the first half of 2024

• Double-digit revenue growth of 14.4% (Q2) and 13.0% (H1) due to continued strong demand for core products

• Number of customers increased in the second quarter year-on-year, up 2.4% in the Professional segment and 27.1% in the Private segment

• Continued operating leverage with 13.7% ordinary operating EBITDA growth and margin expansion by 0.3 percentage points to 60.4%

• Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) rose significantly by 11.4%

Munich / Berlin, 8 August 2024

Scout24 SE continues its growth path with a 14.4% increase in revenue in the second quarter of 2024. In the first half, Scout24 SE increased its revenues to EUR 275.6 million, up 13.0% compared with the same period of the previous year. This development was driven by the continued strong demand for core products, memberships for real estate agents in the Professional segment and Plus subscriptions in the Private segment. Although the market situation remains challenging for real estate agents, the number of customers in both core segments reached new record levels. The consolidation of the Sprengnetter Group, acquired in 2023, also had a positive impact on revenue development.

“We are in full swing successfully executing our strategy: Our interconnected three-sided marketplace continued to gain relevance, both content and app traffic increased. In the second quarter, our agent membership business continued to add new customers. Our private subscriber growth even accelerated compared to the first quarter. This is the result of our long-term investment in a uniquely networked product world that is well received by all market participants. Our new brand campaign will drive our reach towards younger target groups even further”, comments Tobias Hartmann, CEO of Scout24 SE.

Core business with agents and Plus products drive further growth

Revenue in the Professional segment increased significantly again in the first half of 2024, up 14.4%, despite a still challenging market situation. Due to the continued high demand from real estate agents for more visibility and marketing services, Scout24 recorded strong revenue growth, particularly from memberships, of 9.4%. At the same time, the customer base was increased. The number of professional customers was up 2.4% (H1 2024: +2.1%) year-on-year, which marks an acceleration compared to the first quarter this year (Q1 2024:  +1.8%). Scout24 thus reached an average number of professional customers of 22,359 in the second quarter. This shows that the products are very well received by professional customers and that the migration to memberships that the Company is striving for is progressing successfully. On the other hand, this change dampens the development of pay-per-ad listings (individual listings). Nevertheless, the related revenue declined less in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. Organically, demand for seller and mortgage leads is still muted. The consolidation of Sprengnetter’s revenue had a positive impact on both revenue streams.

With a year-on-year increase in revenue of 10.7% in the first half of the year, the Private segment also developed positively, growing at a faster rate than in the first quarter. The segment’s revenue was driven by the continued high demand for Plus subscriptions with accelerated growth in subscriptions of 23.3%. The number of private customers rose by 24.0% in the first half of the year and 27.1% in the second quarter compared to the same periods of the previous year. In June of the reporting year, Scout24 recorded a record number of over 440,000 private customers. In contrast, the private customer business from pay-per-ad listings recorded rather moderate growth of 3.9%. The volume of private listings had already reached a high level and therefore rose only slightly. Other revenue, which is generated from relocation leads and selling credit checks, declined by 12.0% compared to the first half of the previous year.

Revenue in the Media & Other segment increased by 10.1% year-on-year.

Sustained positive operating leverage: ordinary operating EBITDA up 13.7% in the first half of the year

In the first half of 2024, operating costs rose by 9.5% year-on-year, thus growing at a slower rate than revenue. This development is mainly due to an increase in personnel expenses related to the Sprengnetter consolidation, and an increase in other operating expenses. In addition, marketing expenses were up due to investments in ImmoScout24 brand campaigns. Furthermore, purchasing costs were higher than in the previous year, while IT expenses declined year-on-year due to general efficiency measures which had a positive effect.

Against this background, ordinary operating EBITDA increased by 13.7% in the first half of 2024, while the corresponding ordinary operating EBITDA margin expanded by 0.3 percentage points to 60.4%. These improvements relative to the same period of the previous year were due to the continued positive revenue performance of high-margin products and sustained, strict cost management. This cushioned the structural effect arising from the consolidation of the Sprengnetter Group that contributes lower margins as a result of its business model.

Non-operating effects were meaningfully higher than in the previous year, driven by higher share-based compensation and higher M&A-related expenses. As a result, reported Group EBITDA increased slightly less than ordinary operating EBITDA, improving by 8.3% on the first half of 2023 to EUR 138.9 million.

Increased depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses and of income taxes as well as a decline in the financial result led to an overall decrease in earnings per share of 8.1% to EUR 1.01 in the first half of 2024. The financial result decreased year-on-year on account of higher expenses from the subsequent measurement of purchase price liabilities. Adjusted earnings per share rose by a strong 11.4% in the reporting period to EUR 1.37. 

“I am very pleased that we accelerated growth in the second quarter - exactly as we said we would. We were able to again expand our margin in the first half of 2024, despite a tough comparable and absorbing Sprengnetter with lower margins. This highlights the level of execution we are delivering both on the revenue side while continuing to deliver efficiency. It resulted in another double-digit growth in adjusted EPS for the first half of the year. Based on that, I am pleased to confirm our full-year 2024 guidance,“ adds Dirk Schmelzer, CFO of Scout24 SE.

¹ Ordinary operating EBITDA refers to the Group’s EBITDA adjusted for non-operating effects, which mainly include expenses for share-based payments, M&A activities (realised and unrealised), reorganisation and other non-operating effects.

² The ordinary operating EBITDA margin is defined as ordinary operating EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

³ Group EBITDA (unadjusted) is defined by analogy with the presentation in the consolidated statement of profit or loss as earnings before the financial result, income taxes, depreciation, amortisation and any impairment losses or reversals of impairment losses.

⁴ Adjusted (1) for non-operating effects, which are also used to determine ordinary operating EBITDA, (2) for depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on assets acquired in business combinations, and (3) effects from business combinations included in the financial result, such as the measurement of purchase price liabilities.

Management reaffirms guidance for financial year 2024

Based on the business performance to date, the Management Board expects the Group's growth momentum and operating economies of scale to continue in 2024. Consequently, the Management Board confirms its guidance for the 2024 financial year and expects a revenue growth of 9-11% as well as an increase of ordinary operating EBITDA margin to about 61%. Overall, the main focus is on increasing earnings power in absolute terms (measured by Group ordinary operating EBITDA) and improving profitability (measured by the corresponding margin).

New segment structure as of Q3 2024

Scout24 presented its updated strategy with a focus on interconnectivity at this year’s Capital Markets Day on 28 February 2024. In order to implement the strategy and ensure a holistic view of the connected market participants, the Scout24 Group is adapting its internal management and reporting structure from 1 July 2024. As a result, from an operational Group management and reporting structure perspective, the former Media & Other segment has been fully integrated into the Professional segment. This leaves the two segments Professional and Private.

Further details of the resegmentation can be found in the ‘Fundamentals of the Group’ section of the half-year report 2024.

Half-year report 2024

A detailed description of the development of business and the results of operations is provided in the half-year financial report 2024, which is available at www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/financial-reports-presentations. We also provide an overview of our current and historical key financial figures at Group and segment level in a table (xlsx) there.

Conference call

Scout24 will hold a webcast and conference call today at 15:00 CEST to discuss the results for the first half of 2024.

Link to the live webcast (without telephone dial-in): https://www.webcast-eqs.com/scout24-h12024

Financial analysts and investors can register for the conference call at the following link:

https://services.choruscall.it/DiamondPassRegistration/register?confirmationNumber=7837903&linkSecurityString=115e1bc763

After registration, participants will receive a confirmation email with their personal dial-in information.

Conference call participants can view the presentation slides live by clicking on the following link:

https://www.webcast-eqs.com/scout24-h12024/no-audio

A recording of the conference is available at: https://www.webcast-eqs.com/scout24-h12024

Next reporting dates

Scout24 will publish the results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2024 on 31 October 2024.

About Scout24

Scout24 is one of the leading digital companies in Germany. With the digital marketplace ImmoScout24, for residential and commercial real estate, we successfully bring together homeowners, real estate agents, tenants, and buyers – and we have been doing so for 25 years. With more than 19 million users per month on the website or in the app, ImmoScout24 is the market leader for digital real estate listing and search. To digitise the process of real estate transactions, ImmoScout24 is continually developing new products and building up a networked, data-rich ecosystem for renting, buying, and commercial real estate in Germany and Austria. Scout24 is a listed stock corporation (ISIN: DE000A12DM80, Ticker: G24) and member of the MDAX and the DAX50 ESG. Further information is available on LinkedIn. Since 2012, ImmoScout24 has also been active in the Austrian real estate market.

Contact for Investor Relations

Filip Lindvall

Vice President Group Strategy & Investor Relations

Tel: +49 30 243011917

Email: ir@scout24.com

Contact for media

Viktoria Götte

Senior Manager Corporate Communications

Tel.: +49 89 262024943

Email: mediarelations@scout24.com

Disclaimer

All information contained in this release has been carefully prepared. However, no liability of any kind is assumed for the information contained herein and/or its completeness. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is given by or on behalf of the Company or any of its directors, officers or employees or any other person as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained in this document and no liability whatsoever is accepted by the Company or any of its directors, officers or employees nor any other person for any loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of such information or opinions or otherwise arising in connection therewith. The information contained in this release is subject to amendment, revision and updating. Certain statements, beliefs and opinions in this document are forward-looking, which reflect the Company’s or, as appropriate, senior management’s current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results, including but not limited to the Company's financial position or profitability, to differ materially, also adversely, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Statements contained in this document regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any information contained in this document (including forward-looking statements), whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Scout24 also uses alternative performance measures, not defined by IFRS, to describe the Scout24 Group’s results of operations. These should not be viewed in isolation but treated as supplementary information. Alternative performance measures used by Scout24 are defined in the corresponding place in the financial reports. The special items used to calculate some alternative performance measures arise from the integration of acquired businesses, reorganisation measures, impairment losses, gains or losses on sale resulting from divestitures and the sale of shareholdings, and other expenses and income that generally do not arise in conjunction with Scout24’s ordinary business activities. Due to rounding, numbers presented throughout this release may not add up precisely to the totals indicated, and percentages may not precisely reflect the absolute figures for the same reason.