EQS-News: Scout24 SE: Continued growth momentum in Q3 2024; FY2024 guidance expected towards upper end

Scout24 SE: Continued growth momentum in Q3 2024; FY2024 guidance expected towards upper end

• Group revenue growth of 8.5% (Q3) and 11.4% (9M) driven by continued strong performance in professional memberships and private subscriptions

• Customer numbers continue to expand in both segments in Q3: professional customers by 2.5% to 24,728 and private subscribers by 24.7% to 460,067

• Operating leverage accelerated with 16.1% (Q3) ooEBITDA growth and 4.1pp margin expansion to 62.9% (Q3)

• Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at EUR 0.75, growing firmly at 16.0% in Q3

• FY2024 guidance: Both revenue growth and ooEBITDA margin expected towards the upper end

Munich / Berlin, 31 October 2024

The Scout24 Group continued its growth momentum in the third quarter of 2024 with a revenue uptake of 8.5%, and 11.4% for the nine-month period of 2024. Revenue growth continues to be driven by strong demand from real estate agents for professional memberships and an increase in Plus subscriptions in the Private segment. Customer numbers continue to expand in both segments. The newly reported transaction enablement¹ revenue line in the Professional segment rose 2.9% in the third quarter of 2024, supported by the gradual recovery of the real estate market.

”Our third quarter results underscore the strength of our interconnectivity strategy and the growing value of our three-sided marketplace. We are seeing solid growth across all key metrics – traffic, users, customers and listings. We are proud to be the go-to platform for our expanding B2B customer base in an increasingly complex real estate market. As we approach the end of 2024, we are confident to finish the year on a high note. Looking ahead, we are entering 2025 with tremendous momentum and confidence in our ability to further drive growth. Our product innovations are gaining traction, with our seeker subscriptions showing strong momentum”, comments Tobias Hartmann, CEO of Scout24 SE.

^{1) Transaction enablement includes all lead transactions, the Sprengnetter business with real estate appraisals and valuations as well as the CRM software for real estate agents.}

Revenue growth dynamics: Professional and private subscription continues to grow strongly

The Professional segment achieved a revenue growth of 6.5% in the third quarter of 2024. Subscription revenues with professional customers continued to grow firmly at a rate of 9.0% year-on-year. The number of professional customers in Germany and Austria increased again by 2.5% to 24,728.  Transaction enablement revenue growth of 2.9% was driven by momentum in Valuation & Data, CRM as well as ESG products. Demand for seller leads stabilised, while demand for mortgage leads remained soft.

The Private segment further accelerated with 13.8% revenue growth in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the already strong previous quarters. This was driven by the continued solid demand for Plus subscriptions, resulting in a 27.6% subscription revenue surge. The number of private customers rose by 24.7%. With an additional almost 100,000 new subscribers, the segment achieved an average of  460,067 private customers for the quarter. Private ARPU increased by 2.3% year-on-year. The Private pay-per-ad business revenue remained stable at high-levels, declining only by 0.6% in the quarter.

Operating leverage re-accelerates in the quarter: ordinary operating EBITDA up 16.1% in Q3 and 14.5% in the first nine months of the year

Operating effects in the third quarter were 1.8% below the previous year's figure. In the nine-month comparison, only a moderate rise in expenses of 5.5% was recorded. Year-on-year increases in operating effects mainly resulted from higher personnel expenses and higher other operating expenses. Personnel expenses for Q3 rose only moderately by 3.2%.

Ordinary operating EBITDA increased by 16.1% year-on-year to EUR 90.7 million in Q3 (9M 2024: EUR 257.1  million; +14.5%) and the corresponding ordinary operating EBITDA margin rose by 4.1 percentage points to 62.9% (9M 2024: 61.3%; +1.7 percentage points), underpinning the Group’s continued focus on revenue growth while expanding profitability. These significant improvements compared to the respective prior-year period are due to a favourable revenue mix with high-margin products and increased productivity.

The increase in non-operating effects, that was reported in the first half of the year, normalised in the third quarter, growing only by 6.2%. The nine-month period increase of 41.4% remains elevated due to higher expenses for share-based compensation and M&A. These were offset to some extent by lower expenses for reorganisation measures and other non-operating effects. Reported EBITDA improved by 16.8% in Q3 2024 as a result of normalising non-operating effects.

Basic earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter amounted to EUR 0.69, growing 9.9% year-on-year. The gain was negatively impacted by the financial result for the same period last year, which included positive one-off effects. Adjusted EPS, which normalises for these effects, came in at EUR 0.75, surging strongly at 16.0% year-on-year.

“With our strong performance in the third quarter and year-to-date, we’re on track for our fourth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth. Our professional and private membership products continue to see solid demand as they deliver high return on invest for customers. With continued strong growth in these businesses, we are increasing our recurring revenue base further. Operating leverage accelerated meaningfully in the quarter as the execution of our strategy leads to increased productivity. I am very pleased to narrow our guidance for the financial year 2024 towards the upper end, both for revenue growth and ooEBITDA margin. While it’s too early to talk about 2025, we feel very confident about the momentum we are seeing in the business”, says Dirk Schmelzer, CFO of Scout24 SE.
 

¹ Ordinary operating EBITDA refers to 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 EBITDA (unadjusted) is defined 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 Board specifies guidance for the financial year 2024

The current developments in the German real estate market continue to have a positive impact on Scout24’s product demand and thus revenue development. The relevance of the ImmoScout24 platform and the marketing capabilities of the product offering have gained importance in the current market environment. Based on the strong business performance in the first nine months of 2024, the Management Board has decided to narrow the current guidance to the upper end, both for revenue growth of 9-11% and ordinary operating EBITDA margin of about 61%. Overall, the main focus is on increasing earnings power in absolute terms (measured by ordinary operating EBITDA) and improving profitability (measured by the corresponding margin).

New segment structure as of Q3 2024

As communicated with the results for the first half of 2024, the Scout24 Group adapted its internal management and reporting structure as of 1 July 2024. As a result, the former Media & Other segment has been fully integrated into the Professional segment, leaving 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.

Quarterly statement Q3/9M 2024

A detailed description of the development of business and the results of operations is provided in the Q3/9M 2024 quarterly statement, 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.

Webcast

Scout24 will hold a webcast and conference call today at 15:00 CET to discuss the third quarter/first nine months 2024 results. The links to the dial-in details and registration can be found at: https://www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/financial-events/financial-calendar

A recorded version of the webcast will be available after the event at the following link: https://www.webcast-eqs.com/scout24-q32024

Next reporting dates

Scout24 will publish its preliminary financial results for full year (and Q4) 2024 on 27 February 2025.

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.

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.