Scout24 with strongest revenue growth in years: 15.1 % in the first quarter of 2022

• First quarter reported according to new segment structure: Professional revenue +11.8%, Private revenue +27.0%, Media & Other revenue +7.5% 

• Seller leads and Plus products remain the strongest revenue drivers 

• Growth investments create additional value: EBITDA rises by 6.5% 

• New EUR 350 million share buyback programme launched 

• Annual targets confirmed at the upper end of the guidance 

Munich / Berlin, 3 May 2022 

Scout24 Group has made a strong start to the new financial year, achieving revenue growth of 15.1% to EUR 107.9 million in Q1 2022, from EUR 93.8 million in Q1 2021. This is the strongest increase for the Scout24 real estate business since 2015 and is significantly above the full year 2022 guidance. This growth is driven by the targeted thrust of ImmoScout24 towards a transaction-based real estate platform with significantly higher revenue potential. In addition to listings for the marketing of real estate, Scout24 increasingly offers products that make real estate transactions – such as buying/selling, renting/leasing or managing real estate – more digital and efficient.   

"Scout24's strategy of quickly rolling out transaction-based products is gaining traction amid strong demand among our customers. This has given us a successful start to the first quarter. Our path to a digital transaction platform not only creates added value for our customers, but also great sustainable growth potential," comments Tobias Hartmann, CEO of Scout24 SE. 

First quarter reported according to new segment structure 

As the Scout24 growth strategy is now even more closely oriented towards the needs of private and professional customers, the Group will report in the three segments "Professional", "Private" and "Media & Other" from the 2022 financial year.  

Seller leads and Plus products remain the strongest revenue drivers  

In the first quarter of 2022, "Professional" segment revenue grew by 11.8% to EUR 71.4 million from EUR 63.8 million. This growth was driven by the core agent membership business with a revenue increase of 5.6% and the highly dynamic seller leads business (mandate acquisition), which achieved revenue growth of 51.0%. Seller leads help Scout24’s core customers generate new business and enable the Group to participate further in the proceeds from sales transactions. "Private" segment revenue rose by 27.0%, to EUR 28.2 million from EUR 22.2 million. The strongest growth driver here was very high demand for Plus products for tenants and buyers where revenue increased by 76.6%. "Media & Other" revenue increased by 7.5%, to EUR 8.3 million from EUR 7.8 million, underpinned by a strong performance in Austria.  

Growth investments create added value: EBITDA rises by 6.5%  

In order to further implement the strategic focus enabling real estate transactions, Scout24 announced increased investments for the 2022 financial year at its Capital Markets Day in December. In the first quarter of 2022 the investments are primarily reflected in higher online marketing expenses for the generation of seller leads and in higher marketing and personnel expenses for the vermietet.de platform acquired in 2021. 

EBITDA from ordinary activities increased by 6.5% to EUR 58.6 million in Q1 2022, while the EBITDA margin from ordinary activities decreased by 4.4 percentage points to 54.4% in the period. EBIT rose even stronger, by 18.2% in Q1 2022 versus Q1 2021. 

"Throughout the remainder of 2022, we will continue to focus on our investment plan in order to sustainably increase our growth potential. The impressive Q1 2022 growth demonstrates the success of this strategy. At the same time, we are continuing to optimise our capital structure and launched another share buyback programme of up to EUR 350 million in March. Furthermore, we have proposed a dividend payout of around EUR 67 million for the 2021 financial year," adds Dirk Schmelzer, CFO of Scout24 SE.  

Key FInancial performance indicators

¹ Ordinary operating EBITDA is EBITDA adjusted for non-operating effects, mainly expenses for share-based compensation, M&A activities (realised and unrealised), reorganisation measures and other non-operating effects.

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

³ EBITDA (unadjusted) is defined as earnings before financial result, income taxes, depreciation and amortisation and any impairment losses and reversals of impairment losses.

Annual targets confirmed at the upper end of the guidance

The war in Ukraine has had a significant impact on Europe and the global economy. However, Scout24 has hardly been affected by these developments. The German real estate market has not yet shown any direct effects on the development of demand or purchase and rental prices. The company expects purchase and rental prices for residential real estate to continue to rise.

Despite the deteriorating macroeconomic environment, the Executive Board therefore expects Group revenue growth for the full year to be at the upper end of the guidance of 11% to 12%. Due to the improved revenue dynamics, the Executive Board is also confident of its earnings target and similarly expects growth at the upper end of the guidance of 6% to 8%.

Detailed Quarterly Statement Q1 2022

A detailed explanation of the business development and the earnings situation can be found in the Quarterly Statement on Q1 2022 at: https://www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/financial-reports-presentations.

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 more than 20 years. With more than 20 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 an 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 Twitter and LinkedIn. Since 2012, ImmoScout24 has also been active in the Austrian real estate market.

Media Relations

Silke Ernst
Team Lead Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 30 243011766
E-mail: [email protected]

Investor Relations
Ursula Querette
Head of Investor Relations & Treasury
Tel.: +49 89 262 02 4939      
E-mail: [email protected]

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.