Preliminary 2023 full-year financials confirmed with 13.8% revenue growth and 21.0% ooEBITDA growth resulting in 59.7% margin Dividend proposal of EUR 1.20 per share, up 20% compared to last dividend paid Financial guidance for FY 2024 and financial guidance framework for 2024 – 2026 presented at Capital Markets Day confirmed Share buy-back programme with a volume of up to EUR 50.0 million in execution CO2e emissions reduced by around 76% compared to the 2018 baseline Munich / Berlin, 28 March 2024 Scout24 today published its first combined annual report with the non-financial statement for 2023. The financials presented in the report confirm the preliminary results published on 28 February 2024 and underline another successful year for the Scout24 Group. Accordingly, Group revenues grew by 13.8% year-on-year to EUR 509.1 million. Ordinary operating EBITDA grew even stronger by 21.0% to EUR 303.9 million, resulting in a 59.7% ordinary operating EBITDA margin.
| KEY FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS |
| EUR million | | 2023 | | 2022 | | Change |
| Group revenue | | 509.1 | | 447.5 | | +13.8% |
| Group ordinary operating EBITDA1 | | 303.9 | | 251.1 | | +21.0% |
| Group ordinary operating EBITDA margin2 in % | | 59.7% | | 56.1% | | +3.6pp |
| Group EBITDA3 | | 278.7 | | 230.6 | | +20.9% |
| Group earnings per share (basic) in EUR4 | | 2.43 | | 1.59 | | +52.8% |
| Adjusted group earnings per share (basic)5 in EUR | | 2.52 | | 1.91 | | +32.1% |
1 Ordinary operating EBITDA is EBITDA adjusted for non-operating effects, mainly expenses for share-based payments, M&A activities (realized and unrealized), reorganization measures 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 as earnings before the financial result, income taxes, depreciation, amortization and any impairment losses or reversals of impairment losses. 4 Based on a weighted average number of shares of 73,691,314 for the 2023 financial year and 77,806,579 for the 2022 financial year. 5 Adjusted (1) for non-operating effects, which are also used to determine ordinary operating EBITDA, (2) for depreciation, amortization and impairment losses on assets acquired in business combinations, and (3) for financial result effects primarily resulting from measurement of purchase price liabilities. The nominal tax rate is applied to the adjusted earnings. For complete financials for the year 2023 and detailed explanations, please see the annual report 2023 on our Reporting 2023 microsite at
www.scout24.com/en/reporting-2023 or our publications section at
www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/financial-reports-presentations. 2023 results underscore highly successful and sustainable growth strategy Based on the most comprehensive product and tech portfolio centered around its three customer groups – agents, homeowners, seekers – Scout24 is successfully executing on its strategy of evolving beyond a traditional marketplace. 2023 highlights another year of strong results with continued revenue growth, mainly driven by the high demand for ImmoScout24’s core products, and an increased operating leverage. This reflects the high relevance of the ImmoScout24 platform and Scout24’s robust business model with a diversified product portfolio, that enables the company to grow in all market environments. Scout24’s interconnectivity strategy will drive future growth The claim of the annual report, “Growing with impact”, highlights the close link between Scout24’s growth ambitions and the updated company strategy around interconnectivity, as well as its commitment to a consistent environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach. Following the claim, Scout24 now initiates the next phase of its strategy: Scout24 will deliver growth by merging relevant object data with classifieds to facilitate more efficient matchmaking between all stakeholders. AI (Artificial Intelligence) plays a key role in building interconnected products for customers and consumers with a more personalized user experience. In the future, Scout24 will provide more market transparency along the real estate transaction. Scout24 outlined its updated strategy at the Capital Markets Day on 28 February 2024. The presentation and a recording of the day can be found at
www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/financial-events/capital-markets-day. Non-financial statement highlights Scout24’s ambitious ESG strategy This year, for the first time, the non-financial statement has been combined with the annual report. In line with the "Growing with impact” claim, Scout24’s goal is to make business activities sustainable. It is important to Scout24 to be aware of the company’s impact on the environment and society and take responsibility. The non-financial statement has been developed in reference to the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). One highlight listed in the report is the reduction of CO2e emissions by around 76%, compared to the 2018 baseline. Other milestones are the improvement of the hiring rate of women or non-binary people to 50.5% and a 84% reduction of platform-hidden fraud compared to the same period last year. Moreover, Scout24 continued its social commitment by donating one euro for every new Plus membership subscription between September and December 2023 to a housing first project from
HOME STREET HOME, which was founded by ImmoScout24 and One Warm Winter to support homeless people. At the end of the year, Scout24 rounded up the donation amount to EUR 200,000. In addition to the combined annual report and non-financial statement 2023, Scout24 SE also published its compensation report for the 2023 financial year at
www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/corporate-governance/compensation. Further share buy-back programme with a volume of up to EUR 50 million started in January 2024 In order to continue to execute the share buy-back programme resolved in March 2023, Scout24 SE announced on 26 January 2024 to execute a further share buy-back transaction in a second tranche with a volume of up to EUR 50 million. This tranche started on 29 January 2024 and will run until 4 October 2024 at the latest. For details of this share buy-back programme, see
www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/share/share-buybacks. Dividend proposal of EUR 1.20 per share leads to increase of 20% compared to previous year Based on the successful financial year 2023 and the expectation of continued profitable growth, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of EUR 1.20 per share entitled to dividend, translating to 20% growth compared to last dividend paid. This corresponds to approximately 47% of adjusted net profit and remains at the upper end of Scout24’s defined dividend policy. A total distribution of EUR 88.1 million is expected. The dividend will be paid out after this year’s Annual General Meeting. If the number of dividend-entitled shares for the past financial year 2023 changes as a result of the ongoing share buy-back programme until the Annual General Meeting, a correspondingly adjusted resolution proposal will be submitted to the Annual General Meeting. This will provide for an unchanged dividend of EUR 1.20 per dividend-entitled share. Management confirms growth guidance for 2024 and financial framework for 2024 – 2026 Based on the Group’s diversified product portfolio, its added value offering in various market situations, as well as an improved operating model, the Management Board expects the Group’s growth momentum and operating leverage to continue in 2024. Therefore, the Management Board confirms its expectations for revenues to grow 9-11% and the ordinary operating EBITDA margin to expand to about 61% in the financial year 2024. Overall, the Management Board will maintain its focus on increasing the Group's ordinary operating EBITDA and the corresponding margin. For the three-year period from 2024 to 2026, the Management Board expects Group revenues to grow annually at a rate of high single-digit to low double-digits and ordinary operating EBITDA margin to reach 63% by 2026. Next dates 2 May 2024: Interim Report for the first quarter of 2024 & Analyst Conference Call 5 June 2024: Annual General Meeting 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 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
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 E-mail: ir@scout24.com Contact for Media Axel Schmidt Teamlead Corporate Communications Tel.: +49 30 24301 1446 E-mail: 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.
