Scout24 Upgrades 2023 Guidance on the Back of a Profitable Q2

The market-leading German real estate portal company Scout24 has revealed its financial and operational metrics for the second quarter of its 2023 financial year. Notable points from the company's missive to the market include:

• Revenue (€122 million) increased 11% year-on-year on a quarterly basis, largely driven by ImmobilienScout's core agent-facing business.
• Ordinary operating EBITDA (€78.2 million) surged 26% on a quarterly year-on-year basis.
• Adjusted Earnings Per Share were up 73% to €1.23.

The Munich-based company saw a bumper quarter during which German real estate agents increasingly turned to its flagship portal ImmobilienScout24 to market their properties. Membership was up 4% on the comparison period while the average revenue per professional user was up 6% at €1,071.

Like many portals around the world, Scout24 was not immune to a macro-economic environment of high-interest rates and stubborn inflation. In its report, Scout24 noted that the rental, commercial and new build markets remain slow in Germany.

In the sales market, the trend of lower asking prices is now starting to reverse according to Scout24's data although properties are still staying on the market much longer than last year. The increased volumes of homes for sale on the market led to a 20% drop in revenue (€7.3 million) for the company's seller leads business, Immoverkauf24.

While its core business may have driven the majority of the growth through the first half of 2023, Scout24's consumer subscription products continue to perform admirably.

Although subscriber levels remained flat in Q2, the so-called 'Private' segment of Scout24's business generated €35.5 million in revenue at a 54.6% ooEBITDA margin.

In terms of its operational efficiency, Scout24's headcount has dropped from 960 to 879 since the end of 2022 and its marketing expenses were down by 27% compared to the comparison quarter in 2022.

Scout24 has now strung together ten quarters in a row of revenue growth and seven in a row of double-digit revenue growth. As a result of the positive results, Scout24 upgraded its full-year guidance. The company now expects revenue growth of around 15% and ooEBITDA growth of between 18-19%.

The company's share price jumped from around €58 per share before the announcement of its Q2 results to nearly €63 per share early on Monday. At the time of writing, shares in Scout24 were trading at around €59.5.