Schibsted's Real Estate Classifieds Growth Continues to be Driven by FINN in Norway

The Nordic online classifieds operator Schibsted has released a report on its activities during Q3 of the 2023 financial year. Underlying company revenue grew by 1% while Group EBITDA was up 13% on last year's Q3 figure.

Schibsted is the Oslo-based media company that spun off online classifieds operator Adevinta in 2019. It reports four business segments with the two most significant being News Media and Nordic Marketplaces, which houses its online classifieds assets.

Although the majority of Schibsted's online classifieds assets passed to Adevinta, the firm retained its classified assets in the Nordic countries.

Schibsted Nordic Classifieds Assets

Commenting on the results of the Nordic Marketplaces segment in Q3, CEO Kristen Skogen Lund said:

"Driven by a strong top-line growth in the Mobility, Real Estate and Recommerce verticals, Nordic Marketplaces delivered robust underlying revenue growth of 10 per cent in Q3, despite continued market headwinds in the Job vertical."

Most of the Nordic Marketplaces segment revenue comes from the cars and jobs verticals. Schibsted's assets are very strong in the Norwegian real estate sector however and the company's Q3 investor presentation highlighted the growth experienced there.

"The vertical experienced exceptionally strong growth in classifieds revenues in the quarter, driven by a resilient volume trend and continued strong ARPA development in Norway. The ARPA growth was due to regular price adjustments on top of positive effects from the new package model launched in early 2022."

Profit from Schibsted's real estate classifieds assets increased year-on-year to NOK 120 million ($10.7 million) driven by the strong revenue growth but partly offset by increased costs from new hires during 2022 and investments in Qasa.