Schibsted ASA (SCHA/SCHB) - Investor Day 2016 - Driving long term online growth

Schibsted Media Group hosts investor days in London 27 September and in New York 28 September 2016. The presentation material and more information about the events, including venues, is available on www.schibsted.com/Investorday2016. The presentation in London can be followed on live webcast on the same URL from 08:30 CET on 27 October.

Continued growth prospects within Online classifieds is a key topic at the Investor Days. Schibsted's target of medium- to long term annual revenue growth for online classifieds operations is maintained at 15-20%.

"Schibsted is very well positioned for further growth in Online classifieds based on our balanced portfolio of assets in different maturity stages. In our core developed markets we see a clear opportunity to increase the revenues per customer by improving our positions in verticals. This will be driven by product innovation and by our central product & tech teams. One example is the build out of the jobs vertical in France this fall. Additionally, several of the operations in Investment phase, for example OLX in Brazil, have reached strong leadership positions in terms of traffic and number of listings, and are now in the process of increasing their monetization," CEO Rolv Erik Ryssdal says.

The political uncertainty in Spain has continued over the summer, which affects Schibsted's revenue growth particularly in the jobs vertical. In Q3 2016 this is likely to lead to a high single digit revenue growth in the Spanish online classifieds operations, which is a deceleration compared to the first half of 2016. The long term growth potential remains intact.

Schibsted sees continued potential for value accretive market consolidation through partnerships or acquisitions. Today, Schibsted announces the acquisition of MB Diffusion, the leading online classifieds market place for agricultural and construction equipment in France. The company has strong synergies with Leboncin.fr in France, and has an international presence with prospects for further growth. The revenue of the company was EUR 10.8 million in the full year 2015.

The Schibsted Ecosystem Strategy is being strengthened in the Scandinavian markets, increasing the total revenue potential through closer collaboration between Schibsted's various online operations in terms of data harvesting, joint advertising products and data driven product development.

"Certain elements of the Schibsted Ecosystem Strategy are well fitted for expansion into other markets where we have strong traffic positions. This is expected to contribute further to the revenue growth going forward," Rolv Erik Ryssdal says.

Schibsted continues to build up central product and tech capabilities. This will speed up innovation and product development as well as unlock new revenue opportunities, for example in the display advertising market in the future.

For Schibsted's media houses in Norway and Sweden, online revenues continue to increase, driven by growing advertising revenues and increased number of digital subscribers. Schibsted continues to balance the focus on digital product innovation with requirements to reduce the cost base in parallel with the overall revenue decline. In the near to medium term, this may lead to some margin pressure for the media houses overall.

Schibsted will maintain financial flexibility, and reiterates its targets with respect to maintaining an equity ratio of 35-50%, prudent financial leverage with a net interest bearing debt/EBITDA ratio of 1-2x, and a dividend pay-out ratio of 25-40% of cash flow. 

Contact persons:
Trond Berger, CFO. Tel: +47 916 86 695
Jo Christian Steigedal, VP Investor Relations. Tel: +47 415 08 733

Oslo, 27 September 2016
SCHIBSTED ASA

Jo Christian Steigedal
Head of IR