Frontier Digital Ventures Continues Momentum With Strong Q2 Results

Malaysia-based international portal operator Frontier Digital Ventures has announced a strong set of Q2 results which saw shares of the ASX listed firm climb 5%.

Highlights of FDV's Q2 activity report include:

• Record half-yearly revenue of A$24.2 million
• Record half-yearly revenue for leading Pakistani portal Zameen (up 51% on last year)
• EBITDA margins excluding recent acquisitions up at 7% (2% if recent acquisitions FincaRaíz, Avito, Tayara and Yapo are included)

FDV invests in and operates a number of classifieds businesses in upcoming markets around the world including InfoCasas, Yapo, FincaRaíz and Encuentra24 in Latin America and Hoppler, LankaPropertyWeb, iMyanmarHouse and Zameen in Asia. Over the last 8 weeks, the company has widened its revenue base by increasing its holding in Philippino transaction-based business Hoppler to 51% and invested to take full ownership of multi-country property vertical InfoCasas.

Underpinning record half-yearly revenue for FDV was impressive growth for real estate verticals Zameen and InfoCasas as well as motor verticals PakWheels (Pakistan) and Moteur (Morocco). Many of FDV's brands have achieved profitability of¡ver the last year or so, with the company highlighting the fact that only 5 brands are still unprofitable "with an EBITDA loss in aggregate of less than A$100K".

Back in October of 2020 FDV bought several underperforming assets from Adevinta which itself was lining up a monumental deal with eBay. According to CEO Shaun Di Gregorio, FDV's newest assets are coming along nicely as well:

"Meanwhile, our recent 100% acquisitions of Fincaraíz, Avito, Tayara and Yapo are all tracking at or above our expectations as the local management teams execute on their strategic roadmaps, including facilitating transactions."

FDV will be hoping that the upward trend seen among many of its assets continues as the markets in which its assets operate mature and that recent political turmoil troubles in Myanmar (where it has 2 assets) can be overcome. The company has signalled its intent to expand its portfolio in 'Developing Asia' and Di Gregorio highlighted two of the regions recent success stories to investors.

"Recent corporate transactions involving PropertyGuru and iCar Asia highlight the value of online classifieds businesses. Significant additional business and equity value can be created beyond the traditional classifieds model by leveraging market leadership to facilitate transactions and thereby enhance the revenue opportunity in each market."