International media group Schibsted has reported its Q1 financial results; with EBITDA ex, investment phase, increasing by 5 per cent to NOK 669 million, attributing growth to its online classifieds businesses and media house.
Schibsted owns a number of leading online marketplaces across the property, automotive and jobs sectors in Europe, Africa and America; the performance of its online classifieds brands have attributed to the company’s Q1 growth, said Schibsted CEO Rolv Erik Ryssdal.
“Both operating revenues and gross operating profits continued to grow well in Schibsted in Q1 2017,” Ryssdal said. “The improvement came in both online classifieds and media houses.”
“Within online classifieds we are particularly pleased with the strong progress in the verticals. We are strengthening our positions among professional customers, which contributed to an online classifieds revenue growth of 17 percent, adjusted for currency fluctuations,” Ryssdal says.
The Schibsted financial report stated there was a 20 per cent revenue growth in France, driven by consistent high growth in car and real estate verticals, initiated monetization of jobs and the acquisition of MB Diffusion.
“Our largest online classifieds company, Leboncoin in France, continued to perform well, driven by good development in the verticals,” Ryssdal said of the real estate classifieds site.
The classifieds arms of the business also saw 20 per cent revenue growth in Spain and was strengthened by its jobs and cars classifieds sites. Growth of its real estate sites was deemed “sluggish” and display advertising continued to grow slowly, although it’s noted that Schibsted’s acquisition of real estate site Habitaclia is contributing positively.
