EQS-News: Scout24 SE publishes preliminary results for 2024 at upper-end of guidance; 2025 guidance confirms accelerating growth with continued margin expansion

Scout24 SE publishes preliminary results for 2024 at upper end of guidance; 2025 guidance confirms accelerating growth with continued margin expansion

• 2024 represents fourth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth, driven by exceptional performance in B2B and B2C

• New record customer numbers in both segments, B2B customer growth accelerated in Q4 2024

• Continued margin expansion driven by product strategy and operating leverage

• Continued value creation for shareholders: 15% growth in adjusted EPS, and free cash flow growing 34%

• FY 2025 guidance: 12-14% revenue growth with continued ooEBITDA margin expansion of up to 50 basis points

Munich/Berlin, 27 February 2025

Scout24 Group delivered another successful year of accelerated profitable growth in 2024, increasing revenues by 11.2% to EUR 566.3 million. The company thus reached the upper end of the revenue guidance range of 9-11%. Revenue growth was driven by continued strong demand for its core B2B and B2C subscription products, as well as increasing customer numbers in both segments. Group revenue growth reflects the successful execution of the interconnectivity strategy as well as continuous product innovation.

For the Professional segment subscription revenues grew by 9.8% to EUR 296.6 million and transaction enablement revenues by 19.1% to EUR 90.8 million. Average customer numbers for the year rose by 2.4% to 24,625. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Scout24 surpassed the milestone of 25 thousand professional customers.

For the Private segment subscription revenues increased by 25.2% to EUR 90.3 million driven by strong demand for Plus products. The average customer number for the year grew by 24.3% to 444,766. In the last quarter of 2024, Scout24 crossed the mark of 470 thousand private customers.

Continued operating leverage and productivity gains drove strong growth in ordinary operating EBITDA for the full year (+14.5%). As a result, the ooEBITDA margin expanded by 1.8 percentage points to 61.5% against the guidance of about 61%.

“2024 was another very successful year for Scout24: Fourth year of double-digit growth, counting over 25k B2B customers and private subscription business reaching new record numbers. With bulwiengesa and neubau kompass, we added two expert companies to the Scout24 Group, enhancing our core B2B offering and expanding further into commercial real estate data & valuation. As we continue to execute our strategy, we will continue to do the right thing for our customers: driving a superior experience with innovation and best-in-class product solutions while compounding earnings for shareholders. As my tenure at Scout24 is coming to an end, I am very grateful for what our teams have achieved since the end of 2018. All of that has translated into significant value creation for customers and shareholders. The company is in great shape, and our 2025 guidance reflects strong momentum. I am very confident that the company will continue to thrive under Ralf’s leadership. It was an absolute privilege to serve this company”, comments Tobias Hartmann, CEO of Scout24 SE until 28 February 2025.

“I am very happy to take over the CEO role from Tobias. Having worked closely with each other since 2018, we will continue to execute our interconnectivity strategy. The execution of our strategy will generate strong financial results. I am excited to drive forward Scout24’s growth strategy and build on our current strong momentum”, says Ralf Weitz, CEO of Scout24 SE from 1 March 2025.

Operating effects in the 2024 financial year were 5.6% higher than the previous year’s figure, increasing only moderately compared to revenues, benefiting from the progress with Scout24’s interconnectivity strategy as well as productivity gains. The year-on-year increase in operating effects resulted mainly from higher personnel expenses (+8.0%), reflecting the full 12-month consolidation of Sprengnetter. Other operating expenses (+24.5%) also contributed to the increase due to the use of external service providers.

As a result, ordinary operating EBITDA expanded faster than revenues for the full year increasing the ordinary operating EBITDA margin. This underpins the Group’s ongoing focus on growing revenues while expanding profitability.

Due to the strong share price development in 2024, non-operating effects rose by 85.9%. This was mainly because of the increase in expenses for share-based compensation. Furthermore, the strong performance of Sprengnetter led to higher costs for the 2024 earn-out component. The elevated level of M&A activity also contributed to increased costs. These effects were offset to some extent by lower expenses for reorganisation measures and other non-operating effects.

Reported EBITDA grew by 8.1% impacted by the increase in non-operating effects. The financial result decreased compared to the previous year. This was mainly due to increased expenses from the subsequent measurement of purchase price liabilities as a result of the strong revenue and EBITDA performance of Sprengnetter.

Basic earnings per share (EPS) for the 2024 financial year amounted to EUR 2.22, a 8.6% decrease year-on-year. The decrease was driven by higher non-operating effects, reduced financial result as well as higher income tax. The increased tax rate in 2024 resulted from differences in local HGB to IFRS related to the revaluation of purchase price liabilities for Sprengnetter.

Adjusted EPS, which normalises for all of these effects, came in at EUR 2.90, growing strongly at 15.0% year-on-year.

Cash generation in 2024 was very strong due to the operating performance and positive working capital impact as the majority of non-operating effects were non-cash in nature. Accordingly, cash flow from operating activities for the 2024 financial year amounted to EUR 257.0 million, up 27.9% year-on-year. Free cash flow¹ reached EUR 223.2 million and grew by 33.9% year-on-year.

^{(1) Free cash flow is calculated on the basis of net income, taking into account depreciation and amortisation, capitalised assets and IFRS 16 leasing, net taxes paid, changes in working capital and provisions as well as net financial impact.}

“2024 was another year of double-digit revenue growth with strong margin expansion. Adjusted EPS grew by 15% and free cash flow even more impressively by 34% - a testament to how we drive shareholder value while we continued to strengthen the business: expanding our customer base, launching many new products and investing in AI. Our upgraded operating model and interconnectivity strategy enable us to generate attractive rates of revenue growth with scope to increase margins for many years to come. Our 2025 guidance reflects these positive developments: revenue acceleration and continued margin expansion despite integrating several acquisitions with lower margins. With this guidance, we are well on track to meet or exceed our medium-term targets laid out to the capital market in February 2024”, says Dirk Schmelzer, CFO of Scout24 SE.

The audited results and the Annual Report for the full year 2024 will be published on 27 March 2025.

¹ EBITDA (unadjusted) is defined as earnings before the financial result, income taxes, depreciation, amortisation and any impairment losses or reversals of impairment losses.

² Ordinary operating EBITDA refers to EBITDA adjusted for non-operating effects, which mainly include expenses for share-based payments, M&A activities (realised and unrealised), reorganisation and other non-operating effects.

³ The ordinary operating EBITDA margin is defined as ordinary operating EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

⁴ Adjusted (1) for non-operating effects, which are also used to determine ordinary operating EBITDA, (2) for depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on assets acquired in business combinations, and (3) effects from business combinations included in the financial result, such as the measurement of purchase price liabilities

Management Board expects accelerating revenue growth with continued margin expansion for the 2025 financial year

With its marketplace ImmoScout24, Scout24 Group is strongly positioned in the German market to further strengthen its offering. Although the markets remain challenging, Scout24 Group is convinced that it can offer its customers strong added value in various market situations with its diversified product portfolio. The Management Board is therefore confident that revenue and profitability can also be increased in 2025 based on the further implementation of the strategy with a focus on interconnectivity. Specifically, the Management Board expects revenue growth of 12-14% including ca. 2 percentage points inorganic contribution. Furthermore, the Management Board expects an ordinary operating EBITDA margin expansion of up to 50 basis points in the 2025 financial year. Overall, the main focus will be on increasing the Group's ordinary operating EBITDA and the associated margin.

Webcast

Scout24 will hold a webcast and conference call today at 15.00 CET to discuss the preliminary Q4/FY 2024 results. The links to the dial-in details and registration can be found at: https://www.scout24.com/en/investor-relations/financial-events/financial-calendar

A recording of the webcast will be available after the event at the following link: https://www.webcast-eqs.com/scout24-fy2024

Next reporting dates

Scout24 will publish its Annual Report 2024 on 27 March 2025.

About Scout24

Scout24 is one of the leading digital companies in Germany. With the marketplace ImmoScout24, for residential and commercial real estate, we successfully bring together homeowners, real estate agents, tenants, and buyers – and we have been doing so for more than 25 years. With approx. 19 million users per month on the website or in the app, ImmoScout24 is the market leader for digital real estate listing and search. To digitise the process of real estate transactions, ImmoScout24 is continually developing new products and building up a networked, data-rich ecosystem for renting, buying, and commercial real estate in Germany and Austria. Scout24 is a listed stock corporation (ISIN: DE000A12DM80, Ticker: G24) and member of the MDAX and the DAX50 ESG. Further information is available on LinkedIn.

Contact for Investor Relations

Filip Lindvall
Vice President Group Strategy & Investor Relations
Tel: +49 30 243011917
Email: ir@scout24.com

Contact for media

Viktoria Götte
Senior Manager Corporate Communications
Tel: +49 89 262024943
Email: mediarelations@scout24.com

Disclaimer

This document contains carefully prepared information. However, the Company does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information and assumes no liability for losses resulting from the use of this information. This document may contain forward-looking statements about the business, financial and earnings situation as well as profit forecasts of the Scout24 Group, which are only valid at the time of publication of this document. Terms such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “consider”, “intend”, “plan”, “believe”, “continue” and “estimate”, variations of such terms or similar expressions characterise these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current assessments, expectations, assumptions and information of the Scout24 Management Board, many of which are beyond Scout24's control. The statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results and developments may therefore differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation and does not intend to update, review or correct these forward-looking statements due to new information or future events or for other reasons, unless there is an express legal obligation to do so. Alternative performance measures are used that are not defined according to IFRS and should be considered supplementary. Special items used to calculate some alternative metrics may not derive from ordinary business activities. Due to rounding, numbers and percentages may not accurately reflect the absolute figures. In case of any divergence, the German version shall have precedence over the English translation. The business figures contained in this document have neither been audited in accordance with § 317 HGB nor reviewed by an auditor.