Readly International AB (publ)

STO:READ

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Operator]

Welcome to the Readly Audiocast with Teleconference Q3 2022. [Operator Instructions]

Today, I'm pleased to present the CEO, Mats Brandt; and CFO, Johan Adalberth. Please begin your meeting.

[Mats Brandt, executive]

Thank you very much. And good morning everyone, and very welcome to this Q3 presentation from us at Readly. My name is Mats Brandt, I'm CEO. And with me here, I have Johan Adalberth, our CFO. As an introduction, I'd like to quickly review the year so far with the purpose of bringing our Q3 performance in a greater perspective and a wider context.

Slide #2, please. Since the beginning of this year, we have prioritized sustainable growth and to shift our focus to product dev growth. We delivered a quarter that give us confidence that we are on the right track. So before we look into the numbers, I want to give you a quick overview of the initiatives that we have taken so far and that we will proceed with -- to ensure that we continue on this very good path. Later on, I would also highlight some of these areas in further detail.

So firstly, we have now implemented the price increases with 20% to 25% in almost all markets. It has generally been well accepted by users, despite a very challenging macro environment and the cost pressure that households endure. And to put this in a perspective, it is the first time in 10 years that we adjust pricing. And further, we have not yet seen the full impact on revenues. We will continue to evaluate how we can further optimize pricing going forward in all markets.

We continue to invest a lot in product and tech development to ensure that the shift to product dev growth will accelerate further. I will come back to this in more detail later as it is an important part of the strategic plan ahead. We continue to operate at a reduced marketing spend level, with improved unit economics and focus. We are today more effective and efficient in selecting what channels, markets to prioritize for a great return on investments. We're also becoming much better at leveraging the potential with partnerships, particularly in core markets.

The launch of Readly in France means that we're expanding into Europe's largest magazine market estimated to be worth $7.5 billion. We already have a good presence in France through our acquisition with Toutabo, but now we take the next step and bring the full Readly products into France. And by that, France, will become our fourth core market besides Germany, U.K. and Sweden. We put priority on selectively adding new titles and brands that bring the most value to our customers, both locally and globally.

With that, let's dive into the numbers. So Johan, if you would like to do that, please. And the next slide, please.

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Thank you, Mats. So then we are on Slide #3. I think this slide is great as it captures our financial targets, revenue growth and profitability on EBITDA level. But first, let's take a look at the upper left chart on subscriber development.

The third quarter ended at 447,000 FPS, and this is in line with the Q2 number. I want to draw attention to the fact that in Q1 and Q2 this year, we saw a net decline of 13,000 FPS and 18,000 FPS, respectively. But now in Q3, we've managed to stabilize our subscriber number despite the volatile external environment and also the significant price increases that Mats mentioned.

Looking at the middle chart with revenue growth, we're pleased to conclude that we're seeing a growth in absolute terms compared to Q2 where revenues were flat. Revenues in Q3 were SEK 147 million, corresponding to a 24% year-on-year growth. ARPU, average revenue per user saw a significant uplift from SEK 93 in Q3 last year to SEK 103 now in the most recent quarter. Around half of this ARPU uplift was due to the price increases and the rest was currency. I want to reiterate what Mats just said, that we have not yet seen the full impact of the price increases. Our revenue growth target of 25% is well within reach for the full year of 2022.

If we look at the chart to the right, we see adjusted EBITDA for the past 6 quarters. Also here, we're pleased to show yet another quarter with improved profitability. For the first time since we listed, adjusted EBITDA is now better than the minus 10% mark with Q3 adjusted EBITDA of minus 9.7%. I do think this positive trend was sixth consecutive quarters of improved profitability is convincing, and we are being very serious about reaching profitability latest 2025, in line with our financial targets.

Next slide, please, Slide #4. On this slide, we see revenue contribution from our 4 core markets and rest of world combined. The DACH region continues to perform well, and Germany grew revenues by 14% year-on-year. We did see a positive FX effect from Germany, but at the same time, the price increases in Germany did not show its full potential in the third quarter or is expected to come in Q4 and beyond.

The U.K. grew 13% year-on-year, and U.K. was the first market where we tested and implemented the higher price point, and this has had a positive effect on U.K. revenues in the third quarter.

Sales in Sweden were affected by lower marketing spend. Also, Sweden was the last market to see the higher price point, which did not come into effect until October, i.e., did not contribute to revenue growth in Q3. Our long-term view on Sweden remains positive, especially now as we have further strengthened our content portfolio.

We saw continued stable performance in France, which Mats will tell you more about soon. Sales in Rest of World grew 19% to SEK 23.1 million and constitutes 16% of total sales.

Next slide, please, Slide #5. On the top chart, we see gross profit and gross margins for the past 6 quarters. Gross profit in Q3 was SEK 48.1 million. This corresponds to a margin of 32.7%. The slightly lower margin compared to previous quarters does not reflect our underlying efforts to improve the gross margin, while I do expect improvements in the coming quarters. We remain confident in reaching our financial target of 35% quite soon despite this target is set for 2025.

The lower chart shows gross contribution, which was SEK 25.3 million in Q3. This corresponds to a margin of 17.2%. And this is up 27 percentage points compared to Q3 last year and reflects our new strategic direction.

Now back to you Mats.

[Mats Brandt, executive]

Thank you, Johan. In the next slide -- in the next few slides, I'd like to share a quick update on some recent developments and also discuss initiatives that we take and why we see these as being so important in our strategic direction. They will aim at driving user engagement and to attract and retain subscribers.

Next, Slide #7 please. So we see a large potential with developing new formats, new functionality and features and the ability to better personalize the user experience. The leading theme here is to become a lot better at serving the right content in the right format at the right time. This is in focus for our product development. And product-led growth is more sustainable and can be leveraged substantially long-term to improve key metrics such as conversion rates, engagement, churn and return rates.

And as an example, every 0.1% improvement in churns equals roughly SEK 5 million in additional revenues on an annual basis assuming current intake levels. So quite powerful. Our efforts to make really more relevant for mobile usage are ongoing. We already have mobile reading functionality on many articles that enables a more convenient experience. As a next step, we will introduce automated recommendations and mobile-friendly articles. So the action is to inspire increased mobile usage and to increase reading time.

Our data shows that trialists who spend a lot of reading time with us are more likely to convert into FPS, full-paying subscribers. And by providing mobile-friendly content discoveries, was to encourage subscribers to use Readly more frequently. So in addition to supporting conversion, we should also have a positive impact on retention.

Slide #8 please. The entry into all new podcast is a step on the path to offer new content in a new format. This will increase user engagement and enhance the total brand experience at large. Our podcast portfolio is steadily growing. And in the current test phase, we already received tens of thousands of listening sessions. The usage data provides valuable insights that is important for planning the next phase within audio, that would also bring valuable insights to our publishers.

We have increased the podcast visibility in the app, so that more new types of users can discover the growing catalog. And as a result, we saw an increase with [ X3 ] during the month of September. 2/3 of the listening takes place on smartphones and listening can easily be combined with other activities such as exercising, driving or cooking by making Readly relevant in new situations when users are on the mobile, we see a great opportunity to develop new user habits that will increase engagement time and have a positive impact on commercial retention.

Slide #9 please. The width and the depth of the content is an important part of our products offering. We have a very strong content catalog that we continuously develop rather. This quarter, we added 184 titles from 15 publishers. And in October, we also announced the addition of 80 titles from Disney. This substantially strengthens our children category and really is positioned as being the leading reading app for the whole family.

The new content that was announced in recent months, we further encourage frequent views and expand engagement time. We expect a positive impact from this on conversion of trialists and increased retention. Newspaper reading has becoming more popular. Today, every fifth issue of our platform is a newspaper. We are, therefore, very pleased to have added several newspapers such as Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden's largest dailies.

In Germany, our largest market, and we have added 40 regional and local dailies. Readly subscribers now have access to 7 national German papers and 52 regional titles. And in the U.K. we provide 12 and 166 regional newspapers. The monthly average number of newspaper readers use Readly on a daily basis has increased by 23% compared to last year and about 40% of our subscribers read both magazines and newspapers.

So to summarize, we are continuously strengthening our leading content portfolio, now consist of more than 6,700 active publication, and that is something that really sets really apart from our competitors.

Next, Slide #10 please. Partnerships continue to perform as a strong intake channel at low acquisition cost. We will continue to scale marketing -- more partnerships where we now have an even better process in place to ensure that we allocate resources in an optimal manner of growth. In parallel, we develop our offering through strategic reseller partners. Altogether, partnerships are expected to continue to deliver long-term steady and cost-efficient growth.

During the quarter, we have launched 10 new partnerships and several strong performing campaigns with existing partners. We also scaled some partnerships across several markets, the cooperation with N26 Bank in Germany, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands is such a great example. N26 is the mobile bank with 8 million customers in 24 markets.

We have successfully run several new in-store activation campaigns to leverage also from offline touch points. And to name a few. We have Tchibo in over 500 stores in Germany, McDonald's as part of their Monopoly campaign in the U.K. and with furniture company Mio in Sweden. Altogether, partnerships with leading brands such as these have contributed with 30% of the total trialist intake during the quarter.

Next, Slide #11, please. We're now in the final stages of integrating Toutabo, our French acquisition. We have recently made a technical release of the Readly app and are soon approaching 500 French newspapers and magazines in addition to our international portfolio. Some well-known titles are Liberation, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Maxi Cuisine, Public and L'Express.

We continue to add content at a high pace in preparation for the full commercial launch. In parallel we are also releasing various product upgrades. We will expand our partnership network and new activations with French and international partnership. Hellofresh, Huawei and 26 will be onboard from start in France. Toutabo's all-you-can read offering will continue to run in parallel while we work on migration of users.

We are very excited, of course, to further strengthen our leading position in Europe by the Readly launch in France. By this entry, we'll also be able to offer international regions French content globally.

Slide #12, please. So to summarize, our subscriber base grew by 3%. It has stabilized compared to Q2, which is a sign of strength during a period when we also increased prices and experienced a volatile macroeconomic environment. We delivered a quarter with strong profit improvements and good revenue growth of 24% year-on-year. ARPU has increased more than 10%. We have significantly improved EBITDA margins during the last 6 consecutive quarters. EBITDA is expected to be positive in 2025 at the latest, which is fully in line with our financial targets.

All things considered in transition to becoming a profitable company is proceeding well and initiatives that we have taken during this year has started to deliver. The investments that we make in product development is expected to have an accelerating impact as we move forward into 2023.

Thank you for listening. And with that, let's open up for questions. And next slide, please.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from line of Derek Laliberte of ABG.

[Derek Laliberte, analyst]

So with regards to the DACH region, so a pretty impressive performance here in the quarter. Did you sort of do any specific efforts here to drive this performance that we saw in Switzerland and Austria -- or is it mainly sort of a continuation of a strong trend in the region?

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Derek, I think it's a great question you say, but this really emphasizes our long-term commitment that we've had in Germany and the DACH region for many, many years. We launched in Germany back in 2014, so I think this really makes us believe that we're on the right track, and we're doing the right things because we've been working for a long-term. Newspapers is important. We've had that as a strategic focus area for quite some time now, and we're seeing that that is increasing average engagement time. And we know since long that engagement correlates very well with retention. So I hope that gives some flavor, long-term commitment and continuous engagement improvement.

[Derek Laliberte, analyst]

Okay, absolutely. And I noticed that the gross margin was albeit by a pretty small increment there, both -- a bit lower than what it has been before. So are there any specific drivers behind that?

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Yes. I know I've been talking about gross margin improvements for quite some time. As I mentioned on the call here, you should not stare at the Q3 32.7%. We do have an underlying higher gross margin. We've added lots of content, but it does not reflect what we're going to see, especially starting from January 1 next year, perhaps also even in Q4, we will see an uplift. So over the coming quarters, I'm not at all worried about this.

[Derek Laliberte, analyst]

Sounds great. And also I noticed in France, the Toutabo sales were down slightly here. Are there any -- sort of what's driving this? And also, if you could just remind us on the offering to the consumers because through the Readly France platform now that the customers have a full access as opposed to your full catalog remodel in other languages as well and vice versa. Is the French content now available across your other geographies?

[Mats Brandt, executive]

Yes. Derek, and I want to come back to what I was talking about in the presentation, and we obviously had a presence in France already through the acquisition of Toutabo and through the L'Express Solution, and that has been sort of developing. But our main focus has, of course, been to preparing for what we had done just recently with the technical launch of the Readly product in France. So that's a new thing here. And the full commercial launch is yet to come. So what that means is that the L'Express Solution is still in place and developed, but in parallel, obviously, we're ramping up the Readly product and we are approaching close to 500 French titles now, both magazines and newspapers. And this is increasing at a relatively high pace. So there will be a dual offering in France for a while. And our efforts, again, will be to really drive the growth within the Readly product.

[Derek Laliberte, analyst]

All right. Sounds good. And finally, from my side, you have this very exciting signing of the Svenska Dagbladet in Sweden. So I was wondering if you could comment a bit -- if you could comment on the effect so far on the subs intake and maybe the consumption or engagement in the current base from onboarding this title? And also if you could comment on how your hopes are for adding further quality content over the coming quarters in the Swedish market?

[Mats Brandt, executive]

Yes. I mean, it's a major step in the offering on the Swedish market, absolutely. And back to what we were also discussing in the presentation, dailies drive frequency of use, so we are pretty excited about that fact. And we are entertaining discussions to expand the content also on the Swedish market, but nothing we can go into more detail here. And in terms of numbers, there is nothing we can share or want to share at this early stage, but it's been well received. And there has been a lot of attention put to the fact that we added one of the biggest dailies in Sweden.

And in terms of adding quality content, I think what we've done in the last couple of months with the addition in the U.S. with [indiscernible] and not at least Disney that has a big impact in all markets is demonstrating quite well how we selectively now really go for very strong brands and strong content that has both a local appeal and a global appeal. And local appeal is exemplified with all the regional papers we have added in the U.K. and in Germany.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of [ Alexander Boatman of Aprium Invest ].

[Unknown Analyst]

Congratulations to the many positive developments. I wanted to ask you regarding the other sales revenues. The [indiscernible] has been very positive until Q2 of this year and revenues are down in that line of business. I wanted to ask you what position does it entail? And how does it affect the overall margins, so the gross margins?

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Yes. I think I heard that you were referring to other operating income, correct me if I was wrong. And this mainly refers from other types of revenues from the French acquisition of Toutabo, which is not a digital all-you-can-read, so it's a small print business. We have also credit users, which are not on the all-you-can-read subscription level, you could say. So that's what it comes from Toutabo to a very large extent. Of course, it impacts gross margin. But on the other hand, I mean, our core focus is on the all-you-can-read service.

You have any other questions on the line, operator?

[Unknown Analyst]

No, I have no other questions.

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Thank you. So back to operator, please. Perhaps we lost our operator. But I think that was all done. So Mats, maybe we should say thank you for today.

[Mats Brandt, executive]

Yes. Shall we give 30 seconds for the operator to have a chance to come back?

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Yes.

[Mats Brandt, executive]

It could be a technical or it's probably a technical issue of some sort.

[Operator]

Apologies. There is one further question on the line. That's from line of Rasmus Engberg of SHB.

[Rasmus Engberg, analyst]

Yes, I was a -- it was a bit confusing here. Yes, I was just wondering, firstly, on the kind of the longer-term perspective, when do you think you will be cash flow breakeven as opposed to EBITDA breakeven?

[Mats Brandt, executive]

Well, firstly, I want to put into the context that we are investing a fair bit into products and tech developments, because we expect that there will be the key driver as we move into the next year. So that is -- of course has an impact on how fast we will get to positive EBITDA.

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Yes, I agree with Mats. I mean, of course, we don't make that kind of predictions. But so I mean, our financial target is in EBITDA level. Looking at the past, we've seen a positive working capital situation for us, and that comes from paying publishers, I mean, after subscribers have paid out. We have said that the 2025 mark is for the EBITDA. So maybe that should be some also pretty good indication.

Also, you are very well aware of the loans that we've had to debenture that provider. They are coming to an end now within a month or 2. That's going to help slightly as well. And overall, we have a quite pure balance sheet, I think. So it should go pretty much well in line with the EBIT figures also considering the working capital. I hope that gives you some flavor, even though I cannot make any special predictions.

[Rasmus Engberg, analyst]

Very good. And then in the short term, you stabilized your full paying subscribers a bit sooner than I had anticipated. Are they stable now? Or how do you think about them going forward? Are we on a kind of stable level for now?

[Mats Brandt, executive]

I think the key message here is that we are confident that we are on the right track with investing so much more in product for the reasons that I just talked to. But we're, of course humbled to that in this market situation, one shouldn't take anything for granted. But I want to reiterate again that, given the fact that we have reduced marketing substantially, we have increased prices and the very tough macroeconomic environment, we're actually quite pleased coming out with the stabilized FPS number. Our ambition ahead is, of course, much higher than being stable.

[Rasmus Engberg, analyst]

Yes. Yes. And then just on the final you touched upon the price increases having a gradual impact for kind of the price increases you have done now for how long would they sort of impact your ARPU, you think, given, I guess, B2B contracts and similar or whatever it is that kind of delays the impact on your ARPU?

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Yes. As you say, I mean, the price increases affect the B2C business. I mean B2C is what we mainly do even though we also have a B2B business, not at least in France. Also, partnerships, I mean, FPS coming from partnerships, that's something that has not affected in this first stage of the price increases. But I think major takeaway is that more than 50% of subscribers are on a higher price point, actually quite a bit more than that because [ EMAP ] was already on the higher price point. [ EMAP ], we don't touch at this stage. So the normal web traffic that has been hit by the higher price point. But overall, the divestments already is now on the higher price point. And it will help us, I mean, going forward, and this will also have a positive effect from Q4 and beyond.

[Mats Brandt, executive]

And I think, again, it's worth reiterating that it's the first time in 10 years, we do a price increase. So we think there are ways to develop this further. And as I mentioned, there are -- we are looking at how we can optimize pricing in markets going ahead.

[Rasmus Engberg, analyst]

But the increases you have done now sort of will have an effect in the fourth quarter, but will it continue into Q1 and Q2 as well? Or how quickly does it impact? Is it sort of down...

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

It impacts, I mean, Q4 and beyond. So this will help us also in 2023.

[Operator]

Thank you. And there are no further questions on the line at this point. So I'll hand back to our speakers for the closing comments.

[Mats Brandt, executive]

Right. So thank you all for listening. And just to sum up, we are very pleased with the quarter we've just been presenting. Thank you very much.

[Johan Adalberth, executive]

Thank you.