Good morning. This is Pilar Gil speaking, Head of IR. Welcome to PRISA's Q3 2021 results conference call. To explain in detail the results released, today's presentation will be led by Joseph Oughourlian, our Chairman. We will also have with us David Mesonero, Group CFO, Carlos Núñez, Executive Chairman of Prisa Media, Francisco Cuadrado, Executive Chairman of Education, and Julio Alonso, Chief Operating Officer of Education. Following our presentation, we will open the floor for Q&A, and the people on webcast will also have the chance to put their questions. With that, I will now hand it over to our Chairman, Joseph.
Thanks, Pilar. First of all, I'd like to thank you all for your attendance today. Let's go into the results. I would like to invite you to go to slide four, where we're seeing, you know, strong operational improvement in all business lines and education. The reopening of schools in Latin America has allowed us to turn to operating growth, supported by the good evolution of the Northern campaign and the outstanding results achieved in the public sale. The return to normality in LATAM schools allows us to look to the future with more optimism.
There was some kind of internet problem. We will move on.
All right. Okay. Thanks, Pilar. Sorry about that. I was on slide four and highlighting the boost of digital. Highlighting the fact that in PRISA Media , El País has reached 162,000 subscribers, of which more than 121,000 are digital only, an increase of 77% compared to September 2020. In radio, the increase in hours consumed in streaming and download podcast continues its steady rise, growing by 20%, 38%, respectively, compared to last year. Cost control is also very important in the company. We keep focusing on unlocking business efficiencies across all business areas to improve the cash flow generation profile.
As of September, I'm happy to report that 30 of the 30 million fixed cost reduction plan announced at the beginning of the year, that plan has already been achieved, and we keep on implementing additional restructuring measures. As you all know, there have been significant management changes throughout the company in the last few months. I'm proud to say that today there is a new culture that is already evident in the company with renewed teams pushing towards a new stage, which is already translating into positive results. Now, let's move on to slide five, where I'd like to go through some of the most relevant business unit highlights for Q3.
The first one is that Q3 was particularly active for El País, with the appointment of the new director, Pepa Bueno, and the redesign of the website only a year and a half after launching the digital subscription model. The redesign enhances the values of the newspaper, putting the needs of readers at the center and adapting to changes through new tools and greater knowledge of the audience. Also, Santillana in Q3 has achieved an outstanding market share of 32% in Brazil's 2021 public sales. Last but not least, on the corporate side, we've launched a sustainability committee, which will focus on improving the group's sustainability, will enhance the ESG reporting, and will define future goals. I'll now hand it over to David, who will give you some color on the financial highlights.
Thank you very much, Joseph. This is David Mesonero speaking, CFO. Let's move to explain Group's financial highlights on slide number seven. During the period, the operating EBITDA, excluding severance payments, reached EUR 42 million, 50% better than the same period last year. In the standalone quarter, the improvement was of 24%, supported by the 13% improvement of both education and media business, as Joseph explained before. The new financial culture focused on the active management of working capital and focused on improving company's cash flow generation profile has led to a positive cash flow generation of EUR 22 million in the third quarter of the year. EUR 8 million better than Q3 2020.
The improvement in the cash flow generation comes supported by the operational improvement of all business lines, the working capital management, and all this despite higher level of redundancies that, as you know, will unlock efficiencies in the future. It is worth noting that excluding severance payments, the group achieved a positive cash flow generation in the first nine months results, + EUR 1 million compared to - EUR 21 million in 2020. The liquidity of the company remains solid, with total cash of EUR 210 million, an additional undrawn liquidity line amounting to EUR 106 million.
Net debt at the end of the period stood at EUR 743 million versus EUR 679 million as of December 2020, explained by the cash flow consumption in the period due to the strong effort in restructuring and the one-off costs associated to M&A and refinancing. To achieve a strong balance sheet is our highest priority. Let's review with more detail on slide number eight, the key figures for the group. Total revenues in the first nine months of the year amounted to EUR 486 million compared to EUR 495 million in 2020. This represents a 3% increase in revenues in local currency and a 2% decline in Euros.
These figures include a positive Q3 with a revenue growth of 27%, supported by a positive evolution both in media and education. On the expense side, we have managed to reduce the total expenses by 1% compared to last year, despite the increase in severance pay. I just said earlier that EUR 30 million fixed cost reduction plan has been achieved, and we will continue to pursue efficiency improvements going forward. It is also important to mention that there is an active Forex management from now on, and in order to protect our dividends and cash flow. Operating EBITDA down 52% due to severance payments. It is important to highlight that Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes redundancies, grows by 50% in euros or 68% in local currency.
Again, these figures are improved by a third. Fantastic third quarter performance, where Adjusted EBITDA improves by 474%. On slide nine, we have the evolution from EBIT to net profit, where the comparison with previous year is affected by 2020 impairments carried out. On a like-for-like basis, the relevant lines to highlight in the period are the reduction of EUR 15 million of debt interest as a result of the reduction of the bank debt, which in September 2020 stood at EUR 1.1 billion. Let's move to slide 10 to review in detail the Q3 cash flow generation. Cash flow before one-offs, M&A, and refinancing costs in the quarter improved by EUR 18 million versus the previous year, driven by the operational improvements seen in the business. EUR 32 million versus EUR 14 million.
The significant improvement, despite the higher effort on restructuring costs, was mainly due to the operating growth and the working capital management. On slide 11, we see the net debt evolution. Net financial debt stood at EUR 743 million, compared to EUR 679 million as of December 2020. Please do consider we are impacted by EUR 60 million corresponding to the sale of Santillana Spain and the refinancing completed in Q4 last year. On the right-hand side of the slide, we have the maturity profile of the debt. I would like to point out that we do not have any maturity events in the next three years. Nevertheless, we are constantly evaluating refinancing alternatives in search of new opportunities.
It is important to reinforce that the cash position at the end of the period stands at EUR 210 million with additional liquidity lines undrawn amounting EUR 160 million. Let's now move to Prisa Media review. Please, Carlos, continue.
Thank you, David, and good morning to everyone. This is Carlos Núñez. During the third quarter of the year, we continued with the organizational restructuring of the media division, which integrates the radio and news businesses in Spain and Latin America. I already announced the launch of this new organization in the past results presentation. We have taken the decision in Q3, and that we are currently implementing it. These organizational changes follow the guidelines of a unified leadership for all media assets around a common purpose and strategy, focusing efforts on accelerating digitalization, betting on subscription models, and extending the global reach of our brands.
Specifically, the aim of the restructure is to help to proactively target our subscribers, readers, listeners and advertisers, maximize the value of our content and audiences, encourage interaction between titles, make our working culture more collaborative, more agile, and data-driven to make it more effective, and align teams to address the global Spanish language. Within this new framework, the media business has turned around its economics, almost breaking even our EBITDA with more than EUR 36 million improvement ex severance expenses, while keeping momentum in our digital journey, where I want to highlight three key ideas. First, in the third quarter, we have been very active in launching new digital products, as 24 new podcasts for our new defined brand, El País, improving significantly user experience and enhancing the quality of our offering. Two, we have consolidated our leading position in all of our brands.
El País, with more than 121,000 only digital subscribers, and even in paper, with 36% market share in paper edition sales, gaining 180 points vs 2020, and with almost 50% market share in tablets. AS, with more than 18 million unique users in digital and more than one million subscribers in its YouTube channel. Radio in Spain, Cadena SER, LOS40, and Cadena Dial, with 9.2 million daily listeners and 40% market share. Radio in Colombia with more than 30 million daily listeners and almost 45% market share in subscription. Radio in Chile with more than four million daily listeners and 45% market share. We currently have four of top five more listened podcasts in Apple platform, and three of top five more listened podcasts in Spotify.
Three, all in all, reaching the first group in digital audience, in this case in Spain, only after the three big players. Let's move to next. Regarding our economics, I would like to highlight the operational improvement of Prisa Media compared to 2020. In revenues, both in the quarter and the first nine months, revenues have increased by 17% compared to the same period in 2020, and more than 35% digital revenue. This moves our digital revenue mix to 24%, despite the high weight of the radio advertising in our group. This is more than 300 basis points versus last year.
Thanks to the strong efforts made in cost control and the continuous search for efficiency, partially helped by the initial running out of the new organization, in the period from January to September, expenses only increased by 1%, despite the increased costs. We have confirmed the efficiency we introduced last year. In terms of EBITDA, excluding severance, in the first nine months of the year, the improvement was EUR 36 million , out of which EUR 10.4 million came from the third quarter. One-off severance expenses amount to almost EUR 50 million up to September and are related to the new organization we are rolling out, leaner, more efficient and more agile. With this, we have almost break even our full year.
This operating improvement is mainly due to a strong recovery of the advertising market in the second and third quarters of the year, the digital growth that partially offset the decline of the paper business, and a strong cost control channeled through our new organization. Regarding advertising from January to September, our advertising line grew by 21%, +1 8% in Spain, where the whole market grew by 15% and 33% in Latin America. With all our media outperforming the market, 40% market share in radio in Spain from 38.6% same period last year, 10.3% market share in press in Spain from 9.5% last year, and 39% market share in radio in Colombia from 38.4% last year. About our digital growth, you can see the continuous improvement in our digital KPIs.
As mentioned before, while we are surfing the paper decline, gaining market share. In radio, the streaming hours have reached an average of 66.6 million per month, 20% more than in 2020, and we have had 31.8 million podcast downloads monthly, 38% more. The growth responds to PRISA Media 's commitment to the creation of new digital audio content, multi-channel distribution and product innovation, with lots of initiatives already launched. We have an outstanding performance in capturing only digital subscribers with a 77% increase versus last year, up to more than 121,000 as of today. Our new redesign of El País, launched in the first week of October, as José mentioned before, will enhance our value proposition for our readers.
With our impressive growth in digital audience in our sport news outlet, AS, more than 113 million unique browsers, 32% in Spain and 49% in Latin America, with a 9% growth from last year. We have performed a very good quarter in digital audience, despite the exponential growth achieved last year due to the COVID period. This led us to more than six million registered users that are key for our future developments. All in all, very good quarter for our businesses in all dimensions, where we are laying the foundations of the company for the coming future. Let's hear now about our educational business, Santillana.
Thank you, Carlos. This is Julio Alonso speaking, COO of Santillana. Santillana maintains its strategic focus on subscription models, where it has managed to increase by 15% the number of students relating to it and even to a greater extent, the number of schools that also. Throughout the year, we have seen a significant improvement in business supported by the reopening of schools, which has allowed to develop a proper and more normalized commercialization campaign. In Q1 of this year, some countries whose business were not significantly affected in 2020, as they had already started class before the outbreak of the pandemic, suffered the consequences, especially Brazil and Colombia, which had a reduction in the sales of its textbook products.
Q2 was already a turning point in the countries of the southern campaign, which has been confirmed in Q3 with the countries of the northern campaign, with revenue and results growth compared to 2020. At the same time, the public market has behaved well, confirming throughout the year investment of government in all markets, including Mexico, Chile, and the reposition in Peru. For Q4, we expect a good quarter based on six key events. First, the leadership achieved in the novelty program of the public business of Brazil, where 32% market share has been achieved, almost doubling the share of the similar program of previous public state cycles. This 32% market share means BRL 229 million, or EUR 35 million . Second, quantification of results from public sector in Dominican Republic.
Third, the start of the campaigns for the private market, where we expected significant growth of our subscription business. Let's move to slide 13. It is worth highlighting that the almost two million students who closed the annual study of 2023 with a 15% increase maintain price as general characteristic within each product in the context of the third economic crisis. Nevertheless, it is true that the more significant growth of students comes from public with a lower unit price, and therefore the product mix generates an ARPU drop of 4% in local currency. This figure completes the guidance provided. Subscription models already account for 60% of our private market revenue. The sales through the most traditional channels were affected by low rates of penetration and not just materials at the beginning of the year.
No doubt, this begins to show some activations in northern countries. The transformation of this market to subscription models with significant revenue gains per student is the main pillar of our strategy. Additionally, the company maintains a strong program of reduction of non-commercial costs, as always maintaining collective investment for the current campaign that can develop normally. Q3 increased revenue by 37% and double the result, with growth in both private and public business. Finally, I want to point out that the company will complete in this quarter the split of public and private businesses according to plan. I will hand it over back to Joseph.
Thank you. Thank you, Julio.
Key takeaways for 2021. All our media assets are expected to continue outperforming the advertising market, taking into consideration that despite the positive evolution as of today, the advertising market remains volatile. In Santillana, the opening of schools is allowing to develop a proper and more normalized commercialization campaign that should be reflected in a positive evolution. Additional restructuring measures will be implemented to unlock efficiencies and improve cash flow generation profile. As a result of that, the forecast for full year 2021 is to end with an Adjusted EBITDA, excluding severance, in the range of EUR 95 million-EUR 100 million. Before moving on to Q&A, I'd like to take a quick look on slide 20 on ESG. As mentioned earlier, we've set up a sustainability committee to continue to improve this area.
This quarter, PRISA's group ESG has been very busy. We're strongly committed to the development of a just society and sustainable group growth. The group has set five SDGs as priorities, which you can see highlighted in the slide. Last September, coinciding with the sixth anniversary and the adoption of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, we've launched the Deja Buena Huella campaign simultaneously across all the group's media, reaffirming the group's commitment to the development of the 2030 Agenda. Our goal is to go further in the new organization, where new sustainability committee will be in charge of boosting properly all of this area. I'd like to move on to the Q&A session now.
Thank you. As a reminder, please press star and one on your telephone if you wish to ask a question. To cancel your request, please press the hash key. We will now take our first question from Enrique Yáguez at Bestinver Securities. Please go ahead, the line is open.
Good morning, everybody, and thank you for the presentation. I have four questions. The first one is if you could provide an update about the time frames expected from the carve-out between the public and private education business and the net allocation to the media and education business. Secondly, if you could quantify the level of savings that you expect to achieve this year with the current restructuring plan. If you plan any additional restructuring measures to be taken next year. Third, in terms of subscribers for El País, I don't know if you could provide a medium-term target for them. Finally, in terms of advertising, what are your expectations for next year?
Taking into account the excellent performance in the third quarter, if you expect to outperform the market as well? Thank you very much, and sorry for so many questions.
All right. Thanks a lot. I think let's take those questions in order. Perhaps we'll ask Julio to give us an update on the carve-out of publishing in Santillana. Maybe David could give a sense of, you know, the restructuring, additional potential restructuring measures that could be taken. We'll close with Carlos on the El País subs and the advertising forecast.
Okay. Julio speaking. We have been working on the carve out for months. We are in the implementation phase to finish in this quarter. Our intention is to start in first 2021 under the new organization model, totally separate the business of public and private business.
Thank you, Julio. Regarding the second question regarding the recurring costs and savings, as we have highlighted, we have achieved EUR 30 million of cost savings. 50% are permanent savings, and 50% are temporary savings associated to the first nine months of the year. In that regard, we expect to continue increasing these savings efforts by the end of the year. Regarding the next year potential restructuring effort that we're going to take, we would like to highlight the vast majority of these restructuring efforts are going to be taken this year.
Okay.
Regarding two questions regarding the advertising, our view about the advertising market, now it's uncertain. It depends on the evolution of the macro conditions in Spain as you are seeing. Our view here is that the market is not going to grow at the same pace as the first month of the second and the third quarter. We are going to keep our differential market share in this context. We will keep our outperforming the market, but the thing is that the market needs to evolve in positive way. Which at the end, you know that the final quarter is always a good quarter for the whole year.
Regarding subs, we have achieved a very good rate of net adds in this quarter, working in four lines, mainly. First, we are doing more effective offers, focused on BTL, below the line offers. We are focusing our offers with lower churn and long-term value subscribers versus short-term subscribers. We are controlling our churn through segmented control measures, and we are improving the engagement of our subscribers. Okay. This lead us to keep the pace of gaining digital subs, but with two conditions. First, market evolution. You know, Spain is maturing, and Latin America are markets that are not as mature as other markets in terms of digital subscribers in newspapers.
We need that the market needs to evolve quickly to get more share of digital subs. Second, our pace to get new subscribers will depend on the transfer of short-term subscribers we have towards long-term subscribers with lower churn and higher long-term value. These are all the conditions that will lead us to our new number for digital subscribers at the end of the year.
Thank you, Carlos. We can move on.
Thank you very much.
We will now take our next question from the line of Fernando Quintero from Banco Santander. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hello. Good morning, and thanks for taking my two questions. The first one is a follow-up on the outperformance of the press and radio markets. In that sense, I would like to get a little bit more color on what are the reasons or what are the measures that the company has taken in order to improve market share and to see that improvement is sustainable. The second question is regarding the radio business, and particularly, given the increased visibility that you are giving on the retail KPIs, I would also like to understand at which extent or in which state of the journey are we regarding the monetization of the digital audience in the radio business. Thank you.
First, regarding our outperforming of the advertising market, the reason is that we have the leading brands. What we are doing is just to make sure in our market that our leading brands lead us to more effective campaigns. This is the trend we are doing. The new team on board in the commercial area is doing really well in this sense, okay. Second, regarding digital subscribers, as I mentioned before, this is a continuous work we are doing. We are sophisticating our tool set and our approach in terms of using data and using a systematic approach to select subscribers and to make...
We are working very hard to capture in two terms. First, capture of subscribers, and second, to loyalize subscribers, okay, in the long term. Regarding your question regarding the journey in monetization, we are keeping our effort in this sense, okay? This will depend on the evolution of the market. In radio, for example, 5% of our revenues come from digital only, but this depends on the market evolution also, okay? We are now ahead of the market in terms of digital revenues in radio in this case, but this will depend on the evolution of the market.
It's not only a question of us, but we are doing our homework to lead this transition in the future.
Okay. Many thanks.
We will now take our next question from the line of Manuel Lorente from Mirabaud. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay. Thank you. My first question is on working capital trends. There has been a solid evolution in the quarters. Can you give us a little detail of the reason behind that performance and whether or not this might be sustainable?
Thank you, Manuel. It's David speaking. As you probably are saying, there have been, I think, an expanding working capital evolution in the third quarter. This is a consequence, as Joseph explained, of a new culture in which we are focusing on cash generation. In that regard, we expect to improve the working capital of our sales in the next few years compared with the previous years.
My second question is on the full-year guidance. This EUR 95 million-EUR 100 million Adjusted EBITDA. I don't know, it's probably too early to have a precise number for next year, but you will probably have already started the budget planning process for 2022. I would appreciate whether you can share with us the different moving parts that you see next year, the positive levers that you see for next year and also the headwinds. Of course, if you can share a number, that will be great. Thank you.
Thank you, Manuel. What we can say is that the guidance is pretty confirmed for the year. This means very strong growth in the fourth quarter. Obviously, this year has been affected by first quarter in the Santillana business due to the not good reopening of the schools. We expect that according to what we are seeing as of today, there's going to be a growth next year, but we cannot give you more details as of today.
All right.
Got it.
But for example, analyzing your third quarter results, there has been a massive improvements, overall speaking, especially on the media asset, but I see radio business clearly lagging behind. I would understand in previous quarters that was a combination of COVID-related issues and the bias of the radio business towards sport. But with the return of that event, I was expecting a little bit more positive third quarter. Looks like I don't know if it's a market-wise reason or can you give us some detail of what is going on from radio and whether you keep a positive stance for next quarter versus last year?
I'm not sure I understand your question, but in radio, we have done really well in terms of revenues, as I have mentioned. We have gained market share in our markets, in all our markets, Spain, I mean Spain and Colombia and Chile. Okay. We are moving on the cash control and cash reduction measures. I do not understand very well what is your point here.
Okay. Correct if my numbers are wrong, right? Radio revenues are up 22% in Q3 versus up 20% on a nine-month basis. Really, we are not clearly seeing a massive recovery in the third quarter. Especially that compares with press, for example, that Q3 standalone was growing 38% versus the nine-month basis + 14%. My point here is that we are seeing a massive rebound quarter-on-quarter on press. If I'm reading this correctly, we have not seen that in radio yet.
I'm not sure. Perhaps we can make a bilateral-
Follow-up.
To follow up with you just to understand exactly what is your point here?
Okay. Okay.
Okay.
Okay. A question on Vivendi issue. What can you share with us about this approach?
Well, you'd really have to ask them, but we're very happy that they want to increase their stake. We think it's very positive for the company. It shows that some major industrial players are keen to be invested with us. That's also been highlighted by the fact that PIMCO, the largest credit fund on the planet, has taken on a major position in our debt. I think all this highlights the renewed trust and confidence from major market players in the company. Let me just take the opportunity to make it very, very clear that at Amber Capital we don't plan to sell any shares in the near future.
I've seen some odd speculation in the Spanish press that we might be selling, you know, part of our stake or our stake to Vivendi. Let me tell you that that's absolutely not the case. I am completely committed to PRISA for the foreseeable future. I can't speak for other shareholders. I'm not sure how Vivendi plans to increase its stake. They haven't shared anything with me on that front. I'm just very happy to see that there's renewed interest in our company. I think it's had been a while since any major investors were interested in investing with us.
Right. Of course, this is something that Vivendi knows better. From your point of view, in which segment, angle, or vector of the company Vivendi can add more value? Because honestly, to my way of thinking, I see limited synergies, for example, on the press synergy. Radio maybe on the digitalization front and the expertise of Vivendi in Latin America to my understanding is also limited. Operationally wise, what is the key adding value proposition that Vivendi can add to the group?
Yeah. We are now currently working in three key areas, which is looking for synergies in some of the very interesting Vivendi digital Vivendi assets. For example, Dailymotion in all the video digital video. We are working with them in launching different lines of working with them. Gameloft, which you know is all related with games, so we are working in gaming and different initiatives even for subscribers to increase our digital footprint. In See Tickets all regarding tickets and all regarding what we do in events. Different areas, as you see, that are Vivendi fully owned Vivendi companies that we are intensifying our work with them.
Okay. I see. Okay. Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time. Please go ahead.
A few questions coming from the web. I think that David has addressed the question on EBITDA guidance for year-end and for next year. I think I've addressed the question on Vivendi's approach, but there is one further question on how is the sales campaign going compared to 2019. I'm gonna let Julio take that one.
Well, we are working in the sales campaign now, the last two months. We start working with...
We can see a significant increase on last year's revenue, around 15%-20%. We had a significant increase in subscription systems from 2019, with significant transformation of the didactic students to subscription systems that is, I said before, that is a pillar of our all in our strategy.
Okay. I hope that answers Fernando Quintero's question. Are there any further questions, operator?
There are no further questions on the phone lines.
Okay. Thank you very much to you all for attending today's call. Should you have any further follow-up, we will be happy to help through the IR department. Thank you all. Have a nice day.