Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of Schibsted's Q4 results. Today with me here is Kristin, our CEO, and PC, our CFO, who will present results and progress in the fourth quarter. At the end of the presentation, we will have, as usual, a Q&A, and also Christian, our EVP for Nordic Marketplaces and Delivery, will join us for the session. We will try a new format this time, so financial analysts can connect on Teams to ask live questions with the Raise Hand feature. But alternatively, you can also connect on the web player and write written questions. With this, please let me hand over for Kristin.
Thank you. Thank you, Jann-Boje, and a warm welcome to everyone. As you know, there was also some other news, but I'll comment a little bit on that at the end today, and I will go straight to the highlights before we have a closer look at the development in the fourth quarter. Financially, we delivered another solid quarter, taking into account that the macroeconomic development in the Nordic region remains challenging. Group revenues were NOK 4.082 billion in the fourth quarter, stable compared to the corresponding quarter last year, looking at underlying revenues. EBITDA ended at NOK 684 million, and that is 5% up from Q4 last year. Nordic Marketplaces... Oops, I have to change this. Excuse me.
Nordic Marketplaces achieved an underlying revenue growth of 6% in Q4, despite continued market headwinds in the job vertical. EBITDA for this segment was 3% below last year at NOK 418 million. Continuing the positive development in the previous quarter, News Media's profitability improved in Q4, which was driven by the ongoing cost program, with EBITDA ending at NOK 266 million. Similar to the third quarter, performance in Growth & Investments was affected by lower top and bottom line in Lendo, driven by the challenging macroeconomic factors we see. While the development in Q4 shows that we are not immune to the current macroeconomic environment, our products continue to have high engagement and reach. This makes a meaningful difference in people's lives and positions Schibsted and our core businesses well to deliver on our ambitions and goals in the years to come.
Looking at the journey ahead of us, I am proud of the major strategic milestones that was announced in Q4, unleashing Schibsted's full potential, but I'll come back to that at the end of my presentation. Now, let's have a look at our ESG highlights in the fourth quarter, and we will start with our progression in the environmental area. An important part of our environmental impact is our consumption of paper for our printed newspapers. So therefore, it has been an important step to extend our environmental criteria for our paper sourcing here in Norway. I have something in my throat, sorry. Going forward, we will include requirements on certification of the paper, reduction in emissions, and transparency in reporting. I'm also pleased to report that Schibsted's marketplace, FINN, exceeded our ambitious target and facilitated over 2 million Recommerce transactions in 2023.
This success is not solely a victory for our business, it is also an indication that we make Recommerce smoother for our consumers, and it is testament to our commitment to promoting circular and sustainable consumption. In terms of social contributions, Schibsted dedication to independent and high-quality journalism has been recognized at the highest level. Our newspapers in Sweden were honored with three out of four awards at the Swedish Grand Prize of Journalism. This honor reflects our steadfast commitment to trustworthy journalism and great tool across three of our companies now. It's called a diversity index tool. This tool will provide valuable insights into diversity and inclusion and lay the groundwork for further fact-based actions to build an inclusive workplace and leverage the benefits of diverse and innovative teams.
In governance, we have reached a significant milestone in integrating sustainability into our strategies. For our Nordic Marketplaces organization, we have successfully incorporated sustainability targets into the governance and strategic execution agenda. This integration will enable our organization to leverage sustainability as a driver of value creation and ensure that our commitment to sustainability is integrated into the very core of our operational decisions. On the topic of governance, I'm also pleased to say that we continue to excel in sustainability transparency, and we have prepared well, so our 2023 sustainability report is based on the European Sustainability Reporting Standard, which is mandated by the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Reporting, the CSRD. We are well-prepared for the upcoming regulatory development.
And lastly, on this, I am proud to mention that ESG, ESG raters have once again recognized us with high scores, and this time it's Sustainalytics that rated us as an industry and regional leader in their ESG risk rating. With that, we will move over to the business, and we start with Nordic Marketplaces. This time, before we start diving into the quarter, I wanted to spend a couple of minutes to recap the major shift in Nordic Marketplaces. Because at the start of 2023, our marketplaces business embarked on a multi-year transformation to a vertical operating model. One year in, I am pleased with what we have achieved so far, making good headway into that important journey.
In Mobility, we now have a clear view on how we plan to harmonize and evolve our pricing model over the coming years, and we have taken the first steps during the fall, which will show effect in 2024. In addition, we see strong progress in our C2B positions, and I'll come back to that specifically shortly. Jobs had a tough year, and that's given the volatile macro environment following the previous period of very strong growth. However, we have successfully started the aggregation of ads in Norway, and that will strengthen our offering further. In Real Estate , we saw a good development in Finland, where we have achieved a number 1 position in several important metrics, including top of mind, traffic, and content leadership, and that is important for our strategy to win and grow in this market.
For Recommerce, we continue to see significant improvements in both uptake of ads and monetization in both Norway and Sweden. In 2023, the number of transactions have more than tripled, and take rates are continuously improving. As a next step, we are now ready to launch the transactional model in Finland. However, the most important milestone achieved in the transition this far is the beta launch of Tori on our new Nordic tech platform, and this happened in January. We are continuously moving users over to the new platform now, and the plan is to have all users onboarded by the end of the first quarter. This is the first step of our multi-year tech transition, ensuring that we move from multiple tech platforms to one common platform, and that will enable faster and more cost-efficient innovation.
It's a very complex task, and we will see investments for some time before we can realize the synergies in the coming years. If we then move to the financials. In the quarter, Nordic Marketplaces delivered a foreign exchange neutral revenue growth of 6% in the fourth quarter, driven by solid growth in classified revenues despite the challenging macro conditions. As in previous quarters, the revenue growth was primarily driven by the Mobility and Real Estate verticals in all markets, and solid growth in transactional revenues in Recommerce as well. The growth was partly offset by the job vertical, which continued to see significant volume decline due to the market headwinds. Advertising revenues, revenues also continued to be affected by the market headwinds, with a slightly higher year-on-year decline compared to previous quarters.
EBITDA and margin decreased compared to Q4 last year, mainly driven by the decline in Jobs, the investments to drive new business models in Mobility, Real Estate, and Recommerce, and also a change in revenue mix, given the good progress for the transactional models. Looking at profitability, we continue to work on our cost base within Nordic Marketplaces, focusing on strategic initiatives with higher value creation potential in order to make sure we reach our financial ambitions. Then we will take a closer look at our four verticals. We will start with the largest vertical in Nordic Marketplaces, Mobility. We highlighted in at our Capital Markets Day that the C2B auctions is really one of our key growth initiatives. I'm happy to report that both Nettbil and AutoVex, our two synergistic C2B platforms, are both showing good progress.
Both companies are operating a C2B auction service, providing a superior offering for both private customers and car dealers compared to traditional offerings. Our larger C2B service, Nettbil in Norway, operates a managed model. That means that it supports with, like, a customer advisor, vehicle inspection by partners, and on-platform transaction. These services increase trust, particularly towards dealers, leading to a higher take rate, and that makes Nettbil better suited also for older cars. AutoVex, our second platform, is a light touch model, with users being more self-served. Given the more digital and quick process, the take rate is lower compared to a model like Nettbil, so this model is better suited for newer cars.
Despite the volatile macro environment, Nettbil and AutoVex continued their strong development as around 31,000 transactions happened on the platforms in 2023, with revenues increasing to around NOK 300 million in total. To further expand this journey and to deliver on our growth ambitions, we have launched Wheelaway in Sweden in January. That is a C2B offering based on the AutoVex platform, which is simpler and hence a bit easier to scale. Let's review the underlying classified revenue drivers for Mobility in the different geographies. In Norway, we saw professional volume growth slowing down in September. This slowdown has continued throughout Q4, and it's mainly due to strong comparables from last year. In total, professional volumes ended 5% down from last year.
Private volumes have been more volatile during the whole year, and Q4 shows a significant decline in volumes of 22%, mainly driven by a challenging market. The positive ARPA development in Norway was driven by regular price adjustments. In Sweden, professional volumes continued to see solid growth of 13% in Q4. Private volumes have seen improvements during the year and experienced a decline of 4% in the quarter. ARPA development in Sweden was driven by regular price adjustments, although somewhat offset by the lower adaptation of upselling products. Denmark continues to show strong volume growth, and a positive ARPA development was driven by both price increases and product mix. If we then look at financials for Mobility, we saw solid revenue growth across all markets in the quarter, and foreign exchange neutral revenues increased by 10% compared to last year.
Classified revenues grew underlying 14% in the quarter, primarily driven by ARPA increases. In addition, Nettbil continued to show solid growth of 45%. AutoVex is part of the reported figures in the quarter and had a solid development despite the more challenging macro environment in Finland. Macro conditions continue to impact the advertising market, and in Q4, advertising revenues in the Mobility vertical showed a decline of 5% on a foreign exchange neutral basis. Total costs increased year-on-year, driven by marketing and also investments in the new initiatives like Nettbil and AutoVex. EBITDA increased 15% compared to Q4 last year. That's driven by the higher revenues, and margin ended at 49%. Then we'll move on to Jobs. We continue to see a decline in volume of paid ads, and that's in line with previous quarters across all markets.
This decline is primarily driven by the market headwinds, and compared to Norway, Sweden and Finland have higher unemployment rates, so the volume decline is particularly challenging in those markets. The growth in ARPA in Norway was driven by regular price increases, but also upsell products. In Sweden, ARPA growth was solely driven by upsell products, and in Finland, the negative ARPA development is driven by a change in product mix. If we then look at numbers, the challenging macroeconomic environment predominantly affect Jobs, as we have mentioned. Price adjustments and increased revenues from upselling products led to a significant increase in ARPA, partly offsetting the impact of the decreased volumes. Nevertheless, market challenges resulted in a revenue decline of 10% compared to last year on a foreign exchange neutral basis.
If you look at Norway, which accounts for 82% of total job revenues in the quarter, revenues only decreased 4% year-on-year, despite a 13% decline in volume, and that is thanks to the robust ARPA growth. EBITDA was impacted by lower revenues, combined with a higher cost driven by marketing, and decreased by 26% compared to last year. Next up now is Real Estate . As mentioned earlier, we have seen that listings are countercyclical, as for example, republications increase during economic downturns. As such, the business model for Real Estate has historically been rather resilient in a challenging macroeconomic environment that we see now. In Norway, volumes were declining for the first time this year and ended the quarter with a 6% decline.
However, if we look at 2023 in total, the number of listings were at an all-time high and in line with the market development. ARPA has been consistently increased in Norway due to price adjustments. The increased use of upsell products has also been contributing to that ARPA growth. In Finland, we are once again pleased to report continued robust growth in volumes. Similar to previous quarters, growth was driven by rental listings rather than sales listings, and that again, is a reflection of the macro environment. ARPA in Finland was primarily driven by price adjustments, while the mix of houses for sale versus rental ads resulted in a significant decline in ARPA in the quarter. After several strong quarters of exceptional revenue growth, Real Estate has a more normalized quarter, with 12% foreign exchange neutral revenue growth.
This growth was primarily driven by the continued ARPA growth in Norway and also solid growth in our rental platform, Qasa. Revenues in Norway, the largest part of our Real Estate business, increased by 13%, and that's despite that negative volume development that I mentioned. In Finland, we are pleased to see an accelerated progress towards a number one position, and that can be attributed to our intensified marketing efforts. Our rental platform, Qasa in Sweden, continues to show solid growth in main KPIs, with growth in signing value being the most important one to follow. EBITDA increased 8% year-on-year, driven by the strong revenue growth, partly offset by increased costs from investments in Qasa and also the increased marketing spend in Finland. Then we have come to the last vertical, Recommerce.
We currently have a transactional model in Norway with Fiks ferdig and in Sweden with Frakt med köpskydd . Very difficult to say. And as I announced earlier, we plan to onboard all Recommerce users in Finland to the new tech platform this quarter, and we are ready to launch a transactional model there quite soon. The uptake of number of ads continued to show significant improvement. In Norway, our users completed around 687,000 transactions through our platform in the fourth quarter, and that is an increase of 59% compared to Q4 in 2022. In total, for 2023, more than 2 million transactions have been completed through Fiks ferdig. The average order value in Norway was at a solid level of 603 NOK, in line with last year, somewhat lower than the previous quarters, though.
In Sweden, we launched the transactional model in late 2022, and the number of transactions continues to grow steadily. Q4 was the first quarter with more than 100,000 transactions completed through the platform. The average order value is declining in Q4 compared to Q3, and that's due to some shifts in category mix in the platform. For Recommerce, the main driver for revenue growth is the transactional business, where we continue to see substantial uptake in monetization, both in Norway and Sweden. And as previously communicated, we are experimenting with different monetization methods, and we really see solid development in unit economics in both Norway and Sweden. Total foreign exchange neutral revenue growth for the quarter was 25%, and that's driven by an impressive growth of 45% in classifieds.
Because the advertising market is still affected by the challenging macroeconomic conditions, and advertising revenues declined by 9% year-on-year in the fourth quarter on a foreign exchange neutral basis. EBITDA for the quarter ended at a loss of NOK 69 million. That's in line with last quarter, and continued investments in the new business model is still offsetting the revenue growth. Okay, let's move to News Media. Our media houses, they continue to make impact through both breaking news and investigative journalism in Q4, also recognized by the prizes I mentioned in my introduction. Furthermore, it was also an extraordinary quarter for this part of our organization due to the announcement that the Tinius Trust seeks to acquire our News Media business operations, and I'll come back to that at the end of my stint here.
Lastly, I can also report that after a thorough evaluation of the merits of our options, we have taken the decision to wind down and exit our investment in Viaplay over the next few months. We knew from the start that this investment was risky, and at year-end 2023, our shares owned in Viaplay had a market value of NOK 43 million, and we have sold our subscription rights and shares over the last few weeks. We still believe that an investment in the restructuring of Viaplay could have been interesting in the long run. However, given the timing with the intention from the trust to acquire our media business, it no longer makes sense for us to pursue this.
If we then go over to the financial results of the fourth quarter, News Media delivered foreign exchange neutral revenues in line with last year, driven by resilient subscription revenues and a strong advertising performance in Sweden. When adjusting for the sale of Lokalavisene made in October, total underlying revenue, revenues increased by 1%. On the cost side, News Media saw continued effects from the cost program, and despite a high inflationary environment, the cost levels declined by 2%, contributing to a significant EBITDA improvement compared to last year and the last quarters with an EBITDA margin of 13%. If we take a closer look at the main revenue streams, we see that digital subscription revenues showed solid foreign exchange neutral growth of 12% or 13% if we adjust for the sale of Lokalavisene.
The increase was driven by improved ARPU, combined with higher volumes, continued growth in Podme, and also the new All Access bundle product. Moving to advertising, the quarter ended with an underlying growth in digital advertising of 3%, driven by strong performance in Sweden, where we returned to growth this quarter. Norway continued to experience market volatility, but a resilient December ensured that the quarter ended just slightly below last year. Then I'll move on to Delivery. Performance here was affected by the legacy newspaper distribution business, which saw a continued decline in newspaper circulation, combined with a lapse of Sunday distribution. It's the last quarter of comparables to that. With, within new business, Morgenlevering continued to decline compared to last year. That's driven by changes in consumer shopping behavior, particularly after COVID.
Helthjem Netthandel also saw a revenue decline in the fourth quarter due to less B2C volumes. C2C volumes, on the other side, continued to increase, and that's driven by FINN's transactional Recommerce offering, FINN Fiks ferdig. In total, revenues decreased 12% in the quarter. However, total costs decreased by 16% in Q4 compared to last year, driven by continuous and strong cost focus and improved profitability in the value chain of Helthjem. As a result, EBITDA actually improved compared to last quarter and last year. Next up is Growth & Investments , consisting of brands like Lendo, Prisjakt, and other digital services that we have. Here we see that total consolidated revenues in the segment decreased 7% on a foreign exchange neutral basis. That's driven by declining revenues in Lendo, and I'll come back to that on the next slide.
Prisjakt experienced a tough e-commerce market, with revenues decreasing 2% on a foreign exchange neutral basis. Click revenue remained stable, but advertising revenues had a double-digit decline compared to last year. Additionally, there was a decrease in the number of sessions influenced by a reduction in SEO direct traffic, and that they were really adversely affected by the updates that Google did to their core algorithm in the fourth quarter. Total EBITDA for Growth & Investments declined with 30%, compared to last year. That's driven by the revenue decline in Lendo and also a one-off cost in the SMB segment. Lendo then experienced a solid number of loan applications in Q4, but continued to see a further reduced conversion from application to payout in Sweden and Norway, as the macroeconomic environment causes both banks and consumers or borrowers to be more cautious.
As a consequence, Lendo's revenues declined in the quarter. The development in Denmark, as well as new product verticals like credit cards in Norway and business loans in Sweden, they continued to grow well. In total, revenues in Lendo Group declined by 20% compared to last year on a foreign exchange neutral basis. EBITDA performance was affected by the revenue decline and margin decrease compared to last year, and that's despite the cost reductions that we have made due to the winding down of the international expansion. So with that, and before I hand it over to PC, I'll just comment on our overall strategy and direction for the future. For Schibsted, Q4 was characterized by the announcement of two transformational milestone, which will transform this company and unlock its full potential.
For a start, we made important progress in the execution of our ownership in Adevinta, as we announced our support for the voluntary offer for Adevinta in November. Our decision to engage in the transaction was carefully considered and is aimed to identify the most certain and value accretive solution for both Schibsted and our shareholders. This move not only ensures substantial cash proceeds at an attractive valuation, but it also allows us to maintain a stake in the future growth potential through a minority reinvestment. Subsequently, we announced in December that our largest shareholder, the Tinius Trust, seeks to acquire our news media operations. If finalized, this transaction sets the stage for a transformative restructuring of Schibsted into two more focused companies: a media company, fully owned then by the Tinius Trust, and a publicly listed marketplaces company.
Pending a final agreement with the Tinius Trust and approval by the general meeting, we are confident that this move will strengthen the growth prospects and potential of both these businesses. We expect closing of both transactions to happen in the second quarter of 2024, and we will provide you with more information over the next few months, if and when appropriate. As announced this morning, the next legs of Schibsted's journey will be embarked upon without me at the helm. Schibsted is now at a crossroads, and we are entering a new phase as we go from being one united group to two separate companies. In the face of that change, it is the right time for me to step down and let a new leadership guide Schibsted into this next era.
I want to give the Board sufficient time and opportunity to identify the new leadership and my successor so that they can be operational as soon as this transaction will close. At the same time, I am, of course, committed to ensuring a smooth transition. I will continue to support the company in any way I can, and I will, of course, remain in my role until a new CEO is appointed. So that means it's still not time for goodbyes, but it might be the last time I present the quarterly results. So let me take the opportunity to thank you all for your continued support, especially through some of the rough times that we've had. Schibsted is a fantastic company, and it is a huge privilege to lead such a group of talented people with so much yet to be achieved.
Thank you very much. Over to you, PC.
Thank you, Kristin, and we are really sad to see you leave. We will miss you, but at the same time, we fully understand and respect your, your decision. So good morning, let me quickly take you through the details on the financials for the fourth quarter. I will start my presentation by giving a quick update on the overall financials of the group. As mentioned, overall revenues are on a foreign exchange neutral basis, stable versus the fourth quarter last year, despite the challenging macroeconomic landscape. This development was driven by the 6% growth in Nordic marketplaces, offset by decline in Delivery and Growth & Investments.
On the cost side, we see increased effect from the cost program in News Media, impacting the group EBITDA, ending at NOK 684 million, up 5% versus the same period last year. Our operating profit for the quarter ended at NOK 317 million, up 11% from last year. This is driven by higher EBITDA, combined with the effect on the sale of Lokale Aviser, partly offset by somewhat higher depreciation and amortization charge. Items below operating profit are, to a large degree, affected by our ownership stake in Adevinta. During the fourth quarter, we saw the share price in Adevinta increase from around 106 NOK at the end of Q3 to around 112 NOK at the end of Q4, ending with a result and reversal of the previous recognized impairment losses of around NOK 2 billion.
The TRS related to Adevinta also was affected by the increased share price, leading to a gain of NOK 195 million recognized under financial income in the quarter. Financial expenses, on the other hand, includes a loss of NOK 100, no, NOK 245 million from the TRS linked to our investments in Viaplay. In totality then, net operating profit for the group ended at NOK 2 billion in Q4. Operating cash flow in the quarter fell by NOK 193 million, or 27% in the quarter, and the main reason for this was that the cash inflow in Q4 2022 was artificially high due to the implementation of a new ERP system during 2022.
CapEx in Q4 ended at NOK 316 million, up 12% from last year, and this is mainly driven by significant investments into the new common technical platform in Nordic Marketplaces, combined with investments within Delivery into a new sorting machine in Vestby. During the quarter, interest-bearing debt close to NOK 500 million was repaid at maturity. The Adevinta TRS was rolled over, giving a positive liquidity effect of NOK 1.2 billion. The Viaplay TRS was terminated in December, resulting in a loss of NOK 340 million in the quarter. After the new year, we have now fully exited our position, and the total loss related to Viaplay amount, unfortunately, to NOK 360 million. Schibsted, at the end of the year, has a solid financial position with a financial gearing of 2.1.
Then just a quick reminder and a recap. As part of the Adevinta offer, Schibsted will sell 60% of our 28% stake in Adevinta, resulting in approximately NOK 24 billion in proceeds. In addition, the Tinius Trust intention to acquire our news media operation is expected to yield around NOK 4 billion of additional proceeds. As we have said before, we intend to use these cash proceeds from these two major transactions to return capital to our shareholders. We will use the coming month once these two transactions complete and close, to continue to evaluate our options and have close dialogue with the majority of our shareholders. More information around the details on the different sort of vehicles and the timing and the amount is expected to be given at the time of closing of these two transactions.
Then on our medium-term financial targets, and then some quick reflections on the outlook for Q1. Nordic Marketplaces is well-positioned to deliver on the ambition to transition into a new vertical-based operating model, as we expect to unlock significant value for consumers and generate customer value over time. Yet, the current macroeconomic environment has proven to be more and less difficult and less favorable than we expected when we introduced these ambitions almost a year ago. This increases the risk to deliver on these targets, and it leads specifically to a revision of the Jobs vertical financial ambitions for 2024. For the year of 2024, we expect Jobs volume to decrease by 5%, revenues to be stable, and EBITDA margin to be around 45%.
We will come back to 2025 once we have a bit more visibility during this year. For the other verticals, targets remain unchanged. As we have mentioned before, within Nordic Marketplaces, we have increased our focus on prioritizations, efficiencies, and cost management to make sure that we adapt to a more challenging macroeconomic landscape. In News Media, we continue to focus on the digital transition of our leading media houses to deliver low single-digit revenue growth and EBITDA of 10%-12%. Further, we expect Lendo's financial performance in 2024 to be continued affected by the challenging macroeconomic environment as banks and borrowers are more cautious. We are focusing on executing mitigating actions to manage the financial performance. And then lastly, quickly on January and Q1.
At a very high level, the trends that we have gone through today, and as you can see in the presentation and the report, is broadly also continuing into the month of January. But keep in mind that this is only a few weeks into the year and into the quarter. And with this, I suggest that we move into Q&A, Jann-Boje.
Thank you, PC. So as we said, we try a new format, today. And, looking at teams, there are already some raised hands. First up is Jo. So, please unmute yourself and, go ahead with your question.
Wonderful. Thank you, team. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Excellent, it's working. So it's Jo Barnet-Lamb from UBS. A couple from me, please. So firstly, your narrative on outlook seems to flag that you see downside risk for Nordic marketplaces more broadly, but the outlook is cut for Jobs only. Can you give us a little more color on how you're thinking about the other verticals going forward? And then secondly, clearly, Kristin, you announcing your intention to leave could be seen to raise some question marks around strategy, and particularly importantly, at the moment, capital allocation. Is there any color you can give with regards how we should consider those two points going forward? And I'm also thinking sort of the timing of when decisions are made, even if that narrative is high level. Anything you can give us is appreciated.
Obviously, best of luck for whatever is next for you personally. Thank you.
Thank you. Do you wanna start with the outlook maybe, or?
Yeah, I can do that. No, as I said, in general, there is a higher risk, you know, than it was a year ago, due to the macroeconomic situation. We and most people don't really know how, you know, how long or how deep this situation is gonna be. And for the other three verticals, we see that we are, you know, within the range of the targets, and we don't see a need to change the expectations. So we'll continue to work hard to deliver on those for this year and next.
When it came to the Jobs, as you also might recall, you know, the actual performance last year and also the expectation for this year is pretty far away from the expectations that we set out on. So we feel, you know, we will update you when we see that this most likely we will not be able to deliver, and that's why we reduced the outlook for the Jobs vertical specifically.
Okay. Yeah, and on the. Yeah, on the capital allocation thing, I mean, the, my departure, there's absolutely no drama to my departure, and the reason we choose to announce it now and not later is to be able to run a more transparent process in identifying my successor. And also a bit because as we plan the separation now, and we're in a very intense phase of doing that, it becomes more and more awkward for me to sort of play that I'll be part of it when I won't. So it's also for me, actually, a bit of a relief to be able to be open about it. So that's the reason why we chose this timing, and Q4 was a good time, given that we would be communicating today anyway.
So that's the reason for that, and rest assured, we stay committed to what we have said about capital allocation. We will, you know, we want to hand a vast majority of those proceeds back to our shareholders, and that will happen in due course and be announced, as PC say, when we are ready to do so at the closing of the transactions.
Wonderful. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jo. I think next up in line is Andrew at Barclays. So, please unmute and go ahead with your questions.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay?
Yeah.
Perfect. Morning, and let me just also pass on my best wishes to you going forward, Kristin, and thanks for all of your help. I've got two. The first one is to ask about the dyssynergies from the News Media sale and whether we can quantify yet how much extra costs might appear as a result of that, if any. And the second one is to ask you about the cash flow in 2024 and how you're expecting that to play through, because clearly, the CapEx and leases have been pretty elevated for a while. So if you could walk us through the moving parts of the cash flow and how to think about that directionally, and how you're kind of driving improved cash conversion this year, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah.
That's you.
So on the cash flow first, we don't guide specifically on cash flow outlook, as you know. But what we have said today, and I think, you know, the majority of the cash flow is generated from the Nordic Marketplace verticals, where we have clear ambitions to grow EBITDA, and that will, you know, be a positive contribution also to cash flow generation. Then we had guided that our investment level in general we expect to be, you know, on level with 2023. So I think that is just as far as you go. We don't expect any other significant changes on working capital, any other of the components in the working capital statement.
When it comes to dyssynergies from the News Media, sort of, sale and the split of the company into two, there will be negative synergies. We have talked about, you know, on the advertising side, and there will be some on the cost side, where we share, you know, functions and we share systems, today that needs to be separated and split into two. It's too early to, you know, give sort of exact, amounts related to those, so we are working hard, you know, now to prepare the separation. You know, we still haven't signed the agreement yet, but we've been preparing ourselves for that.
But also keep in mind that there are some positive effects, that we are able to kind of reset some of the costs, and collapse, you know, some of the cost structures that we have today. So we will, you know, keep you updated, and we'll come back, you know, once we have signed and closed the transaction with more details.
Thanks. Just to clarify that first answer, so you said that investment levels would stay stable in 2024. So is that CapEx staying stable, just to be clear, or did I misunderstand that?
That was related to CapEx, yes.
Okay. So CapEx, and I guess lease is stable in 2024 in absolute terms, not as a percentage of sales or as a percentage of sales?
In absolute terms.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.
Okay, thanks, Andrew. Next in line is Pete at Morgan Stanley. Pete, floor is yours.
Hey, guys, thanks. Thanks a lot, and thanks, Kristin, for the years, and best of luck going forward. A few questions from me. So maybe if we focus on Finn a bit. Can you talk a little bit about what's driving in Real Estate the ARPA in Q4? Is this coming mainly from the residential for sale side or rentals? And are there different trends between those two ARPAs? That's the first one. Then moving to Finn Motors, what kind of changes are you planning for 2024? Should there be some kind of ARPA impact that we should be aware of into 2024 or 2025? Let's start with those two. Thank you.
Yes, great questions. If you take Real Estate first, we still see good development on ARPA levels, and there are primarily three factors driving that. First, you have the price changes that we did in 2022. They actually still have effect into 2023 because there were some initial discounts and so on that were removed. Then, there is also this fact that we have done a change in the business model for new constructions that is also driving up ARPA. And the third element is that there are now more publications and more use of upsell products as a result of a slightly slower Real Estate market. So those three things are contributing.
If you go to Mobility, into this year, we have, of course, the general CPI increase that we do on professional contracts. In addition to that, we announced here, in the fall that we have done some changes to the price levels, primarily taking away some discounts for larger dealers that will also affect the ARPA in this year.
All right. Thanks, thanks a lot for that. And the last one before I go back to the queue is on competition in Norway. So we have some initial news, at least, that both in Real Estate and cars, there could be potential up-and-comers coming from the agent or the dealer side. So what are your thoughts on either or both of these?
Well, in general, I would say that we have a super strong position with FINN in Norway. Consumers love us. We deliver a huge number of leads to both the agents and car dealers, and we're confident of our position. When it comes to the two specific verticals that you mentioned, in the Mobility, there is this Drive initiative that is first and foremost an initiative where they are, the dealers are going together to create the dealer management system. We also have our dealer management system with Carweb, so there will be more competition for that specific part. And then let's see if this also goes into the marketplace business, but it's primarily on the dealer management system.
For Real Estate, well, I think it's sufficient to say what I said. I think we have a very strong position, so we are quite confident.
All clear. Thanks a lot. I'll jump back. Thanks.
Thanks, Pete. Then looking here, next up in line is Will at BNP. So, Will, please go ahead.
Hi, many thanks for taking my questions. Three from me, please. Firstly, I suppose in the wider industry globally, one of the big margin headwinds has been the ownership transition, which has proven to be a bigger drag than anticipated. At Schibsted, there's no guide for Recommerce in 2024, and consensus expect Recommerce profitability to improve in terms of absolute EBITDA and also margin. Could you comment on how to think about Recommerce margins as you develop and launch your new geographies, especially? Secondly, unrelated, could you talk through the competitive backdrop in general as classified? To what extent, for example, is Vinted impacting Blocket momentum? And then finally, you know, one of the big industry thematics is the entry of CoStar into Europe, and their acquisition of On The Market.
Could you talk us through how you think about that potential challenge, particularly for your FINN property business? Thank you.
All right, if we take Recommerce first, I mean, we have stated ambitions that we will, by the end of 2025, triple the revenue, and during 2025, reach profitability. So of course, that means that over the course of last year and this and next year, we will improve margins and profitability for that segment. We all have worked quite a lot on the monetization part, already reached significantly higher take rates than last year. And now we are of course continuing to experiment with the pricing and monetization, but really, the things that will drive profitability is volume growth and also continued focus on cost efficiency within that vertical.
That is really what will drive profitability in the end. When it comes to competition, yes, Vinted has entered the Nordics. They have gone quite hard into Sweden, and they have also launched in Denmark and Finland. We are, of course, monitoring that closely. The good thing about competition is that it also drives awareness of second-hand purchases, and so on. And we actually see, in Sweden, as an example, that the total market has grown quite significantly through last year as a result of this. How we respond, I don't think I will comment too much on that, we have to keep some secrets from the competition, but of course we are in this game.
And then just on CoStar and the-
Oh, on CoStar, sorry.
... potential impact on your property segment.
On CoStar, it's a very interesting move that they're doing in the U.K. We are following this quite closely to see how that develops. We don't feel it's a particular threat in Norway, since you asked about that, because what they did in the U.K. was to buy not the number one position, but the number two position, and there isn't such a position in Norway to acquire. Yeah.
Thanks. And then just coming back on Recommerce outlook for 2024. Obviously, you didn't provide an actual outlook, so the way for us to think about is for an improvement in EBITDA year on year. Is it like the midpoint between now, 2023 and breakeven in 2025, or should we expect more progress in 2025 and 2024?
I think we shouldn't give a sort of more specific sort of guidance than what we have, but you should expect a sort of gradual improvement from where we are today, you know, till 2025, till we reach a positive EBITDA.
Thank you.
What we also should take into account is that what Christian was saying is that we are now launching the transactional model in Finland in addition to Norway and Sweden. So of course, that will also require some investments in in marketing and shipping subsidies and and so on.
Okay, before we take the next question on Teams, there is like a couple of written questions which I want to take first. The first one is on looking at the sale of our News Media operations. We've stated, you know, that Polaris is part of the News Media, part going over to the Trust, if completed. Do you have any plans to buy out the stake of FINN and Helthjem, which is part of that vehicle?
I would separate the two and say that it does make increasing sense to do something about the FINN stake, because with the verticalization of Nordic marketplaces, it's also becoming a bit, you know, increasingly complicated to have a minority owner in only one of the national companies. So I think it's in mutual interest to find a better solution for that. But that's something that we will need to come back to. For Helthjem, I think it would make sense to continue to have a cooperation with Polaris, given that they also cover a big part of the geography and distribution.
Maybe like a second question related to the change with News Media. If you can comment, if there are any thoughts on a portfolio simplification of the group going forward, particularly when you look at Lendo and Prisjakt, how you approach this in the new setting of the company going forward?
Yes. Look, I mean, I think it will, you know, be up to a new team to decide, but I think it's natural that we will look at our portfolio, that we will see how we can maybe pivot some of these assets to be more meaningful into our marketplace business. And if we don't find good ways of doing that, I think it would be a natural future path for an exit. But then we would, of course, need to consider the market environment and make sure that we get good value for good companies.
Okay, I think then we can go back to Teams here. So next up in line is Giles at Jefferies. So Giles, please go ahead. You're muted.
Okay. Hopefully, you can hear me now.
Yes.
Very good. Thank you. So, yeah, first question was on Jobs, and just given the developments today, it'd be useful to hear from Christian on some of the strategic goals you set out in the CMD this time last year for Jobs and get an update on what's going well, what's not going well, particularly on the value-based pricing and the use of sourced ads. And then the second question, back on Recommerce, back on Vinted. So they have launched in three of your Nordic markets in the past 18 months, and presumably, they're gonna start offering cross-border listings pretty soon. So your latest thoughts on that feature, and while we're talking of features that Vinted have launched, your latest thoughts on item verification, too, please, Christian.
Yes, if you take Jobs first, let's maybe separate it into two things: aggregation and, let's say, optimization of the business model. We spent a great deal of time and effort last year to work on the aggregation part, and I think we have pretty much nailed it. So we are now aggregating content from several sources in Norway, which has increased the volume of content on our site a lot, and as a result, creates a much better experience for candidates and also is a moat against the competition from other aggregators. Now, as we have nailed that, because an important part of that was the nailing aggregation without cannibalizing the paid model.
I think we have found the way to do that in a good way. Now that we have that in place, the focus this year is, as you mentioned, much more to focus more on the actual business model, value-based pricing, effect-based pricing, and so on. And we have started to do that also in Norway on a so far small scale. But I think this is now we are testing it, and we will scale that up throughout this year.
So is it fair to say the current trends and the trends, yes, of 2023 didn't reflect either of these impacts?
I mean, the aggregation last year did not give any financial impact. And the new changes to the business model, that is more coming as organic improvements in the time to come, is the right way to think of it. So that will, in addition to CPI adjustments and so on, be a contributing factor to compensate for the loss of volume. But we are still at a fairly low volume level on those tests, I have to say. Recommerce, can you repeat the question again? I forgot the question.
Yeah. As ever, with sell-side people, too many words. What do you think on item verification and cross-border listings?
Oh, cross-border. I don't have a strong view on item verification. But on cross-border sales, I think we know from experience that that is one advantage that the Vinted has. Usually around 20% or so of the volume comes from cross-border sales, and we see that when they enter a country, they use content from a different country as their entry strategy. I mean, one reason for moving to a common tech platform across the Nordics is also that, so that we, over time, can enable the same kind of cross-border trade. That is not in our immediate plans now, but that can definitely be an option for us in the future.
Just on... Sorry, I'll give up in a second. Just on item verification, when you say you haven't got a view, do you mean you don't think it's important, or it's just not something that's a priority?
Uh-
You guys think-
I don't have a view that I will go out with here now. And it's not a priority for us at this point in time. I think it's fair to say.
Understood. Thank you.
Okay then, switching actually a bit from London to Oslo. So, next in line is Eirik from Carnegie. So Eirik, you can go ahead.
Yes. Hi, team. Thank you for taking my questions. First and foremost, Kristin, it's been a ride the last five years. Looking forward to see what they'll do going forward. You mentioned some effects around harmonizing the Mobility offering. Kristin, you talked through a bit, you know, what you've got in the pipeline in FINN for this year, but bigger picture, more across the different assets. Could you talk a bit about, you know, number one, when we start to see the effect of this harmonization, how large it could be? Just any thoughts there would be good.
Yeah. You wanna do that, Christian?
I can do that. So, we have said this before also, that in order to move to a common tech platform, we also have to harmonize the business models across the Nordics. That's a particularly large task for Mobility, but it's also a huge opportunity to do improvements as we harmonize. I think we have now, during the fall, first of all, we have made a multi-year plan on how to do this. But secondly, we have also executed on the first step of it, which was to take away some legacy discounts that were particularly related to certain large dealers. But that will enable us to have a more, let's say, predictable and transparent model that we then can optimize in additional steps in the coming years.
You will see effects of this already from January this year.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. And also a question on Sweden and Finland, more on a country-by-country basis. Cost quite significantly up both year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter. Seems like it's driven by marketing in Finland and with the launch of transactional Qasa in Sweden. But how much of the increased cost relates to kind of transactional or slash marketing and in Finland and Qasa in Sweden, and how should we think about that going forward?
Yes. So, as you know, we follow the business now by vertical, so it's actually easier to think of it that way. But if you take Finland as an example, you are absolutely right. The reason for cost increases in Finland is due to marketing that we are investing both in the Oikotie brand to strengthen our position in Real Estate , and also in the new C2B Mobility brand, AutoVex. And we are seeing good progress in both those two areas. AutoVex is growing nicely, as Kristin was explaining earlier.
Also in Real Estate in Finland, we are now seeing that we are, in fact, number one on several of the metrics, like content and traffic and top of mind and so on. You were also asking about Sweden and Qasa, and yes, there is a chunk of investments also in marketing for Qasa in Sweden. I believe it was around NOK 8 million-NOK 9 million or so that contributed to that.
Perfect.
I can add, in total, around half of the cost increase in the retail, sort of, retail vertical is related to Qasa investment. So-
That's perfect. Thank you for taking-
Real Estate vertical.
Real Estate. Sorry.
Thanks for taking my questions.
Okay. Thanks, Eirik. The next is Ole Martin at DNB. Hope you can hear us.
I can hear you. Hopefully, you can hear me. And, first of all, thank you, Kristin, for all your efforts over the years. It's been a pleasure, and we wish you good luck in your future endeavors. Then, first on Nordic marketplaces, I wondered, Christian, if, since you're on the line, if you can highlight some of the key pricing product development initiatives that you have planned for 2024, and what we should expect there. And also with that, if you can comment on the sort of bit of noise there has been around the Mobility price increases in Norway, and how you see the response on that?
Yes. So, I can try to give an overview. There we have so many things going on on pricing and packaging, so I might forget something. But, let me try to give you a sense of it. So if you take Mobility, we, of course, have the underlying CPI adjustments in Norway and in Denmark. In addition, we have these changes that I just explained, that we have removed discounts and so on for certain dealers. So all of that gives a quite significant ARPA uplift in both Norway, Sweden, and Denmark in 2024. If you take Real Estate , there, we are now in a more normalized environment, but there is also CPI adjustment there, plus some underlying, let's say, optimization, optimizations of the product and product mix, and so on, both in Norway and in Finland.
In Jobs, CPI adjustment in Norway, plus also there, as I commented on here before, that we are working now on this more effect-based models and value-based pricing, that can also be a contributing factor to additions on top of the CPI adjustments. And then there are also I forgot to mention, in Mobility, at least in Sweden, we are doing also some adjustments on the private side. Yeah.
Thank you. Very good. And, and if I could also comment on, on news media. In this quarter, you actually delivered, 13% EBITDA margin, and still you are maintaining your guidance of 10%-12%. I understand that you're selling the business, so probably not that of, great importance, but where are we really on the cost side or, or the cost-cutting initiatives, and, are you not, being ambitious on the potential in news media? Why have you not revised the guidance?
I can maybe answer that. Well, I, we are delivering well on that program. We said we would deliver 250-300 this year, and we delivered 290, 90 of those in the fourth quarter. And, so but I think it's also important to remember that, let's say, the how media margin works in the cycles. Q1 is normally lower margin, tougher, and then Q4 is often the best quarter. So you need to see it in light of that as well. So I think we have, I think we have very strong ambitions and a very healthy news media operation, and not least, they're incredibly operationally sound and efficient when they decide to restructure, et cetera, like they have done now.
It is a continuous challenge, you know, with a constant transition, and even if we have one quarter with 13%, I, I wouldn't just say sort of then that that work is over. You know, it's, it's a constant battle, let's say, of transformation. So I think you have to see it in, in that light.
Okay. Thank you so much. I'll join back in the queue.
Thanks, Ole Martin. I think we have maybe a couple of minutes before we have to round up here. So just looking at the written questions which came in, I think first, capital allocation. If you exclude the current net debt of roughly NOK 4 billion-NOK 5 billion, can you confirm that the big majority of the proceeds from the two transactions will be allocated to payout to shareholders? Is the first questions. And maybe related to this a little bit, looking at the tools which we look into, there's a question if you've also looked into, for example, scrip dividend as an alternative to pay down proceeds to shareholders.
You can do it.
So yeah, so after we have strengthened our balance sheet, we haven't sort of disclosed exactly, you know, how much we intend to do, but somewhere between 0 and the NOK 5 billion, as you mentioned. The vast majority of the rest will be, you know, distributed back to shareholders. Exactly how and when we will come back to, as I said, once the two transactions has been closed. And I can... You know, rest assured, we are looking at and considering, you know, all the different options that we have, in the toolbox, assessing them and listening also to feedback from our investors.
And then maybe going to Growth & Investments . Here the trends have been a bit weak over the last quarters, looking at Lendo and Prisjakt. And looking at 2024 consensus, there is an expectation that EBITDA goes actually up from NOK 290 to roughly NOK 350. Do you still think it's realistic given the current trends, or is it like an area where you think we should be more cautious going forward, looking at the outlook?
... Yeah, so, I can take that.
Yeah.
We don't give a specific guidance on growth investments or Lendo specifically. But you know, what I said also under the outlook section is, you know, the current trends are not looking so good. And at the moment, we don't really have a good visibility on when things will improve. So if things don't change, we will, of course, do what we can to mitigate on the cost side, but there are limits on how much you can do. So I think you should just, you know, put those different messages into perspective and then, you know, look at the development that you expect for 2024.
Okay. I think then we can have one more question here on Teams from Pete before I have to round up today for a town hall, given, like, the news from Christian this morning. So, Pete, last question from you, please. Go ahead.
All right. The last one is on the transactional model and Tori. So where do you have AOV for Tori at the moment? And is it likely that the transactional launch is going to coincide with the full move to the new tech platform? So I think you mentioned, like, Q1 end or something, but are these things to be linked somehow?
Yes, they are linked. I mean, we are moving to the new common platform, which is based on the FINN platform. So we are kind of using the transactional solution from Norway, going into Finland. But we are launching Tori now, or in, we are in progress of launching Tori now, without the transactional solution first, and then adding or enabling it a little bit later, in the quarter. I don't have the exact average order value for Tori, but I expect it to be closer to what we see in FINN, because in Finland, we have a high engagement and a lot of volume around fashion family-type categories, and so on, with a lower order value, which are also more suited to transactions. So we have high hopes for that launch, but let's see.
All right. Thanks a lot. Cheers.
Okay. Then I think, thank you so much for engaging on Teams this morning. And I think this concludes our Q&A for today.
Yep. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.