Rolv Erik. Welcome to this quarterly presentation from Schibsted for the Q1 results. Of course, we published some important news for us late last night, and that was the news that we will acquire Telenor stakes in Brazil and in Chile. We'll also sell our holdings in some Asian countries to them. Let me get back to that. That is, of course, the highlight of the presentation today. We are increasing our exposure in OLX Brazil to 50%, and we're increasing our stake in Yapo in Chile to 100%. That will give us a new and even stronger position in exciting markets. Apart from that, we have a result where we see continued good revenue and EBITDA growth in online classifieds. We're continuing to invest in in the investment files site.
That's particularly Shpock. Let me get back to that a little bit later. Otherwise, I also like to point out that we have an improved result in publishing this quarter, both due to good growth in the digital business, but also due to cost focus. Schibsted Growth continues to do well. This is the agenda, and the trend that I will give the presentation, and then there are also other senior members of the management here ready to answer your questions. Of course, we'll have the AGM right after this a little bit later this morning. Okay, let me start by OLX Brazil. We are increasing our stake there to 50%.
That means we're taking over Telenor's 25%, and we'll then have a joint venture with Naspers in a 50/50 basis going forward. At the same time, we're also taking full control of the market leader in Chile, Yapo. I think this will give us a good and streamlined portfolio in Latin America, where we now have leading positions in 5 countries, covering big populations that are developing well. What we're exiting now is Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar. Telenor will acquire those assets both from our holdings, and we'll also acquire what Singapore Press Holdings has. That gives them a full control of 100%. The compensation for this swap of assets is that we will pay to Telenor a total of $400 million.
Well, let me talk a little bit about Brazil, because Brazil is an exciting country, where we're seeing the classifieds is working very well. We started this site in 2011. Telenor entered 2013, and we went into this joint venture with Naspers by the end of 2014. This combination has been very successful. It's been a tremendous growth in Brazil. I really like what I see there. It's a huge country, big population, but we are now reaching, have a daily reach of 5% already. I think that is very good. The traffic continues to grow. You can see also that this comes to a large degree from mobile, to a large degree from apps.
It's a very modern way of of consuming classifieds ads to jumping kind of to this solution. As you know, we also started monetization last year, and you can see here that there was strong growth in revenues of 120% last year. I can tell you that this year has also started very well. It's good growth in monetization, very good growth in all the verticals. We expect that growth to continue going forward. It's especially in the car position where in addition to generalist, where OLX Brazil really has taken a very firm grip on the market, by far leading the other players in volume.
You can see it is much, much stronger than the other players, and that's why also the monetization, which was introduced last year, has become successful. In real estate, we're also the number one in traffic, and is the clear leader in the private volumes. Is a challenger in the professional component. What we're seeing of the development, and the way it's moving, like a people's movement, makes me very positive to the future of this company. They have also launched their own real estate verticals, so that you can get listing on both those sites. Brazil is exciting. I showed you this picture. I think also that Brazil is actually an exciting country, developing.
What we're seeing is that OLX is doing an important job in that society because they're facilitating trading and using used goods, trading, creating a marketplace that wasn't there previously. In addition to the environmental positive effects that our sites have, this also facilitates for a better life for many people when we create a meeting place where you can buy and sell goods, cars, and even homes. Right. Moving over to Chile. Chile is also had a positive development. As you may remember, we've had the joint venture there for some years with Telenor. This transaction means that we take over 100% of that site, and this is the clear leader in generalist. Very good vertical position in traffic. Also here, we have a daily reach of around 5%.
It's also the traffic leader in volume in cars and developing a good position in real estate. We're seeing a positive development going forward there. If you then turn over and look at our portfolio in Latin America as a result of this, you can see that I think this transaction is important for us. It allows us to streamline our portfolio and focus on some big important assets where we believe as owner with our competence that we can truly add value. Brazil is of course the big site, the OLX site, where we now have a 50/10/50 joint venture with Naspers. In addition, we also have the player that is a number two or a shared number two in jobs where we control 76%.
You can see in the other Latin American countries, we actually control 100%. Chile I've talked about. Mexico, exciting market, big market. Developing so much slower than Brazil, still we're the leader. Colombia is where we're making a good and healthy profit there for a while. We're the market leader in Colombia, and then the smaller sites in Dominican Republic. That is about the transaction we announced. I think it's a very good transaction for all owners actually, and I think it's a good thing for Schibsted to streamline the portfolio and work better, even better with these exciting assets that are in a very good growth phase. Right. Let me move over to the to our existing businesses and the online classifieds.
It has been a good quarter for the classifieds sites. You can see that France is doing well, as well as Spain and Norway. Much more flattish development in Sweden. For the investment phase, the revenues are going up, and then the result is staying at approximately the same level. This has to do with the investments that we're doing in Shpock. Let me get back to that relatively soon. If you start in France, leboncoin continues to do well. It's a great site, very popular among the French population. As you can see that most of the presidential candidates have visited leboncoin either last year or this year. Certainly the president elect. We're seeing a positive development continuing in the motor, in real estate.
The one that is growing fastest now, but is also the smallest of course is jobs. We launched that, as you may remember, last year. What we're seeing of the development so far is positive. The growth is good in leboncoin. This has also been supported to a minor degree by the acquisition of MB Diffusion that we acquired last year, as you may remember. We've said that marketing will vary from quarter to quarter. We have been marketing much more marketing this quarter than at the same time last year. That affects the margin.
Of course, we're, we have been hiring some people in sales and customer report in order to take opportunity and exploit the good market positions we're having in real estate and also cars. That's for Leboncoin. Also I would say for Leboncoin, there is a continued positive development in the product roadmap. They are ready to roll out new products to car dealers and real estate brokers in the next 6-12 months. In Spain, well, we say it's a mixed development. That's because some verticals are doing better than other. What has been going very, very well is the acquisition within Habitaclia.
We said that Fotocasa has been had so much slower growth in the on the revenues. They're doing well on traffic and in product development. Much slower in in revenue development for Fotocasa because we have a situation with a strong competitor where also price has become a weapon. Habitaclia is doing well. Also what we're seeing is the jobs and the auto verticals are really doing well. I think the jobs is growing by approximately 20%. I think that's also a good sign for the Spanish economy. Back to Norway. I think it's it's extremely strong quarter for for FINN. You can see that there's a growth there on 20%.
That's partly supported by the personal finance Lendo, which is part of this, and also Mittanbud, the marketplace for service people and Handy Mann. The important thing here is also that FINN itself is actually growing well and growing on all verticals. They're growing on traffic, they're growing on jobs, which is a good sign for the Norwegian economy, but also on cars and real estate. They're doing a tremendous job in FINN. I'd like to honor them for that, and they deliver extremely strong quarter. Let me also point out that there is a Easter effect for FINN, because this year, as you know, the Easter, full Easter was in April. Last year, it was in March.
That affects FINN's figures, so the growth will not be at the same level in April, right? This affects and helps the figure of FINN. Anyway, a very solid performance and good growth. Turning to Blocket, a more flattish development there. You can see that the Blocket actually itself has an online growth of 3%. Of course, the revenues there on the real estate verticals are lower. Cars is doing well, but there's been a softer development in display advertisements. We're also seeing that growth is working, that jobs is growing well and they are working with product development across the verticals in Blocket in order to be able to offer new products to their professional customers.
Let me move on to the other markets in all the developed markets. You see the portfolio here. You see that the growth is developing, it's growing on top line and also has more positive development on the bottom line. What we're seeing is that Austria is growing extremely well, growing in the different verticals. Italy has also had a good quarter compared to last year, where it's been so much slower in Ireland. That has to do with the housing market in Ireland that has been slower this quarter than what we saw last year. All right.
For the investment phase, you see there's a good solid growth for the on the revenue side, and of course, OLX Brazil is part of that. For the EBITDA, that is actually at a higher level than last year, and we split it out now so you can see that it's actually Shpock that contributes with that. We are now investing in Shpock in five countries in addition to UK and Germany. We're also having Shpock in Italy, Sweden and Norway. The development of Shpock, if you look at it, is very good. That's why we have been investing, because we're seeing positive results from the investments that we're having.
Well, you're following the UK and the German market, where I can tell you also some people have asked, how is it going in Norway? Well, Shpock has been doing well in Norway. It's only one classifieds app that's doing better in terms of download, downloads, and that is Finn. Except for that, Shpock is the number two part, and you can see in total number and listings, it's going in a very positive direction. That was the classifieds. I'm sure you'll have questions. I'll get back to that. Let me turn your attention to the media houses. What I can tell you is that the, not surprisingly, the print circulation and print advertising is going down somewhat. That's of course, the trend all over the market.
Still, we managed to deliver a positive development in terms of result and margin. That is due to digital development, digital growth, and also very good cost control in this quarter. I think, you know, I'd like to honor our media houses. I think good journalism is more important than ever before, the climate we're living in. There's a lot of good and great journalism being produced in the Schibsted system. Today I'd like to highlight VG, who's had a tremendous run this year and also last year. They won a number of awards. This is from the investigative journalism in prize award that was awarded a few months or a few weeks back.
This week, there was this annual award ceremony in Bergen, by Mediebedriftenes Landsforening, and VG won most of the big prizes, among them for best newspapers and best daily news site. I think VG has had a great run the last year. You can also see actually on the results that VG is showing very impressive development, where they have been able to increase their market share in terms of digital ads and show a strong growth this quarter. Very well done. All right. A few words on Schibsted Growth. Here are, what I can tell you is that we talked normally about a few sites, we actually have a quite interesting portfolio diversified.
Lendo, you're aware of, Compricer is a marketplace also for financial services, mainly then for insurance. Let's Deal, collaborative consumption. tv.nu has been doing well for a long time. It's a online TV guide. Kundkraft's collaborative consumptions in buying electricity. Bink is where we have a startup where we have 20%, which is a mobile bank about to be launched. Prisjakt is doing well. And clear market leader in Norway and Sweden, also being launched in some of our strongest markets, such as Italy and France. Interesting and good portfolio we have there in total.
KickBack is, I didn't mention KickBack, is that's a kickback scheme for people shopping online, a Norwegian company that has been developing well. In total, there's an accelerated momentum growth in Schibsted. You can see personal finance is the biggest part of it, around 50%. That is the one that's been growing most rapidly, notably Lendo, which is having a very positive development both in Norway and Sweden. These are the Swedish numbers. We're encouraged by what we're seeing in Schibsted Growth. I think that portfolio will continue to develop well. All right. That was about the businesses. I'll leave it to you, Trond, to tell about the finances.
Thank you, Rolv Erik. If you look at the Q1 income statement, we have an underlying growth in the operating revenues of 7%. We, if you go then to the gross EBITDA, you see an improvement compared with the first quarter of 2016. Looking then at the line of depreciation, that has a slight increase due to some depreciation of then the Avingaklia and Medifisio, small numbers though, and also some increase in product tech, but also small numbers. We have taken a write-down in Bangladesh, a little bit more than NOK 30 million, which is included in the loss of the JVs.
This then in the P&L, there is no big deviations that we need to explain as such, coming back to the tax rate. We are happy with what we are seeing in the underlying development in our core operations. If you look at the breakdown in between the quarters, you see a continued good growth in all areas. Of course, the classified is hampered somewhat by an increased marketing push in some of our main classified operations, like in leboncoin and FINN, that Rolv Erik explained, that we're really building positions. Excellent performance of VG in Norway and also Media House Sweden doing well.
If you look at our core assets, first of all, in the classifieds, you see that we have growth rate of 20%, both in France and Norway and Spain. I think that is a strong underlying development. It is good to see that we are getting good traction also in some segments in Spain that has been slowing down over the last quarters. Sweden, of course, there is a little bit more flattish development, but also underlying good development. I would say that it is right to say that the verticals is doing very well. We have some slowdown in the display market in some of our core markets.
That has, in a way, some bearing on the growth rate, right to say. If we should give some guidance, going forward, we restate, the, reiterate the 50-20% top line growth for the online classified operations over the next 3-5 years. We do have an aim to come up with stronger operational leverage as a result of the investments that we're doing in our classifieds business. If you look at the online classified investments, we, as you have seen on the figures, we have some high investments in Q1 this year, first of all, as a result of the Shpock rollout. For us, it has been important to take position in our home markets like Norway, Sweden, Italy, which has been doing very well.
Also strong uptake in UK and Germany. If you look at the full-year investments, we saying that it will go down compared to 2016. It has though, although, been somewhat higher in Q1 this year. We also expect it to go sequentially down quarter by quarter going forward. When it comes to the guidance on product and tech, that is actually unchanged. That there is some increase there, so nothing new. At the same also on the guidance on CapEx. Just repeating that to give the full picture.
If you look at the key financial figures, we have a fairly stable situation, which is then as before on the CapEx cash flow, and also net interest-bearing debt is at healthy level and coming back to the silver acquisition. The underlying tax rate in our operations is around 30%. It's right to say also that we are prudent in our accounting when it comes to not recognizing tax losses in investments in the classified that we're doing in several countries, and that, of course, has a bearing on the tax rates as such.
We have the very interesting structural deal with Telenor, increasing our presence, first of all, in good countries, in interesting countries in LatAm, and that will be financed by debt. If you look at our ratio, if you had included the acquisition of Chile and Brazil, we will have a ratio of 2.3 at end of Q1 this year if the transaction was in place. We have capacity and financial covenants, so everything is in place. We will, as a result of our stronger earnings that we foresee going forward, we will have a target, of course, to bring down the leverage to a more normalized level of 1 to 2 going.
I think that concludes the finance part, Rolve Erik, and give over to you on the highlights.
Yes. Thank you. You can just remain up here because I think I've been through the highlights. Very happy about the deal we've done with Telenor and Singapore Press Holdings. I think the assets in Latin America, OLX Brazil is the biggest, but also Yapo Chile are very good and exciting assets for us to continue to develop. I think that's the most important takeaway. Otherwise, we are continue to develop our online activities in Europe. Most of them is on a very healthy path. I'm happy to see also that the publishing has delivered a good good quarter and a lot of good activity on the product development for new products being rolling out on the publishing side.
I think I'll leave it there. I think we're ready to take questions. If there are any. Also, let me also remind you that there is an investor conference call this afternoon, Joakim. Is it the 2:00 P.M. Norwegian time?
Yes.
There also, Gianpaolo Santorsola, who is a senior member of my team Emerging Markets, Latin America and Asia. He will also participate there. If you have more detailed questions, we'll be able to answer those. Yes.
Marcus from Dagens Næringsliv. I was wondering which part initiated the swap between you and Telenor?
Well, I don't have any comments to that. What I can say is that we've had a very good collaboration now over a number of years, for 4 years with Telenor. I think that when we did the joint ventures, everyone knew that this was not going to be perpetual, that at some stage, they would be dissolved. I think that is a natural thing. I think all three owners, if including Singapore Press Holdings, have contributed to develop these assets in a good manner. They're much stronger now than we did when we started the joint ventures. I think this is a natural development and good for all parties.
Henriette Trondsen, Arctic Securities. First, for Lebara, can you say something about the organic growth excluding... Also the organic growth in Spain, excluding Habitaclia, thanks?
Well, what we said is the majority of the growth is from the organic growth and minor parties in France from MBD Vision, and we don't split it out any more exact as percentage numbers. Am I right, Røkke?
That's right, Henriette. Yes.
Yeah.
In Spain, Wallapop's launch of cars, has that impacted the car vertical now?
Well, It has not impacted the, our car vertical or car revenues. cars is one of the sectors where we're seeing the best development in, Spain with the combination that we're having of, Milanuncios, Coches and Vibbo. that's going very, very well for us.
The last question, if I may. On the JV store associated line, you had a one-off cost. Do you know approximately how much that was? And also, could you give any figure about the results from Brazil this quarter?
When it comes to Brazil, I mean, we are not giving EBITDA figures for that. What we are saying on Brazil is that we have the revenue growth that was 15%-16% Q1. 120%, and we have said that it's somewhat higher. That's only what we are saying, the top line. We will come back to Brazil and of course disclose more information on that going forward, but not at this stage.
Yeah. Thank you.
Sorry, Carnegie. A question on the cost development. For 2 quarters, you've said that the investment spend will go down significantly in 2017 over 2016. First quarter in 2017, it's actually up. I'm a bit tempted to ask: Do you really know? How should we know that the investment in Shpock really will come down? What has happened in Q1 that you get this kind of number?
Well, I think it is first of all due to, as you see from the figures, it is due to Shpock. I think that we decided that we really should take a strong position in this general segment in Norway, Sweden, and Italy, and that we have done, and we have seen really good uptake. I think that secures really that position. Also, you have noticed some initiatives, and more quite strong marketing from letgo that we really have pushed back on, which has been good for us. It has been the right decision to step up the investment in Shpock in Q1 this year. It's also right to say that this was initiated post when we did the guidance last time.
We actually some operational actions that we have taken that we believe is really the right thing to do for the future to build positions. Then, we continue to do because we're doing really great in UK and Germany. That we really believe that is the right thing to do.
We're living in a dynamic world where there is not always, you know, exact linear development on everything. We're taking advantages of opportunities and also hitting back on competitors where we see that as necessary. What I'm happy about is we're doing this with success. I mean, letgo is nowhere in Norway and Sweden compared to the downloads we're having ourselves now. We're also doing well in the other markets. You know, the important thing for me is we're doing well, and then we have a plan to outline for how it will develop further this year.
Just to comment on that, because we are getting a lot of questions on the investment. Just to re-reset what I said, is that we expect the total spending to go down, compared with 2016. Then also sequentially going down quarter by quarter. Then it's always a question, what's the significance of that reduction? We said significant earlier. We wait and see. We will have to adjust a little bit what we see in the markets.
Yeah. The follow-up is the reason for not using significantly-
Eliminate any doubt, these guys know what they're doing.
Certain they know what they're doing. I'm not so certain if they know how they communicate with the market, because last time they said significantly down. You're not saying significantly now. Is that due to the Q1 miss, or do you really have to spend more now than what you thought three months ago?
No, I think it's the main reason is that we have decided to step up really in Q1. We may also do some in Q2, but the plan is really to take it down. Of course, we need to monitor the market and the uptake and what is really the KPIs going forward. The underlying situation is quite strong for Shpock, so we are doing the right thing. That has a bearing on the financial investments, or investments in this area. Yeah.
Last for me. Could you give some color on how you've been thinking on the value on the different assets? There's a lot of transactions. You're paying 1,000, $400 million, which is a significant amount. So any color on this at all?
I think we can give that because, if you look at it is roughly then a value of the assets in Asia, around NOK 100 million, and then it's a value in LATAM, roughly around NOK 500 million. That's the figures. The net of around NOK 400 million then. Yes.
Yes. Aksel Engebakken from ABG. I have one question on classifieds in Sweden and impact from Servicefinder, because it has been heavily impacted the performance in the last two quarters. I understand that you have taken initiatives to improve the performance in Servicefinder. Can you elaborate on how that is going and how you see Servicefinder impacting Sweden classifieds in the next quarters coming?
Yeah. I think that, as you saw the Blocket had an underlying growth of 3%, but due to Servicefinder, it was nil. There's no doubt that we've had some problems in the Servicefinder. There's new management in place, and we hope that will help correct the situation. I think it will take some time before they're back on the same track as they were on the very high level a bit more than a year ago.
Yes.
Next year.
Next year, okay. One question on Shpock. Just, you are now in 5 markets, but are there any initiatives currently on the table to roll it out in new markets or are you happy with the 5 you are in currently?
We're happy with the five markets. That's for in Shpock.
Oh.
Right. Joakim Stamets, a question there.
I think most of the questions from the web currently have been covered. There's one additional here with regards to investment phase. Does the new wording on the guidance there include your increased holdings in OLX, as you will now get 50% instead of 25% of the losses there? Yes. It does. And also, right to say that Chile operations is not too far away from a break-even situation, and Brazil likewise. Although it may be some slight increase over in the short period, it's included, yes. The last one for now at least. Can you elaborate on OLX's relative position within real estate compared to main competitor?
Well, OLX is doing well in the real estate and has a strong growth momentum. They are the number 1 in total traffic. They are the number 1 in private homes. There's another player called ZAP, who is the leader in professional content and revenue. We are growing very well. Right. Okay. That was the last question from the web. Any more questions here? Well, if not, then thanks a lot for coming and for shareholders. I'll remind you that the AGM starts here at 10:30 A.M. Thank you very much.