All right. I would like to welcome you this morning for the presentation of the Q1 results for Schibsted. It is Mr. Trond Berger and myself who will be presenting this. The agenda isn't offering any great surprises today. It's the regular points that we usually go through. The first quarter offers what I would characterize as a satisfactory result, given the very difficult markets in which we operate. All media houses in Europe are feeling the tougher commercial market. We've seen this in Spain and Italy and more in France lately, that selling the advertisements is more difficult than what it has been previously. We look at the business areas, we see that online classifieds, the big sites are continuing to deliver well. leboncoin is increasing considerably, and we see also good development trends in Norway and Sweden. I'm going to come back to this.
We're increasing our investments. Previously, we've seen that we see a lot of profitable potentials, and we're going to take advantage of those. We have said that we're not going to provide any guiding on the figures, but they're going to be higher. I believe we have now lived up to that. We've delivered, and we'll come back to that a little bit later as well. We can say that the next generation sites in Italy, Austria, and Ireland are continuing to develop in a positive direction. We have two new sites in Hungary and Malaysia that are now moving into what we call the established phase, and that means that there's more profitability associated with them. For the media houses, we're seeing the transformation is continuing at full speed ahead. The positive thing is that there's good growth online.
If we look at mobile, especially for VG and Aftonbladet, the growth is good. While print, we're still seeing a decline in the classifieds and the advertising. For VG and Aftonbladet, we're seeing that things are improving, but the figures are clear. The cost-cutting program, we are continuing to implement as we have previously stated. If we look at the figures in terms of NOK, we have a profit that's not too unlike what we've seen in the same quarters in the previous years. Q1 2011 and 2012 were about at the same level with the profit before investments. Nonetheless, it's worth noting that previously, in the past two years, the media houses have provided a larger share of this profit. This year, it's the classifieds that are providing a larger percentage.
If we look at online classifieds investment phase here, which I've touched on, we'll come back to again, we see the figures here. We see that many who follow along with us here are most concerned about the gross operating profit, and they watch that over time. As far as the composition of our revenues is concerned, it's worthy of note that in Q1 last year, since then, the online classifieds have increased from 37% to 45%. What we can see there is that classifieds from 24% to 26%. It's also good to see that the media houses online, which were 13% a year ago, are now up to 19%. That was media houses online. The print advertising is weaker than what it has been. This is a result of the market trend, the development.
It has lost 5%, so that this also reduces the group's total dependence on this. As far as the results are concerned and the way they are composed, we see more or less the same thing. Media houses online are increasing their share in particular. Let's take a look then at online classifieds. There we see that sales continue to grow. We're getting close to NOK 1 billion there per quarter. If we look at the top line growth there, you can see initially 11% growth, revenue growth. We feel that it's also important to show the corrected picture we're going to adjust for Spain. Spain is in a very special macroeconomic situation where even the online classified companies are seeing a slight setback. They're delivering on the bottom line, but the top line is going back.
Spain has this impact for us so that we're showing both of these figures. Then there's investments which naturally have an impact on the margins, which show that it's at a lower level. The situation is such that there's a lot of new development taking place with new verticals. FINN, Blocket, and in Ireland, for example, the major established verticals are now saying that they're going to take new positions. This has an impact on the margins, but we feel these are good investments. With a view to the overall results, the revenue growth for classifieds, we see that the big increase is from Leboncoin. We see that they're increasing their percentage significantly, and we see this in the total figures, and we see that the other established units also are increasing their percentages.
Let's take a look at some of the major sites. I'm gonna start with FINN.no. There is a top-line growth there of 5% in the first quarter. When you take that into account, what was the growth last year? Well, it was about 18% last year. It can vary a little bit from quarter to quarter. What we can see here is that FINN.no has become so big that it is impacted by the brands market, which has declined somewhat, and it's impacted by the overall market. This is more than what has, we've seen lately, but the underlying development is exceptionally good. We've had a little bit of an impact from an early Easter, and there's been some temporary technical instability.
That is, I could talk a lot about the weather because we talk about that here, because when there's a cold front, people don't sell things as often. It may be cars, all kinds of outdoor furniture and so on. We see that with the FINN and Blocket. We see the effects of that. Otherwise, we continue to invest in new verticals. Personal finance is showing a development that's very interesting. Travel, for example, is showing very good growth. For Blocket, we have a good development trend. The new car sales are down 17% in Sweden this quarter. These classifieds are also down. This is reflected there. There's a very exciting development. Blocket is looking at. They're starting with real estate and jobs, these new verticals.
We saw on the internet, we could read an article this morning, we see that there are a number of real estate brokers that wonder if they should leave the leading site and go over to Blocket. I don't know if they will, but what has happened is that the market leader has started taking pay while Blocket is still free to the real estate brokers, so that there is a development in this market there. As far as jobs are concerned, we're also seeing positive development. Leboncoin has very strong underlying growth. The situation is such that the top line is growing and the margins have also been very high. I would like to make a couple of comments here.
As far as this year is concerned, I don't think we should assume that this same margin is going to continue. This is because there is some marketing and development costs have not been taken in the first quarter, but they're going to be charged later. I think also it's worthy of note that we're comparing. As time progresses, we're comparing with strong figures for the growth, top line growth. This is what I'm thinking about Leboncoin this year. I'm very optimistic about Leboncoin's position in the long run. I think it has a very strong market position, and they have still exciting potential left with cars, real estate, jobs. Here we see a site that was started just the year after Leboncoin, but its journey is a little longer and slower. This is Subito, Italy. Still the same concept, Subito Italia.
When we introduced this in Italy, the competition was different and the maturity for the use of online classifieds has been different so that the journey has been longer, but they're developing very strongly and they're growing. Their traffic is growing significantly. It's very gratifying to see so that this is one of our absolutely largest sites, and naturally, it's impacted by the fact that the brands and things are not advertising as much. In the long term, it's because of the brands market. In the long term, it's very exciting. We have said that we see a lot of very exciting investment opportunities in new ventures, and we would like to take advantage of those.
We've mentioned to you previously that this year we're going to be at a higher level than what we've done previously. We're not going to go out ahead of time as we've done before and said how much higher. Our criteria are that in the markets where we're at, where we see exciting opportunities, then we're going to go for it where we feel there are profitable opportunities awaiting us. As we make these investments over operations, then we see it in the results. We're investing because we see that we have a good and exciting development opportunity. We'll be focusing on the markets that are core markets and expanding into selected new areas. We feel that we have the best concept. We have the best execution.
We're following up with marketing, we are just going to, as I say, we're going to go for it. In Brazil, we are seeing that there has been a wonderful development in the past year. There's InfoJobs, which is a number two site in the market. The number one is Catho, the largest one. They take paid from users, not the companies. We have the other model, we have more traffic, more visits. They have more income. It'll be exciting to follow along with this in the future. As far as the Blocket site, Bom Negócio. We see that this is developing well. There's daily new listings are up by 150% year-on-year, the advertisements classifieds have never been better, and also in the number of visits, it's developing well.
We have a very stiff competition there. OLX is the competition. If we think about Brazil and the fact that it's a very large market, there we see that there are regions that are stronger. We're the largest in Rio, where they're the largest in São Paulo. We have very great faith in what we're doing, and we're seeing good growth in our sites. Here we see a selection of other sites which perhaps you haven't heard so much about and haven't followed along with so closely. This is in Finland, this one's in Hungary, and this one is in Indonesia. That is that the Blocket concept works well, and we're focusing on this. The bottom is Finland, the middle is Hungary, and the top is Indonesia. These listings are working very well.
We won't see too much happening this year and next year, but this is a very promising new generation of sites that's going to have an impact in the future. To sum up the classifieds, we are continuing as we've done before. We believe that we have good growth opportunities in the large markets. We see that we have a lot of exciting opportunities in new markets, and we're increasing, which I've just gone through, and increasing investments in organic growth. Let's look at media houses. We see that this is a mixed picture. There's a lot to be pleased with. We have set ambitious targets when we say that we're going to build up world-class digital media houses. This calls for significant cost reductions, that there are a lot of really talented staff members here.
When I say it's a mixed picture, it's because of the restructuring, which is continuing. The advertising market, for example, is down. We have a great deal of activity in different areas. We see that online advertising is increasing. It's starting to get close to NOK 0.5 Billion for the media houses, and we have more newspapers to follow in Q2. This is the payment model, subscription model. We have significant focus on strengthening expertise and competence. We have the cost reductions that Torun will revert to. Those that are doing very well are VG and Aftonbladet when it comes to online, so that both of these newspapers, unfortunately, their circulation is declining and is still about 10% or more for the paper circulation, but they're growing very quickly digitally.
This means that the overall picture for these two media houses is now such that the online share is about 30%, in fact. For those who have followed along with these newspapers over the years, you can see that there's been a great deal that's taken place. The gratifying thing there is that we're seeing growth of 200%. This is a tripling, in fact, while the income per user has also increased average revenues per user, ARPU. Now we're seeing that we're getting income generated by the mobile units. This is working also for the advertisers. It's very interesting to look at the dynamics of this market.
It seems that consumers are dealing with fewer providers on the mobile systems, and VG is much bigger than its competitors, and Aftonbladet has an even better lead on its competition in Sweden. If we look at the large subscription newspapers, we continue to see the transition taking place, and the situation is not the same when it comes to circulation. We have a better situation there, and that's good. They're more volatile, and they're more de-dependent on advertising revenues. When the first quarter is this week, it's because we've had five or six days without printing newspapers at Easter time, and that had a certain impact. You see also the others who have presented their figures, you see this was a weak market in Q1.
In these newspapers, there's also very strong focus on digital expertise, developing new products when it comes to advertisements and to attracting readers. Fædrelandsvennen introduced in May a year ago, the subscription model, the payment model. I think it's been very successful, so that Fædrelandsvennen in Q1 this year, their circulation in paper is higher than it was a year ago. The Stavanger Aftonbladet at the bottom here, they are planning to introduce a similar model. During the next few weeks, in fact. In Sweden, we see Svenska Dagbladet introduced a new newspaper very recently, and it's been very well received. There's a white part and a pink part for business and industry, and they introduced this just last week, and this is adapted to a different model. There, there's a kind of a meter. It's metered use.
Yesterday, when I took a look, I saw that there were a lot of subscribers that had changed their subscription so that they have access to the digital services. There's a lot of activity that will take place in the time to come here. Here, I have to say that I'm impressed by the activity in the media houses. There's a tremendous amount of innovation, high pace of innovation. There's a lot of transition, a lot of things taking place on the mobile services. If you saw this Törnqvist show, it's fun that we see this here, and he is nominated as the program host of the year, TV host of the year.
There's a lot taking place on web TV, and there's a lot of things taking place with we're focusing on speed, and we want to get a lot of digital consumers being registered as pay subscription users, and it's right on schedule. By way of conclusion here, I would say that we have this web-based growth media, Tillväxtmedier, and we're continuing to grow there. We're also introducing personal finance, especially in Sweden, and we're building this up in Norway as well. We saw this Lendo. We looked at what they did in the first quarter. It's still early days, but it looks very exciting and promising. This development continues, and we see that we are taking advantage of the different traffic machines that we have in Schibsted. That was about the business areas.
We'll come back to questions. I will give the floor to Trond Berger, CFO.
Thank you, Mr. Ryssdal, CEO. We're satisfied with the first quarter. Its comparable figures are somewhat down from last year, but it's important to be aware that the first quarter last year was an exceptional quarter. We saw also in macro terms that there was some cyclical flattening out in 2012 that took place so that there were a lot of investments. As Rolv Erik mentioned, we see a lot of opportunities there. Otherwise, the development trend in the media houses with the product development, there's still focus on costs. Then we're dealing with the restructuring. This quarter is also somewhat characterized by the Easter effect, as we call it, naturally.
Then it has been particularly cold in Northern Europe, and that has a certain impact on classifieds. If we look at the underlying figures, we see that we continue to have good margins from classifieds, and we continue to invest nonetheless in new pro-products so that the decline in FINN from 48 to 45, 44 is characterized by that. If we look at Blocket, we see also there are new verticals that we're making investments in addition to the fact that the car market has been soft in Sweden. In addition, we are seeing high margins, but perhaps we're going to have some more marketing campaigns there. If we take a look at the development of the results, EBITDA, compare the quarters, we see Q1 last year was NOK 424 million, and this is down to NOK 274 million this year. This is million NOK.
It's Schibsted Norway that we see that there have been a restructuring. The underlying figures are good. We see somewhat down in Sweden as well. Otherwise, that's mainly the increased investments that are having an impact on the results. We are charging everything against the profit and loss. All the development in classifieds is not being charged abroad so that this can be considered investments. We have a cost reduction program that continues. It was introduced last autumn. We are right on track with that. We continue to deliver. We also believe that there will still be possibilities for realizing further cost cuts in our activities in the time ahead in order to adapt to the day-to-day situation that we face. These programs that we're seeing will be implemented this year and next year.
You look at the operating costs for the media houses, you can see that we have very good cost control. We are making significant investments in classifieds at the same time as we have large investments in our digital media houses. Be aware of this beyond what we have investments, we're also making investments over the ongoing operations to adapt to the mobile situation. There are large development costs that are charged on an ongoing basis in connection with our media houses against the profit and loss. We look at the income statement here, we see that there's an operating EBITDA is down from NOK 424 million to NOK 274 million. We have NOK 100 million of increased investments in classifieds and new ventures.
Otherwise, the financial costs, the level is about the same as last year, we have a tax percent that's about 40%-43%. This is a level that we believe it will also be continued in the time ahead, at least because we have investments in other countries that can't be taken there so that we will have somewhat higher taxes ahead, about the same level. We have a very stable, strong financial position. We have refinanced some of our ongoing facilities so that we have a good debt maturity profile. We have good liquidity, NOK 3.9 billion long-term liquidity reserve. We feel that we have good funding for the opportunities that we see ahead. Let's look at our key financial figures.
There we see in the first quarter, we have introduced a new type of advertising so that our invoicing is somewhat delayed in Norway. There is a slight negative change there in the working capital related to Norway in the first and foremost. We will be back on a regular invoicing situation during Q2 this year. This is just a very temporary dip. We still have a, an underlying good cash flow. The board has suggested to the annual general meeting that we have a dividend of NOK 3.50. This will be up at the annual general meeting. This is at the upper range of the corridor that we have between 25% and 40% of our cash flow, the interval. That was what we had for the financials, Rolv Erik. Let's take a look at the outlook then.
All right. When it comes to the outlook, let's look at classifieds first. We will continue to take a look at our development. We feel that the sites have still good potential. The next generation's winners that Tidja and others are working with a lot, they're looking good. I think we're going to have a lot of good news from there in the years ahead. We see that there are a lot of exciting investment opportunities ahead. We want to use the money that we need to spend to take the positions in the market that are there. What we've done recently gives us confidence in this strategy. We're going to manage, we're going to succeed with this.
We say that we are concentrating on the markets that we're in, and then we have selected new markets, but a lot of the investments in the coming years, will be in the markets where we already have operations. If we look at the media houses, we have the targets. We're going to continue to build digital media houses. It's going to take time and resources, time, expertise. This development that we've talked about for several years and now proceeding full speed ahead, we're very pleased about that. Then we have said that, all right, that's going to have an impact on profitability in the years ahead. That's only natural. I'm very encouraged when I see the developments that VG and Aftonbladet have. I think there's a lot of really exciting things taking place in the subscription newspapers.
I know that they're really working full speed ahead with this development. That was what we wanted to tell you from the rostrum here, and we would be happy to answer your questions. There are many of our executive managers here, so please take advantage of the fact that everyone is here and pose your questions . A couple of questions. First, about online classifieds. You're using a lot more money than previously. Can you say something about what growth has been in a site like Subito during the quarter, and what EBITDA margin do you have there? Can you give us just a little idea of how things are going for these sites, Mr. Ryssdal? What I think is important there is the development of the site and the traffic figures. We are not aiming at a high EBITDA margin in the phase where the site is now.
Would you like to say something about the traffic development, Tidja?
As opposed to the competitors in Italy, Subito is a site that now is in the number one position. I would say they've improved their position throughout the year, both last year and this year. I would just like to ask once more about the advertising market in the Nordic countries. A weak Q1, but a good quarter last year. When you're talking now to those advertisers that will be advertising the rest of the year, will we continue to see a 20% decline, or it's more a flattening out answer? I will look at the official or keep to the official prognosis, which say that the three next quarters are going to be better, but these are prognosis that can change.
I don't know if you have anything more that you would like to add.
We want to be a little bit cautious. What I don't be very specific about how we think things are gonna go, but I can't say that the change is going to be huge. If we look at the Easter effect, we certainly don't expect any weaker Q2, because Easter is behind us. I'm afraid we have to deal with this fact that we're moving to digital media rather than print. We'll do as well as possible, certainly, but I can't promise that print is going to be a lot better. I don't think there's anybody in Europe that would say that today. Okay. Morten Stenshol, Danske Bank. First, as far as the comments to other opportunities are concerned, you're talking about significant investments in speed web TV and other mobile platforms.
Does that mean that you are thinking about a peer-to-peer solution, that you're focusing on that? Yes, you're thinking about the subscription solutions between Blocket and FINN. Yes, we're working on that. We're developing that. I think that will come during this year and next year in Norway and Sweden. Question, you had a graph here that showed the growth in investments for the media houses of NOK 300 million year-over-year. Can you say something about what that was like previously and what you see in the future? Answer, we are continuing to invest significantly in the media houses. It's a lot in the digital transformation that we're seeing these investments, both to develop these products, the subscription solutions. This has been a level that has increased significantly from 2012 into 2013.
It can certainly be that that will continue to increase in order to take the positions in the digital future that we want to take.
Another question, perhaps to Tidja again. In the Q2 presentation, you had an interesting comment about Leboncoin, Blocket. You mentioned that you were working to get a new ARPU, especially regards Blocket. You mentioned some figures there, and you get a good upside with that. Do you, are you able to comment a little bit about the development since August and up to now?
Well, really, I don't have any comments other than the fact that the markets in general have declined compared with what they were before. The macroeconomic situation also has an impact on classifieds sites when they look at brand, branded goods, for example.
A last question from me.
We saw a very exciting transaction between Naspers and Avito this quarter. I understand that you're working with existing investments and some new geographies that you've mentioned. Are you able to comment a bit about what you see in the future? How opportunistic are you going to be with the M&A, merger and acquisition in classifieds?
Answer. As regards acquisitions, in recent years, we have made some bolt-on acquisitions which fit right into our profile. I think that we're going to continue to do that, to continue to look for opportunities. As far as the markets that we operate in, otherwise, we are confident that we have what it takes to succeed there. We have some questions that have come from those who are following along with the webcast. There's a question from Catherine O'Neill in Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
Is it possible to quantify the Easter effect and the weather effects in Q1? The weather effect is a bit difficult to quantify, but it is a phenomena. Tidja, you have seen this on FINN many times. Would you like to make a comment?
The exact impact, I can't say because we don't know. We know from long experience that a cold spring has a significant impact on our sales. It sounds maybe a little bit crazy, but if you think about what it is our site sell, what type of goods, you think, well, there are a lot of these goods in the Nordic countries, at least, where a lot of these things are used only in the summer. Nobody sells lawnmowers when there's snow on the ground, and it's been cold all over Europe, not just in Northern Europe.
As far as the Easter effect is, it's especially the subscription services that are affected by that. That has an impact on the advertising, certainly in classifieds by a certain percent.
Let's take a few more questions from the webcast. Sarah Simon in Berenberg asks whether it is possible to give a comment on the real estate market in France. Are we more optimistic about real estate in France now than what we have been in previous quarters in the presentations? Answer. In the long term, we're very optimistic about that market because we have a good volume. That volume is continuing to grow. As we've mentioned occasionally before, we have sales agreements with our French cooperative partner, SPIR, we sell a package.
This is part of the transactions about Leboncoin. I think that it lasts for another year and a half, out 2014. In the long term, we are optimistic about our position because we're getting more and more objects. I think that we are total leading, beginning to lead. Mike Melly, Deutsche Bank, has a question about the dividend and the outlook for dividends in 2013. Would you consider then increasing dividends to more than 40% to maintain the absolute level of 50%, or is this 25%-40% interval absolute? Answer: We have the joy or we're very gratified today to have the chair of the board present. We would, our plan is to stay within the 25%-40%, and we'll take a look at them.
The trend, I don't know if you would say anything more, Ole Jacob. This is the chair of Schibsted's board of directors.
I just have an added comment that it will be stable to increasing dividend that we will have so that we have to take that into account. Naturally, we also have to look at the development opportunities that we have organically, and that will be a further element to take into consideration.
Any more questions, Martin?
Yes, the last question from me. I understand that you are a bit secretive about the investments in online classifieds. Do you have, could you comment on these further NOK millions, what their, these TV programs, a little bit about, say a little about the cash flow there and a little bit about the opportunities that are available there?
If you could just say a little bit about that. Well, there I'm going to have to disappoint you. That is where we have given so much information to our competitors. None of our competitors were offering any information in these areas, so that we feel that when we're in this competitive type of situation, then we have to keep our cards close to our chest. I would thank you for the question, though. A couple more questions from the webcast. As far as France is concerned, we have a question. What is the main driver in France? Is it moving more into the professional market, a higher yield or prices? Do we have plans to introduce new verticals there? There is first and foremost the professional market that's been an important driver in the French market.
If we look at the outlook for the future, there's a lot still. There's still more to go on. We have more potential in the professional car market. We're making good progress now. In the long run, there will be more prospects in the job market, for example. Our volume isn't high there, and we don't take payment for that. Then the real estate I've always talked about before, but that's in a little bit longer term. I will continue. There's a question from Stockholm. The main headquarter costs for SM have been NOK 2 million-NOK 2.5 million per quarter. In Q4, there was some one-offs that brought that figure up. Here we see the negative impact is about NOK 4 million. Is this a new run rate, or are these real estate items in Q1?
Answer: We have upgraded our increases. We've increased our costs for the main office because of the development of new products. It's important to say that what we see in Q1 is going to be more normalized in the time ahead. We have a question, another question, what portion of investments in classifieds are marketing? Does marketing account for? Answer: The largest part is markets. The bulk of the investments are marketing. I think we can put it that way. There's a question, the last for the moment, Rasmus Engberg in Handelsbanken. At the onset of Q2, is it better in online classifieds than what we saw in Q1?
Well, when we see the development in Q2, I would say that there's nothing else to say than we see the classifieds are developing well, and it's a little bit early to say anything about the effect of the season and the weather and so on. We do believe that classifieds will be developing well in Q2 as well. Thank you to those questions that we got from the webcast. Any further questions here from the room? If not, thank you for being here. We have our AGM here at 11:00 A.M. Welcome back.