Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Catena Media's Q1 Interim Report. I'm Michael Daly, and I'm joined today by Peter Messner, and we'll go through our presentation with you and then take Q&A at the end. Today, we'll go through the Q1 highlights and then the financials, and we'll talk about the outlook for our global world acquisition picture, and then we'll do Q&A. Q1 was a record-breaking quarter for Catena Media. All-time high revenue. This is our Q6 of revenue growth and our Q9 of EBITA growth. Our revenues reached an all-time high of EUR 45.2 million. That's 11% year-over-year quarterly growth. Revenue in North America grew 32% in the period, and our NDCs also grew significantly in the period.
We saw outside of North America double-digit growth in Japan, even though it was impacted by a weaker yen, which is impacting player activity there. Organic growth was down for the period due to some headwinds in European markets. The exceptionally strong quarter last year by Michigan and Virginia launching and the effect of Lineups and i15 Media, which is according to plan, we acquired these assets last year for their positioning in new states. The fact that they are overweighted in New York for this quarter makes sense, and we are very happy with their contribution of those teams. Those products become part of the organic picture for the rest of the year, starting in May for Lineups and September for i15 Media. Adjusted EBITDA, as I said, also hit a record for the ninth consecutive quarter.
EBITA was EUR 25.6 million adjusted, 2% growth. It was slightly less than the revenue growth, but that's because we are just continuing to do our significant investment plan that we weren't doing last year. Even with that, you should note that our margins are exceptionally high at 57% for the quarter. This is above even our targets, which is why we spent Q1 doing significant investment. Operating cash flow remains strong as well. EBITA by comparables removed was EUR 0.4 million adjusted, up 8% to EUR 25.2 million with a margin of 56%.
Solid financial positioning puts us in for good financial growth for the future, allowing us to continue to use capital in flexible ways, which can include additional M&A, share buybacks that we've been doing, which Peter will comment on, as well as other opportunities. I'll now turn it over to Peter for those financial discussions.
Thank you very much, Michael, and welcome to our Q1 Earnings Call. That Q1 had another quarter of revenue uplifts, EUR 45.2 million . That's a new all-time high, 11% growth compared to last year, and also a 42% increase versus the previous quarter, the Q4 of 2021. Fueled really by the strong launches in both New York and the smaller Louisiana. Search revenue, as opposed to the paid revenue, constitutes 97%, so really the majority or almost the entirety of our total group revenue, and grew 14% compared to last year and 44% versus the previous quarter. Paid revenue then was 43% below last year's level, but still on par with the previous quarters, and that is reflecting our strong focus on the organic search.
Our new depositing customers, one of the key operational performance indicators, increased by 9% year-on-year and 27% versus the previous quarter. That is particularly driven by the sports segment, of course, and the launches in the aforementioned U.S. states. Taking a look at the segmentation, it was a dominant quarter for sports. The sports segment was the biggest segment for the first time with 56% of total group revenue. That is, of course, the result of the expansion in North America and the launches that I mentioned before. From a sourcing perspective, the revenue from our CPA, cost per acquisition, increased its share to 67%, which is likewise the result of our state launches in North America.
At the same time, also impacted a bit by weaker sports betting margins that we have seen with European operators, that affected our revenue share in Europe. As it stands today, the CPA model that we have in North America really outshines the revenue share-based model. Michael will talk about this in the outlook section, briefly as well. Our investments into the long-term growth, is really an investment into the future. The total cost in the Q1 , excluding items that affect the comparability, was roughly EUR 20 million at EUR 19.6 million. That's an increase of 25% versus last year and sequentially 4% versus the Q4 2021.
The direct cost increased in line with our increased revenue from influencer partnerships, particularly in North America, and also certain direct advertising that we do on a global basis. The personnel expenses increased by 29% year-on-year and 12% versus the previous quarter due to the continued and strong investment in North America in readiness really for future market launches. The company's average number of employees during the Q1 increased by 16% year-on-year, while in North America it grew by 56%, and the average payroll cost in North America is higher than group average. Other operating expenses increased by 18%. That's primarily the result of the growth in North America and again the U.S. state launches that we have seen.
The cost ratio, which is all costs as a percentage of revenue, is expected to fluctuate quarterly due to the revenue seasonality then, and particularly in the Q2 is expected to be likely the lowest quarter of that year, and that will impact the adjusted EBITDA and the margin, naturally. Taking a look at our segments, casino for the first time is not the biggest, but the second biggest segment, and represented this time 42% of total group revenue and 39% of group's adjusted EBITDA. Revenue in North America normalized after that lifting that we have seen from a COVID-19 perspective, but also the impact that in particularly the Michigan launch in the Q1 last year had. Michigan back then regulated both casino and sports betting. Japan had a very solid quarter with double-digit growth.
However, we have seen a weakening yen, as Michael mentioned previously before, that started to impact revenues at the end of the quarter because it is impacting the deposits of Japanese players that are then converted into either euro or the US dollar. The German and Dutch markets continued to develop slowly post their regulation. The German regulation was kicking in on the first of July and the Netherlands in October. We've seen now the first German operator casino license has been granted during the month of May, and that operator is expected to go live in June. Of course, everybody in the German market is hopeful for further licenses to be granted. As mentioned on the previous slide, growth investments in North America, they also relate to the casino segment.
Other than in the sports segment, where we generally have a pretty good and a clearer view on upcoming U.S. states to regulate, and Michael will talk about that in the outlook section again. The development of online casino is a bit slower, but nevertheless, the opportunities are massive there. Ontario now in April launched both sports betting and casino, and likely the most exciting near-term prospect for online casino is going to be New York. With that, we take a look at sports. Sports really was dominated by New York now in the Q1 . Sports was the biggest segment, represented 56% of total group revenue and 60% of adjusted EBITDA. The revenue that was contributed by our North American operations more than doubled year-over-year.
Of course, not only following New York and Louisiana, but also the strong contributions from last year's two North American acquisitions that we did, Lineups and i15 Media. As they still do not have their anniversaries, Lineups was acquired in May and the i15 Media assets in September. They do not contribute to organic growth as of now. In Europe, operators experienced somewhat lower sports betting margins, affecting, in turn, our revenue share and also certain post-COVID effects overall in the segment in Europe. In Germany, we have however seen that the operators are again increasing their investments into sports betting, and that is a very good sign. Latin America shows continued very favorable trends for our industry, I would say. There's positive regulatory talks happening in Brazil as we speak.
Again, growth investments are also shown in the sports EBITDA, of course. Finally, our smallest segment, financial trading, 2% of total group revenue faced quite some challenging market conditions due to the macroeconomic environment, increased risk, and investor caution of the war in the Ukraine, and also rising interest rates and inflation. That all impacted trading behavior. The segment's dominant market is the German market, and that held quite firm despite those conditions. The segment is focusing increasingly on newer markets like in Africa, in Nigeria or South Africa, but also in Southeast Asia with Malaysia. We even saw a launch of operations in our segment in Singapore. When we look back at historic patterns of market volatility, those would suggest that when market sentiment improves, the investing activity, of course, will rebound as well.
That is what we should look for. The cash conversion of 52%. Catena's media business has a very strong cash generation, historically, always has had. For the full last year, 2021, that cash conversion was 104%. Now in the Q1 , that conversion was 52%. Operating cash flow ended at EUR 13 million and was down as compared to the last year. The result of that is the increase in revenues and also the increase in trade receivables due to the strong performance that we've seen in New York and Louisiana. They are slightly different payment terms that we see with operators there. They simply affected the balance of our trade receivables.
The cash flow that was used in investing activities included EUR 1.6 million related to small acquisitions of websites and domains and EUR 1.4 million in capitalized development of intangible assets. Cash flow used in financing activities included our resumption of the share buyback program that amounted to EUR 5.8 million, and repayments of bank term loan of EUR 2.1 million, and interest payments of EUR 2.3 million. At the end of the period, the cash equivalents balance was at EUR 26.7 million. Finally, our strong balance sheet. We had total assets of roughly EUR 376 million. Our total equity was almost EUR 243 million, including our hybrid capital securities.
The amounts that are committed on acquisition relate to $26.2 million, and that is in relation to the Lineups and the i15 Media assets acquisitions from last year. Out of that sum, out of the $26.2, $21.6 million or $24.1 million dollars are due within the next twelve months from the end of March, that is. Our borrowings are the corporate bonds, the bank term loan, and the revolving credit facility, amounting in total to EUR 82.1 million, out of which EUR 8.3 million are already committed to be repaid within twelve months. That relates to the bank term loan. Other liabilities finally are EUR 24.5 million, and they include tax liabilities, lease liabilities, and trade and other payables.
The net interest-bearing liabilities amounted to EUR 57 million, resulting in a leverage ratio of 0.81. At the end of March, the company had 33.8 million outstanding warrants in relation to the issue of our hybrid capital securities in the summer two years ago. These warrants can still be exercised during one of the exercise windows following our interim reports, up until and including the Q2 report in 2024. With that, I hand back to Michael going through an outlook.
Thank you, Peter. Let's talk about April. April, the first month of our Q2 . Our Q2 is typically a slower quarter for us. We've had some COVID spikes in the last few years, but Q2, particularly as Peter noted, with sports becoming dominant in our revenues right now, and that particularly coming out of North America, this is Q2 until September of Q3 is a slower sports season in North America. That said, we saw a revenue growth of 3%, globally, or 7% excluding Germany, as Germany was still in H1 last year, still a gray market. Revenues in North America grew 46%, year-on-year, in April. Again, a slow month for sport, but shows our strength in casino there. We saw a weakness in yen in Japan is impacting revenues there a bit in April.
Players play in currency other than yen in Japan, so it's converted at point of player playing, so their value of play in dollars is decreased. That has had some impact on Japan, along with our ability to hire there, quite frankly, in terms of our ability to grow faster has been limited. We hope with the COVID restrictions starting to ease now in Japan, which it looks like they are going to allow travel in and out of the country, which means more people being able to be fed into that market to hire. We expect to see strong growth from Japan through the rest of the year. In April, it was a little bit weaker than we would have liked. Ontario was the big talk of all of us in Q1.
For us, we view it as an unspectacular launch. Ontario's legalized. It was originally supposed to be in Q1. They pushed into Q2, which is an odd, again, sports calendar season for North America. We expect Ontario will grow over the next few months as with casino, as casino becomes a growing story, as operators launch. Some did not launch on day one. Some were launched, but not in affiliation deals with us day one, as we came to terms that were all sides favorable. The operators were having KYC, know your customer issues, as well as importantly, marketing restrictions did have an impact on affiliates and operators. Bonus words not being able to be used in advertisement, which over time become less important as it becomes more of an education of the market by us as an affiliate.
In those early days, those bonus words and ads are what draw attention of new players. The initial launch was underwhelming in some ways in terms of the day one. We expect that to grow. We still believe Ontario to be a very important market for us going forward, and we've done it well with an organic growth story there. It's been reasonable, and it's marginally within what we would expect going forward. We are looking forward to Ontario growing. Europe. Germany, as Peter mentioned, casino licenses starting to be issued finally. Germany has been still a drag year-over-year, for us, 'cause in H1 last year, it was unregulated. This year, it is going to have some licenses issued starting, it looks like in May.
At least one license is issued for casino, and is launching shortly thereafter. We're very positive on that. That sort of regulatory environment also impacted us in Ontario. Ontario being a slow start, but we also, with our global products, had to pull back on the rest of Canada, 'cause Canada is now no longer a gray market. It is a white province in Ontario, and the rest, at least from our legal interpretation, is black. We and a number of operators no longer market into the rest of Canada. That had a near-term detrimental effect on some of our products, but we expect the legal market in Ontario to overwhelm that in the very short term. Impacts in April when those things were in flux.
The good thing on Ontario versus Germany is from day one, operator licenses were issued in the new regulated environment. North America, we are growing, and we are geared for growth. As Peter mentioned, CPA is the dominant model still in North America. We are big believers in CPA. I know there's questions all the time around should you be on rev share there? Perhaps at some point, not that point is not today. We are seeing increasing CPA rates. New York had some of the highest CPA rates or the highest CPA rates we've seen to date. High bonus costs from the operators and this marketing frenzy that is going on means that that's a negative impact on rev share.
In rev share deals, many of those would be minus bonus costs and minus marketing spend, so we would be in a negative world similar to some of the operators. CPA allows us to multiple selling of players. A nascent market, we know in Europe that players have probably five accounts and play on three in sports markets. In the U.S., it's very nascent, so many of these players are still looking for the right home for an operator. Yes, we wanna bring value to our operators by not continually reselling them, but if the player is ready to move, we want to be able to take advantage of that, and the best way to do that is with CPA. Because if we're on rev share, they're only on one wallet, regardless of how many operators they're splitting that across.
We're getting a CPA for each time we deliver that player to someone over the next few years. CPA gives us the potential to take that money on the front end and invest it into our future growth. Our organic growth story fueled through our own development and not through any additional fundraising or other types of activities. The affiliate marketing conditions are likely to remain favorable even with the reduced marketing spend, another thing that has become concerning to investors at large. As you see marketing spend decrease from the operators in full, so all of them individually will decrease. There is still a lot of marketing going on in North America. As an affiliate, we need a certain level of that to be valid so that the players, potential players are at least aware of the market.
From there, they start their searches. They do Google, TikTok, et cetera, search. They find us through the organic channels, and then we bring them on to the operators to finish that journey. That marketing spend will stay at levels that still help us as affiliate, and probably help us more because of the under-percentage of affiliation in North America compared to other markets. I think some of this is demonstrated, the value of CPA and the continued strength of CPA through some of the numbers we show here on year-over-year growth on Super Bowl. Super Bowl since 2020 has met a consolidated average growth rate of 11% of new players signing up in states that were there in 2020 and then in 2021 and 2022, minus the new states coming along. 11% growth in those states.
We are still bringing new players to the market every year. Same thing with if you just look at last year, the 2021, it's a 54%. It is solid double-digit growth in actual states that we have been in for a number of years on CPA. There is a sustainable business in CPA and a strong business, we would argue, at this point for the near-term future, and that near-term future may still be a number of years. Let's talk about a number of years in North America. There's a number of actions on the ballot. We are seeing where California has on the ballot legalization of online sports betting. Now, you know, I'm not a gambler, but if we were, I'm not sure I'd gamble in favor of that making it the first time.
That sort of activity is very favorable for us as an industry. It is being talked about. It is being moved forward. The ball moves forward till eventually it gets across the line. California is the largest state in North America. It's, I think, the fifth-largest economy in the world or something like that. It is a very significant market when it does come. We are well-positioned there, have been for years, for both sport and casino. Ohio and Maryland are launching. They're about 14 million people, about the size of Ontario, a little bigger than Michigan when you combine the two together. They're on track to launch sometime later this year, maybe early next year if they slide. That's another. Those are passed and regulation is now going into effect, so it's just a matter of time now.
There are still many more states to go, large states, Texas, Florida. Total projected online consolidated average growth rate from Eilers & Krejcik is 33% through 2026. Then beyond that, there's still growth potential. That's sports. Sports, as you see, we're at about 150 million total addressable population in North America for sports today. We're only at about 44 million for addressable for casino. Casino is a very strong business for us there, even with that much smaller population addressable. We see great things ahead in North America and look forward to the continuing talk of this golden story for years to come. Let's talk about the rest of the world.
As I've said before, and we've talked about in earnings calls, we are making significant investment into ourselves, things we didn't do for a few years to improve our brand architecture and our technical capabilities. This is positioning us for the long run. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Catena Media sees it that way. We look at revenue top line, we look at adjusted EBITDA bottom line and how we grow, and we invest smartly, but we want both those numbers to be improving. We see robust revenue growth ahead in Japan. I talked about some of the nearer term things from the yen, weaker yen and some hiring impacts, but we expect solid double-digit growth there and that to continue, for the rest of the year and foreseeable future.
Europe is showing some positive signs in Germany with that first casino license now finally granted, not yet started, but the wet operate approval is still expected in the short term there and in the Dutch market to have impact. We're seeing positive trends in the U.K. and the Italian markets as COVID, again, is sort of normalizing. We're seeing some good indications. The U.K., we had the Cheltenham Festival horse racing. It was positive for us in activity. Again, because we're on rev share there, the operator's margins were impactful to the rev share, and that can be the balance in rev share versus CPA. Latin America and Africa, developing there, investing. I'm very happy with the progress being made in Brazil.
Again, not sure when they're gonna get exactly across the line in terms of regulating everything for sports and/or casino, but it is moving, and we are moving there as well. Finishing with some takeaways before we go to question. It was a very strong Q1 performance. North America, the main driver. Very happy with the teams around the world on our performance in this record-breaking quarter. Successful market opening in New York and Louisiana. New York now becoming immediately the largest market in North America, which, again, there are other big states still to come. Acceleration of growth investment globally, particularly in North America. Hiring there for those future states, building our infrastructure for that same-store, same-state growth year-over-year. Continuing strong cash generation that allows us lots of financial flexibility, M&A, buybacks as we've been doing, et cetera.
We see our targets remain the same. We see significant growth in North America, still with revenues to exceed EUR 100 million in 2022, provided the current market estimates and launch timetables of states hold firm. We are very confident in the rest of the year. We expect, again, with the heavier weighting in North America and the sports, we expect the Q3 and Q4 will be the heavier weighting for the year. We expect a strong end to the year, after a very strong start. I think I'll open up for questions now. Peter, would you join me?
Yes, absolutely. Maybe we ask the operator first for whoever is on the call while we can take a look at some questions at the same time that came in via the chat function. Operator?
Yes, thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. We have a question from the line of Mikael Lassén from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Two questions. Starting off with a more detailed one maybe. On the revenue growth in Q1, you have 11% year-on-year and -9% organically. Can you disclose the FX effect in Q1 and also the M&A impact?
Not at this point. We have not decided to disclose that. There are certain FX effects in there. We talked about a little bit about Japan. That's of course a smaller market. There are always effects as the growth in North America has of course an impact on our U.S. dollar versus the euro. These are translational effects. To be clear, you always have transactional and translational effects. We do have a natural hedging when it comes to the U.S. dollar, given our cost base in North America, but also our revenues in North America both being nominated in the dollars. We of course consider that going forward to disclose more details on that element.
On the M&A, we had that question, I think coming through the chat as well. There of course has been quite a strong contribution from the recent acquisitions. Michael talked about that. That's the strategic rationale of having acquired both Lineups and the i15 Media assets to contribute to new state launches, and New York was a very good example of that. There was a very good mix of all these two acquired asset groups. I15 Media is a whole group of different websites and assets, and our existing ones like the playny.com site. That has been a mix. We haven't disclosed any details about how big that really has been.
Of course, as you alluded to in your question, that of course impacted the organic growth figure. As I mentioned on one slide, Lineups was acquired in May, so as of now, that contributes to our organic growth. The i15 Media assets have been acquired in the beginning of September, so those will contribute to organic growth when the NFL season starts.
Yeah. Okay. Another detailed question maybe, just to check, the revenue in the U.S., how much of the total group in the U.S., added this quarter?
I think that we disclosed in the report. Must have been, I think, 65%.
65%.
65%. Yes.
Okay, great. I missed that. Thanks. When it comes to the April, well the start of Q2, April growing by 3% year-on-year, can you explain again here why revenue growth is only 3% despite acquisitions and the positive FX effects? And also that established states in the U.S. seems to continue to grow in the cash flow slide.
Absolutely.
If you can sort of explain that.
Yep. It is a difficult one a bit to understand. Yes, 3% growth, 46% growth in North America. That's the acquisitions. Again, those acquisitions are not as effective in a period of April when we don't have the sports calendar, particularly Lineups, which is a 100% sports product. i15 had more of a blend. Again, with North America being more focused on sports, that is where we saw that impact. Ontario, while we see future growth in Ontario with it starting slightly slower in April for us, had a double-edged sword effect where the products that we were no longer using in Canada from the global market products, that had an impact as well. We overcame that with some revenue growth, the 3% revenue growth in the month.
It was still not as high as if Ontario were fully performing as we expect it to by the fall, perhaps.
Okay. Good. All right. Just to follow up, can you sort of say something about how the established states in the U.S. are growing and also the rest of the world if we look at the more established countries?
Sure.
I'm thinking about April now, just to get an understanding of the momentum.
April, we haven't broken that out fully yet. April, we saw. Again, North America, healthy growth. We saw in APAC, Asia Pacific, which is Japan at this point, a slowdown there, and that is impacted by our own ability to grow our team there, which has been a limiting factor on the opportunities that they have not been able to capitalize on yet. Again, with Japan starting to look like it's opening up COVID restrictions, the mindset is changing there, people starting to willing to change jobs. A number of the positions we have open are starting to fill. We started to fill them even in April, but they won't have an effect during that month. I'm very positive on Japan starting to turn that corner back and go into really healthy growth again.
Global brands, which is part of our European portfolio, but focused on the rest of world gray market products, as noted, did have the impact from Canada and one other country that we stopped affiliating in because of changes towards regulation, and we aim to be a white regulated affiliate, and that is sometimes that has an impact in the near term. Like I said with Ontario, unlike Germany, Ontario at least started with licenses day one, so Canada is not completely closed down like Germany has been for us for a number of months.
Speaking of Germany, EMEA, our European products outside of our global brands, taking away Germany, did see growth in the month, and we look forward to, as we get into the sports calendar for them, it's particularly World Cup in Q4, a good rest of year ahead. So, I don't know, Peter, anything else to add on?
Yeah. That's helpful. Thanks for that color. Another one, if I may, on the start here in Q2. Can you remind us how Q2 last year developed in terms of revenue performance per month, just to understand the base effects, so we're not missing anything here when we look at April, May, and June?
Again, it's hard to give the guidance with that effect because it's unclear whether this year will follow really the same trend. We had an opening in Ontario, as you know. It was a fairly low start, I think with a handful of operators that has increased since then. I think DraftKings is about to enter the Ontario market. It's gonna change definitely as compared to how the situation has been last year. Last year, it was not a clear trend, I would say. It was definitely not that just going into one direction. It has seen some volatility and there can be some volatility in here during this quarter. It's not clear at that point in time how the market is going to behave.
The last few years, Q2 has been an oddity on and off. COVID effects in 2020 in particular spiked it up to one of our highest quarters for that year, I believe. Last year, again, an interesting quarter. Again, we were back in and out of COVID, so casino and et cetera. It's a very hard comparable to this year. This year we are much more on a normalized calendar, I would say, with North American sports being quiet. I'm expecting that the Q3, Q4 are the stronger quarters for us than a Q2 in this year.
Okay, thanks. I have more questions, but I will get back in line.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Oscar Rönnkvist from ABGSC. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just a follow-up on the previous question there, on the April revenues and the dynamics of the Q2 development. Just looking at comparable quarters here, could you remind us of, like the European Championship last year? How much would that impact the comparable growth, looking year-over-year, for the rest of the quarter?
I don't know that I have a percentage exact number in front of me. Obviously, it is impactful. That is a healthy sporting event in the calendar that this year is going to be different. I would say that you'd have to factor that in as part of what to expect in a Q2 without it versus one with it, 'cause we are, well, stronger in casino than sport in Europe. It is still an impactful part of our business. Offset perhaps by later in the quarter by Germany starting to do some developments there.
All right. As you say, like, DraftKings coming into Ontario should all else equal be quite good for your CPA revenues, I guess. I don't know if you could give any comments, but I mean, compared to the 3% in April, would you expect that the growth will exceed 3% or would you rather think that it will be below 3% for the full quarter?
We're not giving that guidance yet. We don't have enough visibility. There is also macroeconomics at play that we are not 100% sure how to forecast in terms of the impact of fuel prices in Europe in particular. How does that impact players' wallet? How does that affect the US? Maybe it's the same, maybe it's actually an inverse effect because players aren't driving to land-based casinos and are instead going to the online ones where they can, or online sports betting because of fuel price increase. There's a lot of factors that are beyond Catena Media in the quarter that make it hard to again make it comparable to last year and say, this is exactly how it would work if it was last year. I expect there's gonna be some challenges in there in Q2.
I think we're positioning the teams right. I see good work from the products, so I do expect that we continue throughout the year with a healthy growth.
Okay, understood. Next one. In the Q4 report or in the Q4 conference call, I remember that you were quite confident of so-called exceeding $100 million in North American revenues. I just noted in this report you said it will be expected revenue of $100 million instead of exceeding. Just the wording there. Do you see any changes to outlook?
No real changes to outlook at this point. There is more risk in some of the states, I've mentioned Ohio and Maryland, which were projected originally to be in this year, and there's now some discussions that they could be later in the year or fall out of the year, and that will have an impact on the total USD. Obviously, Ontario starting slower has impact too, but we are standing by the guidance of greater than $100 million at this point based on the visibility we have.
Okay. Got it. Then in terms of rest of world, would you say that you're confident of achieving positive growth or would you say that that's also, I mean, highly uncertain at this point?
Achieving what? I missed what you were asking.
In Rest of World, would you say that you're confident of the growth being positive for the full year?
Yes.
Can we expect some uncertainty there?
No, I am. I feel positive about that at this point. Absolutely. Again, weighted more to the end of the year in some of this, but because we have World Cup in Q4 for example, which is impactful for most of the rest of our organization outside of North America. It impacts, you know, most of Europe, Asia, et cetera, can have impacts from that. Well, Japan less for us 'cause it's casino, but it's a world sport, Latin America, Europe. I am expecting, yes, that to be positive for the entire company for the year.
All right. Positive growth for the entire company, not in rest of world.
Expecting growth in all parts of the organization is our target.
All parts. Okay. Yeah. Understood. That was all for me. I'll give it back to line. Thank you.
Just as a final reminder, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad now.
While we are waiting, maybe I can just raise some of the questions. On the share buybacks. What we presented in the report were obviously because it's the Q1 report, the amount of share buybacks, the shares that we bought back and the amount in relation to the Q1 . You find in the report, however, also in the section on significant events after the period, what we have been buying back since the beginning of first of April until roughly mid of April when we entered the closed period and when we stopped or paused the share buybacks. Are there any further share buybacks? That has to be resolved by the annual general meeting that is going to take place next week on Monday.
The current mandate ends at the AGM next week, and a new mandate has to be granted to the company in order to continue. Right now, there is no plan until AGM next Monday to buy back more shares. What is the company doing with the shares? We have not canceled any shares. We have long-term incentive programs where these shares can be used. They can, of course, in theory, also be used for future M&A. That is dependent on the share price and whether that makes sense in the future or not. Or they are going to be canceled. But there's no further plan right now as to what of these options are going to happen in what kind of timeframe.
Another set of questions that we have received is in regards to North America and the prospects on the one hand side for legalizing online casino in New York and on the other hand for California, and if such ballot decisions would be favorable when we or the state could be up and running. Michael, maybe on-
Yeah
on New York, how reasonable is that online casino is going to open within the short period of time?
In this year, I don't believe it happens. I believe that's already past the point where it could. I think it's more on the docket for next year in terms of becoming a viable option. Does that mean absolutely next year? No. Do we know it's going to happen? It's being moved forward. That ball is moving forward, yes. Looking very positive on that 'cause that is actually many years ahead of where I would've put that activity after sports launch. We know, we believe that after sports launch in a state, the state recognizes that their tax collection, because sports is a low margin business compared to casino, is not as high as those states that have sport and casino. New York recognized that very quickly and has already started to take action.
That action probably doesn't cross the line this year, but there's next year or the year after where that becomes positive. Same thing in California. California, for those that don't know, California is a state with many interests in the gambling space. There are Native American tribes which have many casinos there. Or there are card rooms, as they're called, which are other entities that have gambling rights within certain parts of the states. There's a lottery. There are many players at play in wanting an interest in California or in some cases to dominate or control it. I'm not sure it gets across with this measure at the ballot.
I think there is going to be lots of marketing activity, pro and against, but it is coming at some point, and that may, again, not be this year. It may be next year. There's another election in two years. It could be a ballot again. So it will come. I'm the pessimist probably when it comes to how fast some states move and, you know, if I look back at many of the pessimistic statements many of us have thought about North America, it has moved faster than that. I think some of where we quote Eilers & Krejcik a few years ago, some of the states that they had on the 2028 or beyond or 2026 and beyond are already launched. So, it is a very unpredictable marketplace.
That is why Catena is investing in being everywhere in North America to be ready for the eventuality that all states will launch. Let's see what else we have in here, Peter.
Yeah, I think there's a follow-up question from Mikael Lassén from Carnegie. Mikael.
Yes. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay, good. Just a few questions on the cash flow and operating cost development. First of all, the cash flow was held back by working capital increase of EUR 12 million. Can you explain that increase and if you have seen a decline so far in Q2?
No, I haven't seen a decline in Q2. I consider that. Well, not necessarily as a short-term impact. What I mentioned on the slide on the cash flow and the impact on the operating cash flow in particular are the trade receivables. We had a strong start in New York, and having new agreements with operators in New York also meant that we slightly agreed to different payment terms. That has simply been affecting the comparison. That cash is collected. It's just collected at a slightly slower pace or over a longer period of time. What you also see in that chart on the cash flow, maybe I'll just switch back to that one very briefly, is you had an effect, a little effect from Q4 into Q1.
If you take a look at how the situation looked like last year, from Q3 into Q4, you had quite some operating cash flow in Q4 in comparison to Q3. Quite a lot of collection still in Q4, which then of course impacted the collection in Q1. There was less collection in Q1 in relation to Q4 because that was already collected. The bottom line here is there is a change in the net working capital by having an increased balance on the receivables. Now, as we go into Q2, from a North American and New York perspective, that is going to be a lower season anyway because NFL is over since the Super Bowl. That will naturally flatten out. There's no other effect on the net working capital as such.
Yeah. You should get part of that back in Q2.
Yes.
Maybe not yet, but, during Q2.
Yes.
Okay. When it comes to intangible investment, can you say something how we should think about that for 2022?
I haven't understood that fully.
Intangible assets.
The intangible assets.
Yeah
We have on the intangible assets, primarily, of course, an acquisition of intangible assets in relation to capitalized development. That is exactly what we said in terms of internal investment into future growth. That is preparation and continuous development of features, of products, of product innovations. The run rate that you would have seen now is a run rate that you can expect going forward. We of course may adjust that depending on how, let's say, different launches in North America would further develop and whether we have to change certain decisions. There are no other material changes to that.
Okay. Got it. The same type of question actually about direct costs, other operating costs, and personnel costs going forward. Do you expect an even higher increase in the coming quarters, or is this the new level where you can operate on or have upgraded?
I think on that one, you know, we have a plan where we're doing more investment to grow our European business and to improve the performance there, grow the North American predominance, grow Japan for further acceleration of that growth. I think we also have to look at the macroeconomic conditions of the world, where inflation can impact players' wallets, and that impacts operators, that impacts rev shares. We're evaluating what that means on our growth rates and how fast we do some of these investments for the rest of the year, because there are things beyond just our own plan that impact that. I don't know that we have that full answer to release to the market yet on exactly what that's going to look like.
Because again, we don't know where inflation and some of these other things are going in the nearer term, but we're staying cognizant and aware of those and obviously want to keep us at a high margin business that we are known for.
Yeah, in addition, as I laid out and likewise in the report. What you have seen in increases in personnel expenses, not in relation to running our existing business. That is really a lot of investment on the personnel, in particular in North America, as you've seen that headcount or the average number of employees in North America grew above 50%, group average was 16%, 17%. That is really an investment in preparation of the further state openings, as Michael discussed on the outlook section for North America. There's still so much in the pipeline that can happen, so to be well-prepared. I think there was this question of when California opens, how fast can that be up and running? But part of that question is also how fast can we be up and running?
Well, we are up and running in that respect and are well-prepared because of exactly these kind of investments whenever these markets are then opening up.
The only thing I'll say to add to that, to California, for those unaware, I would expect whatever happens in California, there will be some lawsuits to follow because of all those interest groups there. Expect California will be a bumpy ride to the finish, but we are positioned and growing traffic and assets, etc., for the day when it does come.
All right. Great. Thank you very much.
There are no further audio questions.
See what else we have in here, Peter.
Now maybe a bit about the contribution of i15 Media and Lineups. As I mentioned before to that question, we do not release that. But Michael, maybe you wanna elaborate, particularly on the launch in New York, the strong positioning that we have through both Lineups and i15 Media, complementing, however, what we already had in our own asset portfolio pre-acquisition.
I think you said it pretty well there actually in the lead-up. Yeah, i15 Media and Lineups, two very strong products in New York. Multiple product brands under i15 Media and Lineups.com being the Lineups product. We saw significant contributions from them on top of our playny.com site, which is organically grown, and LegalSportsReport.com, TheLines.com, and all of the national brands and New York brands that we have organically grown over the last few years. The acquisitions performed exactly as desired. They were strong in those states. They brought a lot of growth. Our teams have been supplementing those. You know, quite frankly, some of those things probably get blended back and forth on which exactly is it coming from this traffic, 'cause somebody goes to this site and then that site, and then they convert.
Which one gets the credit? It's usually in which one that came off the link, but there's an interplay in there, which is very good for us. We have a very strong position in New York. When New York is launched, and we'll come down off that peak for the near term, it's got an NFL season ahead of it, which will be its first full NFL season. In all other states so far, that's been a very strong period as well. We expect lots of further developments from Lineups and i15 Media group, as well as our own organic products, in addition to the other states that are still on that roadmap. They've performed very well. Gives us confidence in our ability to do smart M&A and look forward to opportunities in the coming months and years for more of that.
You know, macroeconomic conditions may mean, especially companies that are in good cash positions like Catena, we may see buying opportunities in the coming months or quarters because of that change in market conditions and the dry-up of investment capital for some of these guys who have good products but may not be able to survive in the long term standalone. I think it's a very interesting time. I think that interesting time probably leads into the last one is, you know, we continue to look at our strategic positioning in the company and in the world, and you know, we've mentioned that we're looking at where we should be listed and is there something in the North American future. We continue to investigate that and work through processes. Anything like that is not a one-quarter activity. Those are multi-quarter.
It is not an easy process even to decide to undertake it. We do things here at Catena, again, a little less flashy probably, but we like to make the right moves. We like to make sure we know what we're doing before we start into it, so that we can maintain the value for investors for the long term. Still being looked at. Macroeconomic conditions also impact markets right now, so their timing is also something to be considered. We are considering all the things and all the moves that we can make. Anything final, Peter, to close?
No, I think that's good.
I think that's good from all of us. We very much appreciate your attention and your interest in Catena Media, and we look forward to talking to you again in a few months about our next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you. Goodbye.