Scout24 with strong start into 2025: Accelerating revenue growth and continued margin expansion drive strong EPS

• Q1 2025 with 15.8% revenue growth, driven by continued strength in professional and private subscriptions as well as transaction enablement

• Record number of customers across both segments: B2B customer base up 5.9%, B2C segment growing by 19.8%

• Ordinary operating EBITDA growth accelerated to 17.9%, resulting in margin expansion of one percentage point, despite absorbing acquisitions

• Strong EPS growth, driven by lower non-operating costs

• Guidance for financial year 2025 reiterated

Munich/Berlin, 6 May 2025 – Scout24 Group continued its profitable growth trajectory further in the first quarter of 2025, increasing revenues by 15.8% to EUR 157.6 million. Organic growth reached 12.1%, exceeding the already strong momentum of Q4 2024. Revenue growth was primarily driven by continued strong demand for subscription products in both segments as well as healthy growth in the transaction enablement business, which benefited from a sustained, albeit slow, market recovery and the integration of recent acquisitions.

Ordinary operating EBITDA grew at 17.9%, supported by the strong revenue growth combined with continued scaling effects and operating leverage resulting from the successful implementation of Scout24’s interconnectivity strategy. As a result, the corresponding EBITDA margin expanded by one percentage point to 59.5%. The continued improvement in profitability is already taking the recent acquisitions into account, which come with lower profitability.

“We are off to a good start in 2025, with accelerating organic revenue growth and recent acquisitions performing well. Our interconnected ecosystem continues to grow across the board: We are gaining more customers in both segments, growing traffic and the number of registered property owners is also increasing. Demand for our innovative products is therefore high. We recently implemented an Anthropic AI across our organisation to emphasise our AI-first approach. We are well on track to deliver our 2024 CMD targets, which will transform Scout24 beyond classifieds. While there is clearly macro uncertainty in the world right now and mortgage rates in Germany have increased, we feel confident that 2025 will be another strong year for Scout24,” comments Ralf Weitz, CEO of Scout24.

Record customer numbers and strong subscription revenues continue to drive growth in the Professional and Private segment

In the Professional segment, which saw a year-on-year revenue growth of 16.2%, subscription revenues increased by 15.0% (12.0% organic) to EUR 82.8 million, driven by strong customer growth and product demand. The average number of customers for the quarter rose by 5.9% to 25,601. ARPU in the Professional segment was up 8.6%. Growth with residential real estate agents remained dynamic, but was partially offset by ongoing difficulties faced by commercial real estate agents. 

Transaction enablement revenues rose by 25.4% to EUR 27.2 million with an organic contribution of 12.2%, a slight acceleration from Q4 2024, due to the slow but gradual recovery of the real estate market and strong performance in valuation services, CRM and ESG business. 

Total revenue in the Private segment increased by 14.9%. Subscription revenues continued on the dynamic growth path of the previous quarters and increased by 26.3% to EUR 25.8 million, driven by continued strong demand for the Plus products. Subscriber growth maintained robust momentum at 19.8% year-on-year with 495,150 customers, representing a slight deceleration from the previous quarter. This development was offset by stronger ARPU growth of 5.4%.

Listing volume in the pay-per-ad business showed a stable development compared to the prior-year period and remained at a high level in the first quarter of 2025. Other revenue, which is generated from the sale of credit checks, was also on a comparable level on a year-on-year basis. 

Operating leverage and margin expansion continues while absorbing acquisitions with lower margin profile 

Operating expenses in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 11.4% including the recent acquisitions. This disproportionately low increase in expenses compared to revenue resulted from improved operational efficiency and scale effects achieved through consistent implementation of the interconnectivity strategy. Main increases in operating effects came from personnel expenses (+11.6%), selling costs (+26.5%) related to the recent acquisitions and the upturn in the Sprengnetter business as well as IT expenses (+16.6%) due to higher AWS costs, AI integration as well as contribution from recent acquisitions.

As a result of the strong revenue growth and lower growth in operating effects, ordinary operating EBITDA increased by 17.9% to EUR 93.7 million, with the corresponding ordinary operating EBITDA margin improving by one percentage point to 59.5%. 

Non-operating effects decreased significantly in the first quarter by 35.1% to EUR 7.8 million. In particular, this was attributable to significantly lower expenses for share-based compensation as well as reduced reorganisation measures, partly offset by higher M&A expenses driven by recent acquisitions. Reported EBITDA increased strongly by 27.4% to EUR 85.9 million, driven by the reduction in non-operating effects.

The financial result declined by 86.0% compared to the previous year, primarily due to adverse foreign currency effects resulting from the strengthening of the Euro.

Net income showed a substantial increase of 26.7%. Earnings per share (EPS) for Q1 amounted to EUR 0.69, increasing strongly by 28.6% year-on-year. The increase was driven by the strong revenue performance, lower non-operating effects, slightly offset by the reduced financial result. 

Adjusted EPS, which normalises for certain non-operating effects, came in at EUR 0.79, growing strongly at 17.9% year-on-year.

“With 16% revenue growth, 18% growth in ooEBITDA and adjusted EPS, we are again showing that executing our interconnectivity strategy is highly beneficial for our customers and shareholders. Strong product demand is driving double-digit organic revenue growth, and we continue to increase profitability due to our interconnectivity efforts, despite absorbing lower margin acquisitions. Our flywheel with attractive capital allocation for shareholders continues: strategic acquisitions, 10% proposed dividend increase and continued share buy-backs. Although increased mortgage rates have clouded the outlook for German real estate transactions in the near term, we feel confident to achieve our guidance,” says Dirk Schmelzer, CFO of Scout24.

¹EBITDA (unadjusted) is defined as earnings before the financial result, income taxes, depreciation, amortisation and any impairment losses or reversals of impairment losses.

²Ordinary operating EBITDA refers to EBITDA adjusted for non-operating effects, which mainly include expenses for share-based payments, M&A activities (realised and unrealised), reorganisation and other non-operating effects.

³The ordinary operating EBITDA margin is defined as ordinary operating EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

⁴Adjusted (1) for non-operating effects, which are also used to determine ordinary operating EBITDA, (2) for depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses on assets acquired in business combinations, and (3) effects from business combinations included in the financial result, such as the measurement of purchase price liabilities

The Management Board confirms its guidance for the financial year 2025 with healthy revenue growth and continued margin expansion

While Scout24 has achieved a strong start in the first quarter of 2025, current global uncertainties could affect interest rates, consumer confidence and overall real estate market dynamics in Germany. 

With its marketplace ImmoScout24, Scout24 Group is strongly positioned in the German market to further strengthen its offering. Despite the still challenging market, Scout24 Group is convinced that it can offer its customers strong added value in various market situations with its diversified product portfolio. 

In light of the good business performance during the current year, the Management Board confirms its expectation for increased revenue and profitability in the 2025 financial year, which are to be achieved primarily through the company’s growth strategy.

The outlook for 2025 remains unchanged: Specifically, the Management Board expects revenue growth of 12-14% for the financial year 2025, including an inorganic contribution of approximately 2 percentage points. Furthermore, the Management Board expects an increase in the ordinary operating EBITDA margin of up to 50 basis points. Overall, the main focus will be on increasing the Group’s ordinary operating EBITDA and the associated margin.

About Scout24
Scout24 is one of the leading digital companies in Germany. With the marketplace ImmoScout24, for residential and commercial real estate, we successfully bring together homeowners, real estate agents, tenants, and buyers – and we have been doing so for more than 25 years. With approx. 19 million users per month on the website or in the app, ImmoScout24 is the market leader for digital real estate listing and search. To digitise the process of real estate transactions, ImmoScout24 is continually developing new products and building up a networked, data-rich ecosystem for renting, buying, and commercial real estate in Germany and Austria. Scout24 is a listed stock corporation (ISIN: DE000A12DM80, Ticker: G24) and member of the MDAX, the DAX 50 ESG and the DAX 50 ESG+. Further information is available on LinkedIn.

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Disclaimer
This document contains carefully prepared information. However, the Company does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information and assumes no liability for losses resulting from the use of this information. This document may contain forward-looking statements about the business, financial and earnings situation as well as profit forecasts of the Scout24 Group, which are only valid at the time of publication of this document. Terms such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “consider”, “intend”, “plan”, “believe”, “continue” and “estimate”, variations of such terms or similar expressions characterise these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current assessments, expectations, assumptions and information of the Scout24 Management Board, many of which are beyond Scout24's control. The statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results and developments may therefore differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation and does not intend to update, review or correct these forward-looking statements due to new information or future events or for other reasons, unless there is an express legal obligation to do so. Alternative performance measures are used that are not defined according to IFRS and should be considered supplementary. Special items used to calculate some alternative metrics may not derive from ordinary business activities. Due to rounding, numbers and percentages may not accurately reflect the absolute figures. In case of any divergence, the German version shall have precedence over the English translation.  The quarterly figures included in this document have neither been audited in accordance with § 317 HGB nor reviewed by an auditor.