Interim Report January – September 2020 Storytel AB (publ)
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Streaming sales up 23% from Q3 2019 to 490 (399) MSEK.
- Subscriber base up 34% from Q3 2019 to 1,360,300 (1,014,400) on average.
- Net turnover increased to 609 MSEK from 491 MSEK in Q3 2019.
- Earnings per share, after taxes amounted to -0.38 SEK, before and after dilution, compared to -1.37 SEK in Q3 2019.
- Entered into an agreement to acquire a 70 percent majority interest in Iceland’s leading book publishing house Forlagið.
- Acquired Kitab Sawti, a leading audiobook streaming service in the Middle East
- Acquired an 80 percent majority interest in Earselect AB, a Nordic production company
- Entered into an agreement to acquire iCast Ltd (“iCast”), an audiobook streaming pioneer on the Israeli market.
Table 1: Key performance indicators for Streaming and Print Publishing
| Currency: SEK 000’s | Q3 2019 | Q4 2019 | Q1 2020 | Q2 2020 | Q3 2020 | Q4 2020 |
| Streaming Total | Actual8 | Forecast1 | ||||
| Revenue | 399,178 | 421,454 | 429,251 | 459,115 | 490,234 | 499,500 |
| Contribution Profit2,8 | 53,043 | 58,977 | 92,611 | 100,493 | 113,663 | |
| Contribution Margin | 13.3% | 14.0% | 21.6% | 21.9% | 23.2% | |
| Avg. Paying Subscribers3 | 1,014,400 | 1,083,400 | 1,154,800 | 1,257,000 | 1,360,300 | 1,435,000 |
| ARPU4 (SEK/Month) | 131 | 130 | 124 | 122 | 120 | 116 |
| Streaming Nordics5 | ||||||
| Revenue | 340,315 | 352,222 | 349,768 | 366,322 | 394,453 | 396,000 |
| Contribution Profit2,8 | 109,563 | 115,689 | 113,476 | 107,176 | 125,534 | |
| Contribution Margin | 32.2% | 32.8% | 32.4% | 29.3% | 31.8% | |
| Avg. Paying Subscribers3 | 736,000 | 757,600 | 785,800 | 833,300 | 902,000 | 922,000 |
| ARPU4 (SEK/Month) | 154 | 155 | 148 | 147 | 146 | 143 |
| Streaming Non-Nordics | ||||||
| Revenue | 58,863 | 69,233 | 79,484 | 92,793 | 95,781 | 103,500 |
| Contribution Profit2,8 | -56,521 | -56,713 | -20,866 | -6,684 | -11,872 | |
| Contribution Margin | -96.0% | -81.9% | -26.3% | -7.2% | -12.4% | |
| Avg. Paying Subscribers3 | 278,400 | 325,800 | 369,000 | 423,700 | 458,300 | 513,000 |
| ARPU4 (SEK/Month) | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 70 | 67 |
| Print Publishing6 | ||||||
| Revenue | 116,371 | 179,562 | 114,737 | 126,743 | 150,391 | |
| Contribution Profit7 | 33,327 | 65,592 | 41,678 | 44,147 | 63,667 | |
| Contribution Margin | 28.6% | 36.5% | 36.3% | 34.8% | 42.3% |
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1 Forecast means an approximation based on information available at the time the report was prepared.
2 Contribution Profit is defined as streaming revenue minus royalties to third-party publishers and rights holders, external production costs, transaction/payment costs and marketing costs. Storytel Reader and Ztory are not included in Streaming.
3 Avg. Paying Subscribers means the average number of paying Storytel subscribers during the quarter. Stand-alone customers from Ztory are not included. For Family subscriptions, each standard stream (not so-called Kids Mode) is considered one paying customer.
4 ARPU = Average Revenue Per User (Subscriber) per month.
5 Storytel Norway is included in the figures @ 100%. In the consolidated accounts, Norway is reported in accordance with the principle of proportional consolidation.
6 Print Publishing refers to physical books and digital sales through channels other than Storytel. Internal revenue from Storytel has been eliminated. All publishing houses both inside and outside of Sweden are included.
7 Contribution Profit is defined as revenue minus cost of goods sold, royalties to rights holders, distribution, sales and marketing costs.
8 Storytel has chosen to voluntarily apply the capitalisation model instead of the expensing model regarding internally developed intangible assets. In this table, the development of our digital catalogue will be capitalised and no longer treated as an expense as of Q1 2020.
Forthcoming reports
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Year-End Report 2020 - 19 Feb 2021
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Annual Report 2020 - 1 April 2021
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Interim Report Jan - Mar 2021 - 7 May 2021
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Interim Report Jan - June 2021 - 6 Aug 2021
- Interim Report Jan - Sept 2021 - 5 Nov 2021
Annual general meeting of shareholders
The annual general meeting of shareholders will be held in Stockholm on 6 May, 2021. More details about time and location will be published on Storytels website closer to the event.
This disclosure contains information that Storytel is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 10-11-2020 08:00 CET.
FNCA Sweden AB is the company’s certified adviser. FNCA can be reached at info@fnca.se or +46 8 528 00 399.
Stockholm, 10 November 2020
Board of Directors, Storytel AB (publ)
For more information, please contact:
Jörgen Gullbrandson, Interim CFO: +46 73 378 01 75
Dan Panas, Head of Communications: +46 70 186 52 90
About Storytel
Storytel is one of the world’s largest subscribed audiobook and e-book streaming services and offers listening and reading of more than 500 000 titles on a global scale. Our vision is to make the world a more empathetic and creative place with great stories to be shared and enjoyed by anyone, anywhere and anytime. Storytel’s streaming business is conducted under the brands Storytel and Mofibo. Storytel’s publishing business area is carried out through the audiobook publisher StorySide and acclaimed Nordic publishing houses such as Norstedts, People’s Press and Gummerus. Storytel operates in over 20 markets around the globe and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.