EQS-News: freenet continues successful development in 2024 – performance allows for specification and partial increase of 2024 financial guidance

freenet continues successful development in 2024 – performance allows for specification and partial increase of 2024 financial guidance

• Revenues increase by 2.9% to EUR 1,816 million in the nine-month period of 2024 (prior year: EUR 1,765 million), leading to expectations of moderate growth in revenues (priorly: stable performance).
• At EUR 380.0 million, EBITDA at the end of September was slightly higher than in the prior year (EUR 376.8 million), as expected. Accordingly, the EBITDA guidance can be narrowed to EUR 500 - 515 million.
• At EUR 219.9 million, free cash flow after nine months is at the prior year's level (EUR 219.1 million) and slightly above expectations. The guidance for free cash flow can therefore be specified and increased to EUR 270 - 285 million.
• The number of TV subscribers at freenet (Mobile Communications + TV) increases to just under 10.0 million (year-end 2023: 9.5 million). The main driver for this is the net new customer growth of waipu.tv with a record Q3 (131.6 thousand; prior year: 81.3 thousand).

Büdelsdorf, 7 November 2024 - freenet AG [ISIN DE000A0Z2ZZ5] today published its results for the 2024 nine-month period after close of trading (Xetra). All key financial figures relate exclusively to the continuing operations. The business activities of Gravis were completely discontinued at the end of June 2024. The earnings components of Gravis are reported separately as discontinued operations (including adjustment of the prior year's figures).

Group: Successful nine months lead to adjustment of guidance for revenues, EBITDA and free cash flow
freenet can look back on a successful nine-month period in 2024. The number of subscribers at freenet (Mobile Communications + TV) reached almost 10 million. This figure rose by 468.3 thousand to 9.961 million (year-end 2023: 9.493 million), mainly driven by the record growth of waipu.tv (461.2 thousand net new subscribers). Due to stable ARPUs (average revenue per user) in the Mobile Communications and TV business, revenues increased by 2.9 % to EUR 1,816 million (prior year: EUR 1,765 million).

Table 1: Updated 2024 guidance
 

Updated financial performance indicators		Unit	2023 reference value (adjusted)		Initial 2024 guidance	Change in guidance		Updated 2024 guidance
Revenues		EUR million	2,383.0		Stable performance	é		Moderate growth
EBITDA		EUR million	500.9		495-515	è		500-515
Free cash flow		EUR million	276.6		260-280	é		270-285

Due to this development, which is driven by the increasing revenues of the TV and Media segment (especially waipu.tv), the Executive Board now expects moderate growth (priorly: stable performance) in revenues in the 2024 financial year. In addition, the expectation corridor for EBITDA is specified and the guidance for free cash flow is narrowed and slightly increased. The Executive Board expects EBITDA of EUR 500 to 515 million for the 2024 financial year (priorly: EUR 495 to 515 million) and free cash flow of EUR 270 to 285 million (priorly: EUR 260 to 280 million). This is due to the good development of EBITDA (EUR 380.0 million; prior year: EUR 376.8 million) and free cash flow (EUR 219.9 million; prior year: EUR 219.1 million) as well as the continued positive business outlook for the 4th quarter of the current year.
The guidance for the other financial and non-financial performance indicators remains unchanged.

Table 2: Key figures of freenet AG
 

Non-financial key figures		Unit		30.09.2024	31.12.2023		Abs. change	Rel. change
Subscribers1		million		9.961	9.493		0.468	4.9%
Financial key figures		Unit		9M/2024	9M/2023 (adjusted)		Abs. change	Rel. change
Revenues		EUR million		1,816.4	1,765.2		51.2	2.9%
EBITDA		EUR million		380.0	376.8		3.1	0.8%
Free cash flow		EUR million		219.9	219.1		0.8	0.4%

Mobile Communications: Satisfactory customer growth and stable ARPU
The Mobile Communications segment recorded strong customer growth in the 3rd quarter of the current year. This was in particular due to the launch and restructuring of individual tariff portfolios since the end of the first half of the year. Total customer growth in the nine-month period was satisfactory at 79.3 thousand to 7.498 million (year-end 2023: 7.418 million). Moderate growth is still expected for the year as a whole.
As expected, postpaid ARPU remained stable year-on-year at EUR 17.9 (prior year: EUR 18.0). Service revenues increased slightly by 0.8 % to EUR 1,286.2 million (prior year: EUR 1,276.3 million) and accounted for just under 85 % of segment revenues. Overall, revenues in the Mobile Communications segment rose to EUR 1,522.0 million (prior year: EUR 1,514.5 million).

Table 3: Key figures Mobile Communications segment
 

Non-financial key figures		Unit		30.09.2024	31.12.2023		Abs. change	Rel. change
Mobile Communications subscribers		million		7.617	7.540		0.077	1.0%
Thereof postpaid customers		million		7.498	7.418		0.079	1.1%
Thereof app-based tariffs2		million		0.119	0.121		-0.002	-1.8%
Financial key figures		Unit		9M/2024	9M/2023 (adjusted)		Abs. change	Rel. change
Revenues		EUR million		1,522	1,514		7.5	0.5%
Thereof service revenues		EUR million		1,286	1,276		9.9	0.8%
EBITDA		EUR million		317.7	306.3		11.4	3.7%

EBITDA in the Mobile Communications segment continued to increase during the year and reached EUR 317.7 million, up 3.7% compared to the previous year (EUR 306.3 million).
TV and Media: waipu.tv with strong customer and revenue growth
The increased investment in raising waipu.tv's brand awareness had a visible positive effect. The TV and Media segment recorded a significant increase in TV subscribers to over 2.3 million customers in the nine-month period of 2024 (year-end 2023: 2.0 million). waipu.tv grew by a total of 461.2 thousand customers in the nine-month period (prior year: 264.9 thousand). The increase in the waipu.tv subscriber base to 1.830 million (year-end 2023: 1.369 million) more than compensated for the expected decline in freenet TV subscribers by 70.1 thousand to 513.7 thousand (year-end 2023: 583.8 thousand). ARPU for both TV products remained stable compared to the prior year, despite exceptionally intense competition on the German TV market.

Table 4: Key figures TV and Media segment
 

Non-financial key figures		Unit		30.09.2024	31.12.2023		Abs. change	Rel. change.
TV subscription customers		million		2.344	1.953		0.391	20.0%
Thereof waipu.tv subscribers		million		1.830	1.369		0.461	33.7%
Thereof freenet TV subscribers (RGU)		million		0.514	0.584		-0.070	-12.0%
Financial key figures		Unit		9M/2024	9M/2023 (adjusted)		Abs. change	Rel. change
Revenues		EUR million		291.0	251.8		39.2	15.6%
EBITDA		EUR million		78.4	85.9		-7.4	-8.6%

The segment revenues increased by 15.6 % to EUR 291.0 million for the nine-month period of 2024 (prior year: EUR 251.8 million). The majority thereof was attributable to waipu.tv, whose revenues grew by more than 50 % compared to the prior-year period.

As expected, the segment EBITDA of EUR 78.4 million for the nine-month period was below the prior year's figure (EUR 85.9 million) due to the increased investments in waipu.tv’s brand awareness. Continued investment in the dynamically growing IPTV business is also planned for 4th quarter 2024 in order to make the best possible use of the customer acquisition potential in this area.

Conference Call
The conference call on the results for the 2024 nine-month period will take place on Friday, 8 November 2024 at 10:00 a.m. (CET). In addition to the results of the nine-month period, freenet's longer-term financial ambition until 2028 will also be presented. All interested parties can listen to the conference call via webcast (listen-only mode). A recording will be made available afterwards.
Further documents for publication
fn.de/downloadsir ¹ Total of Postpaid, freenet FUNK, freenet FLEX, waipu.tv subscribers and freenet TV subscribers (RGU)
² freenet FUNK and freenet FLEX customers

Note Contact
freenet AG

Investor Relations & ESG Reporting

Phone: +49 (0) 40/ 513 06 778

Mail: ir@freenet.ag

Internet: fn.de/investors
freenet AG

Public Relations & Corporate Communications

Phone: +49 (0) 40 / 513 06 777

E-mail: pr@freenet.ag