CEO’s comments
CEO Jesper Kärrbrink's comments on the Interim report January - June 2008
One of my first tasks as the President and CEO of Eniro has been to initiate a strategic process with the objective to establish a new long-term road map for Eniro. Eniro has a great position as the leading search company in the Nordic region and Eniro was early out in the migration from print to online. In 2007, more than 30 percent of the Group revenues came from the online operations, making Eniro one of the largest Internet companies in the region and also the company among our international peers that has made the greatest progress in the migration to online.
Looking at the six-month result, it was in line with our expectations. During the period, all of our Nordic search sites experienced all time high traffic numbers and eniro.se even passed the milestone of 2.5 million unique browsers during one week. Online revenues grew organically by 12 percent to SEK 1,159 M for the full six-month period. Our directory assistance grew marginally with 1 percent organically to SEK 470 M for the same period while the print revenues decreased organically by 11 percent to SEK 1,425 M. Operating revenues for the Group increased to SEK 3,054 M and EBITDA amounted to SEK 881 M.
We are currently in the middle of the strategic process of developing Eniro further and there is a great enthusiasm for the work within the organization and lot of progress and many findings have already been made. The strategic work covers all business areas, geographical markets as well as the financials.
The outcome of the strategic process so far, among other things, is the need for increased focus on each line of business – online, voice and print – with decentralized operational responsibilities in each country but with certain strategic matters centralized. The key to success is how we transform from print dependency to online opportunities within the Group and how we optimize our geographical strengths, synergies and opportunities. This migration will be based on our strong position in the market. With over 500,000 customers, products that generated over 1.8 billion Internet searches during 2007 and with an estimated transaction value created of over SEK 300 billion through our Eniro products - we have a great platform for both organic growth and strategic opportunities within the broader media sector. As a result of the strategic process, we are also looking at the entire financial situation including a new set of financial targets.
The final outcome from this strategic work and how we will capitalize on our opportunities for the coming five to seven years will be presented on a capital market day in Copenhagen on November 6, 2008.
For the full year 2008, our earlier guidance of an expected operational EBITDA, excluding capital gains and restructuring effects, in the range of SEK 2,050 – 2,100 remains unchanged.
Jesper Kärrbrink
President and CEO
Last updated: 2008-07-17