DGAP-News: CLIQ Digital AG accelerates its growth path in HY1 2020: Net result almost tripled

Corporate News

CLIQ Digital AG accelerates its growth path in HY1 2020: Net result almost tripled

- Gross revenue increased by 67% to EUR 47.2 million in H1 2020 (H1 2019: EUR 28.2 million)

- EBITDA increased by 246% in H1 2020 to EUR 6.3 million (H1 2019: EUR 1.8 million)

- Net result before non-controlling interest (NCI) almost tripled to EUR 4.4 million (H1 2019: EUR 1.5 million)

- EPS increased from EUR 0.08 to EUR 0.49

Dusseldorf, August 18, 2020 - CLIQ Digital AG (ISIN DE000A0HHJR3, GSIN A0HHJR), a leading digital lifestyle company, providing consumers worldwide with streaming entertainment services, today announces its business development for the first half year and the second quarter of 2020.

Strong development of all KPIs
CLIQ Digital continued on its growth path initiated in the first half of 2019, again showing a strong performance on all KPI's in the first half year 2020 compared to the prior year period. This achievement is mainly the result of the successful implementation of the direct media buy strategy, the investments made in licensed content and the expansion in credit card payment processing. Moreover, while building an international team of creative, energetic and motivated people CLIQ Digital is able to scale the activities within the Group.

*customers equal members of CLIQ Digital

Strong revenue and earnings development
Gross revenue increased in the period January to June 2020 by 67% to EUR 47.2 million compared with EUR 28.2 million in the first half year of 2019. On a quarterly comparison, gross revenue grew even stronger by 86% to EUR 26.9 million in Q2 2020 (Q2 2019: EUR 14.5 million). Net revenue - after deduction of payment service provider costs - went up by 80% to EUR 35.3 million for the first half year 2020 (H1 2019: EUR 19.6 million) and up by 102% to EUR 20.4 million in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the second quarter of 2019 (EUR 10.1 million). The higher increase of net revenue compared to gross revenue is mainly due to the increasing number of members (customers) using credit card billing. Subsequently, the share of third parties relatively decreases as the payment service provider costs for mobile billing are relatively higher compared to credit card billing.

The strong increase in gross and net revenue was driven by both, the significant rise in marketing spend (up 66% in H1 2020 compared to H1 2019, up 78% in Q2 2020 compared to Q2 2019) combined with an improved CLIQ factor of 1.64 during the first half year of 2020 compared to 1.40 in the first half year 2019 and a growing base of members. The customers base value, an important indicator for estimating the expected net revenue based on existing members, increased to EUR 31.0 million at the end of Q2 2020 compared to EUR 24.5 million at the end of Q2 2019 and EUR 29.0 million at the end of Q1 2020. The increase of the CLIQ factor (representing the ratio of revenue to costs per member (customer) as a key indicator for measuring the profitability of new members) underlines the successful integration of the direct media buy strategy by the CLIQ Digital Group.

The strong performance has resulted in an increase of the gross margin by 81% to EUR 14.3 million compared to HY1 2019. The strong increase in gross margin resulted in an impressive increase (+246%) in EBITDA for the first half year of 2020 to EUR 6.3 million compared to EUR 1.8 million in the first half year of 2019. On a second quarter comparison EBITDA increased by 200% from EUR 1.4 million in Q2 2019 to EUR 4.1 million in Q2 2020. Net result before non-controlling interest almost tripled from EUR 1.5 million in H1 2019 to EUR 4.4 million in H1 2020. Earnings per share increased in the first half of 2020 to EUR 0,49 (H1 2019: EUR 0,08).

Positive free cash flow
CLIQ Digital was able to generate a positive free cash flow of EUR 4.3 million in the first half of 2020. This is the result of a significant improvement of the operational cash flow from EUR 2.5 million for the full year 2019 to EUR 5.7 million in the first half year of 2020.

"By taking media buying largely in our hands and making further investments in licensed content, CLIQ Digital was able to better target their customers, resulting in an increase of new members against reasonable costs and improving the profitability of our Group. Our overall performance gives us confidence to further continue our growth path and to meet our targets for 2020," says Ben Bos, member of the Management Board.

Strong Outlook 2020 confirmed
Based on the strong performance of the first half year, as well as the positive start in the third quarter, Management confirms the increased outlook as published on the 6th of July. For the full year 2020 gross revenues are expected at approximately EUR 90 million and EBITDA of at least EUR 10 million. At the same time a marketing spend of approximately EUR 30 million is expected.

Detailed financial information and earnings call
The first quarter and H1 figures for 2020 are unaudited and were not subject to review. The complete interim report is available on the CLIQ Digital AG website in the Investor Relations section under cliqdigital.com.

CLIQ Digital AG will hold a conference call in English for interested investors and members of the media at 11:00 a.m. today, August 18, 2020. To register, please send an e-mail to [email protected].

About CLIQ Digital:
CLIQ Digital (www.cliqdigital.com) is a leading digital lifestyle company, providing consumers worldwide with streaming entertainment services. Members get unlimited access to music, audiobooks, games, sports and movie content. The core business of the Group is the online direct marketing of its streaming entertainment services to consumers globally. In 2019 CLIQ Digital realized over 90% of its sales in Europe and North America. CLIQ Digital's headquarter is based in Dusseldorf and has offices in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Barcelona and Tequesta, Florida. The Group employs approximately 100 staff and is listed in the Scale (30) segment at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN DE000A0HHJR3).

Contact:
CROSS ALLIANCE communication GmbH
Susan Hoffmeister
Tel.: +49 (0) 089 125 09 03-33
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.crossalliance.de