News

Good progress across our strategic pillars, on track to meet full year expectations

LBG Media plc, the UK-based multi-brand, multi-channel digital youth publisher, is pleased to report its results for the half year ended 30 June 2023 (“HY23” or “the period”). During the period, the Group delivered a strong performance, growing its global audience and content views, and is on track to meet full year market expectations.

Financial Highlights

	HY23 (£m)	HY22 (£m)	Change %
Revenue
-          Direct	11.4	10.6	9%
-          Indirect	15.3	13.6	13%
-          Other	0.5	0.6	(28%)
Total Group Revenue	27.2	24.8	10%
Adjusted EBITDA1	3.0	1.6	84%
Adjusted EBITDA margin1	11%	7%	+4% pts
Loss before tax	(1.2)	(1.9)	39%
Cash and cash equivalents	32.7	28.6	15%

• Total Group Revenue of £27.2m (HY22: £24.8m) up 10% and in line with the typical seasonal split between H1 and H2, and which we have experienced historically.
  • Direct revenues increased by 9% to £11.4m (HY22: £10.6m) driven by the Group’s growing reputation for successful campaigns with global brands. Visibility of booking levels for the second half of the year has also improved compared to this time last year.
  • Indirect revenue increased by 13% to £15.3m (HY22: £13.6m). Year-on-year content views increased by 87%, on the back of strong growth of 38% in the prior year, enabling the Group to greater capitalise on the market shift to short-form content that occurred in the second half of last year.
• Adjusted EBITDA¹ of £3.0m (HY22: £1.6m), up 84%, reflective of the stronger revenue performance of the Group and disciplined cost management. Loss before tax was £1.2m (HY22: loss of £1.9m) representing a 39% improvement in comparison to the prior year.
• Cash and cash equivalents at the period-end amounted to £32.7m (FY22: £29.3m, HY22: £28.6m), reflecting a net increase in cash of £3.4m, after £0.5m of consideration paid in March for the acquisition of Lessons Learned in Life (‘LLIL’).

Operational Highlights

• Global audience grew by 95m people (including the LLIL acquisition with 19.6m followers as at 30 June 2023) to over 410m (HY22: 315m), with 67.1bn content views in the period, up 87% on the prior period.
• In March 2023, the Group completed the acquisition of LLIL - an under-monetised US Facebook page that is on track to achieve payback within its first year.
• Continued to support socially responsible campaigns with a cross-business, post-earthquake Turkey / Syria appeal fund, working with the ‘If U Care, Share’ charity and our recent partnership with the London Mayor’s office supporting the ‘Have A Word’ campaign.
• Achieved direct revenue brief conversion of 29%; a significant uplift from 18% conversion in HY22.

CEO, Solly Solomou commented:

“We have made good financial and operational progress throughout the first half of 2023. The significant increase in content views demonstrates our effective ongoing engagement with the hard to reach 18 to 34 year-old demographic which remains a highly attractive proposition for our partner brands and platforms and will continue to drive the business forward.

“Our growth continued to outperform the wider digital advertising market as we operate within the fastest growing segments, giving us confidence as we look forward. In addition, our strategic progress in the half was encouraging. We continued to execute on our plans to broaden geographically, with good early progress in our recently established US operations, to acquire businesses, plugging in under-monetised brands onto our platform, and to broaden our capabilities, with our agile business model ensuring we can reach the widest possible audience.

“We have started H2 with positive momentum and I am excited by the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Outlook

The Board believes that the Group’s highly differentiated offering and strategic programme will continue to fuel our growth. Normal seasonality in advertising revenue combined with the relatively even split of costs means that profitability is significantly weighted towards the second half of the year, as has been the case in prior years. Notwithstanding the general challenges in the overall market, our momentum on audience and content growth, as well as client brief conversion rate, has continued into H2 and will help us capitalise on that seasonality. We can confirm the outlook for the full year remains in line with market expectations².

Notes:
¹ Adjusted EBITDA – earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation adjusted for share based payments (including employers NIC as appropriate) and adjusting items. Adjusted EBITDA margin is Adjusted EBITDA divided by Group Revenue represented as a percentage.
² External market consensus for the year ending 31 December 2023 is currently: Revenue of £69.3m and Adjusted EBITDA of £19.3m.

Analyst Presentation

LBG Media plc will be hosting an analyst presentation on 20 September 2023 following the release of these results for the half year ended 30 June 2023. Attendance is by invitation only. Slides accompanying the analyst presentation, along with a recording, will be available on the LBG Media plc website following the event.

 

 

For further information please contact:

LBG Media plc Solly Solomou, Co-founder & CEO Richard Jarvis, CFO Mark Mochalski, Investor Relations Fiona O’Nolan, Investor Relations	[email protected]
Zeus Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker) Dan Bate / Nick Cowles (Investment Banking) Benjamin Robertson (Equity Capital Markets)	Tel: +44 (0) 161 831 1512 www.zeuscapital.co.uk
Peel Hunt LLP (Joint Broker) Neil Patel Paul Gillam Richard Chambers	Tel: +44 (0) 207 418 8990 www.peelhunt.com
Media enquiries Buchanan Richard Oldworth / Chris Lane / Toto Berger / Jack Devoy	Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000 www.buchanancomms.co.uk

 

Notes to editors

LBG Media is a multi-brand, multi-channel digital youth publisher and is a leading disrupter in the digital media and social publishing sectors. The Group produces and distributes digital content across a range of mediums including video, editorial, image, audio, and experience (virtual and augmented reality). Since its inception in 2012, the Group has curated a diverse collection of specialist brands using social media platforms (primarily Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok) and has built multiple websites to reach new audiences and drive engagement. Each brand is dedicated to a distinct popular interest point (e.g. sport, gaming etc.), which is designed to achieve broader engagement, increase relevance and ultimately build a loyal community of followers.

The Group operates two core routes to market: Direct revenue, which is principally generated from the provision of content marketing services to corporates, brand owners, marketing agencies and other entities such as government bodies and where the relationship with the client is held directly by LBG Media; and Indirect revenue, which is generated via a third-party, such as a social media platform or via a programmatic advertising exchange / online marketplace, which holds the relationship with the brand owner or agency.