In This Article:
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Tougher market conditions: €243m sales (-26%) and €21m EBITDA (-58%)
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Transformation programme: €11m special items on EBITDA level
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-€4.75 EPS resulting from -€28m net loss (-188%)
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€12m net cash position per year-end vs. €16m at end of 2023
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Share buyback programme successfully completed and €0.04 dividend per share proposed
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2025 outlook: €180-220m sales, €10-15m EBITDA, €50-75m customer acquisition costs
DÜSSELDORF, 20 February 2025 – The CLIQ Group publishes today its audited 2024 financial statements. The Annual Report 2024 is available on the Group’s website at https://cliqdigital.com/investors/financialreporting.
Performance
| in millions of € | FY | FY | Δ |
| 4Q | 4Q | Δ |
| North America | 168 | 197 | -15% |
| 34 | 54 | -37% |
| Europe | 52 | 109 | -52% |
| 9 | 25 | -64% |
| Latin America | 14 | 13 | 10% |
| 4 | 3 | 11% |
| ROW | 9 | 8 | 20% |
| 1 | 5 | -29% |
| Sales | 243 | 326 | -26% |
| 48 | 84 | -43% |
| Expected average LTV1 (in €) | 77 | 85 | -10% |
| 70 | 87 | -19% |
| Total CAC2 | -75 | -135 | -45% |
| -11 | -35 | -68% |
| EBITDA (before special items3) | 21 | 50 | -58% |
| 5 | 12 | -59% |
| EBITDA margin3 | 9% | 15% |
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| 10% | 14% |
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| Profit/loss for the period | -28 | 32 | -187% |
| -29 | 7 | n/a |
| EPS (basic, in €) | -4.75 | 4.90 | n/a |
| -4.99 | 1.07 | n/a |
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Sales: In 2024, Group sales declined by 26% year-on-year to €243 million (2023: €326 million) mainly due to less customers. 97% of Group sales in 2024 were generated with bundled-content services and in line with the Management decision to focus on profitability, revenue in North America declined by 15% and in Europe by 52% in 2024. In Latin America and in the region Rest of the World, sales increased by 10% and 20%. However, the quarter-on-quarter Group sales decrease decelerated notably from -21% in 3Q 2024 to -11% in the fourth quarter.
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Total customer acquisition costs: The total customer acquisition costs in 2024 amounted to €75 million (2023: €135 million). The 45% lower total customer acquisition costs reflected the Group’s decision to strategically increase its focus on profitability and the subsequent lowering of the target cost per acquisition (CPA).
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EBITDA: In 2024, EBITDA before special items decreased by 58% to €21 million (2023: €50 million) and the corresponding EBITDA margin was accordingly lower at 9% (2023: 15%) predominantly as a result of the lower sales development and despite reduced cost of sales and operating expenses. Reported EBITDA amounted to €10 million and included therein were €11 million special items relating mostly to the Group’s transformation programme “Fit For Future”. The reported EBITDA margin was 4%.
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Loss for the period: In 2024, the result for the year amounted to a loss of €28 million (2023: €32 million profit). Resulting from the annual impairment test performed on the goodwill, CLIQ corrected its goodwill and recognised an impairment loss of €27 million. This goodwill impairment was primarily attributable to the challenging market conditions going forward as well as to the significant decline in 2024 in the Group’s market value as determined by the stock market capitalisation.
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Earnings per share: In 2024, the loss per share (basic EPS) was -€4.75 (2023: €4.90) and the diluted loss (EPS) totalled -€4.71 (2023: €4.82).
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Cash flow: In 2024, the operating free cash flow decreased to €3.4 million (2023: €19 million). The cash inflow from operating activities during 2024 amounted to €9 million (2023: €30 million) and the decrease was mainly due to the drop in sales and margin contraction. The 2024 cash outflow from investing activities was €5 million (2023: €12 million) and largely related to payments for licensed content as well as for investments in platform and technical developments. The cash flow from financing activities during 2024 was an outflow of €7 million (2023: €13 million) and included €5.5 million cash outflow for the share buyback programme and €0.3 million dividend distribution.
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Liquidity: Due to the lower operating free cash flow, the net cash position decreased to €12 million at the year-end close (31/12/2023: €16 million).