| Regulatory press release

Interim Report January – September 2020 Storytel AB (publ)

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  • Streaming sales up 23% from Q3 2019 to 490 (399) MSEK.
  • Subscriber base up 34% from Q3 2019 to 1,360,300 (1,014,400) on average.
  • Net turnover increased to 609 MSEK from 491 MSEK in Q3 2019.
  • Earnings per share, after taxes amounted to -0.38 SEK, before and after dilution, compared to -1.37 SEK in Q3 2019.
  • Entered into an agreement to acquire a 70 percent majority interest in Iceland’s leading book publishing house Forlagið.
  • Acquired Kitab Sawti, a leading audiobook streaming service in the Middle East
  • Acquired an 80 percent majority interest in Earselect AB, a Nordic production company
  • Entered into an agreement to acquire iCast Ltd (“iCast”), an audiobook streaming pioneer on the Israeli market.

Table 1: Key performance indicators for Streaming and Print Publishing

Currency: SEK 000’s Q3 2019 Q4 2019 Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020
Streaming Total        Actual8     Forecast1
Revenue 399,178 421,454 429,251 459,115 490,234 499,500
Contribution Profit2,8 53,043 58,977 92,611 100,493 113,663
Contribution Margin 13.3% 14.0% 21.6% 21.9% 23.2%
Avg. Paying Subscribers3 1,014,400 1,083,400 1,154,800 1,257,000 1,360,300 1,435,000
ARPU4 (SEK/Month) 131 130 124 122 120 116
Streaming Nordics5
Revenue 340,315 352,222 349,768 366,322 394,453 396,000
Contribution Profit2,8 109,563 115,689 113,476 107,176 125,534
Contribution Margin 32.2% 32.8% 32.4% 29.3% 31.8%
Avg. Paying Subscribers3 736,000 757,600 785,800 833,300 902,000 922,000
ARPU4 (SEK/Month) 154 155 148 147 146 143
Streaming Non-Nordics
Revenue 58,863 69,233 79,484 92,793 95,781 103,500
Contribution Profit2,8 -56,521 -56,713 -20,866 -6,684 -11,872
Contribution Margin -96.0% -81.9% -26.3% -7.2% -12.4%
Avg. Paying Subscribers3 278,400 325,800 369,000 423,700 458,300 513,000
ARPU4 (SEK/Month) 70 71 72 73 70 67
Print Publishing6
Revenue 116,371 179,562 114,737 126,743 150,391
Contribution Profit7 33,327 65,592 41,678 44,147 63,667
Contribution Margin 28.6% 36.5% 36.3% 34.8% 42.3%

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1 Forecast means an approximation based on information available at the time the report was prepared.

2 Contribution Profit is defined as streaming revenue minus royalties to third-party publishers and rights holders, external production costs, transaction/payment costs and marketing costs. Storytel Reader and Ztory are not included in Streaming.

3 Avg. Paying Subscribers means the average number of paying Storytel subscribers during the quarter. Stand-alone customers from Ztory are not included. For Family subscriptions, each standard stream (not so-called Kids Mode) is considered one paying customer.

4 ARPU = Average Revenue Per User (Subscriber) per month.

5 Storytel Norway is included in the figures @ 100%. In the consolidated accounts, Norway is reported in accordance with the principle of proportional consolidation.

6 Print Publishing refers to physical books and digital sales through channels other than Storytel. Internal revenue from Storytel has been eliminated. All publishing houses both inside and outside of Sweden are included.

7 Contribution Profit is defined as revenue minus cost of goods sold, royalties to rights holders, distribution, sales and marketing costs.

8 Storytel has chosen to voluntarily apply the capitalisation model instead of the expensing model regarding internally developed intangible assets. In this table, the development of our digital catalogue will be capitalised and no longer treated as an expense as of Q1 2020.

Forthcoming reports

  • Year-End Report 2020 – 19 Feb 2021
  • Annual Report 2020 – 1 April 2021
  • Interim Report Jan – Mar 2021 – 7 May 2021
  • Interim Report Jan – June 2021 – 6 Aug 2021
  • Interim Report Jan – Sept 2021 – 5 Nov 2021

Annual general meeting of shareholders

The annual general meeting of shareholders will be held in Stockholm on 6 May, 2021. More details about time and location will be published on Storytels website closer to the event.
This disclosure contains information that Storytel is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 10-11-2020 08:00 CET.

FNCA Sweden AB is the company’s certified adviser. FNCA can be reached at info@fnca.se or +46 8 528 00 399.

Stockholm, 10 November 2020
Board of Directors, Storytel AB (publ)

For more information, please contact:
Jörgen Gullbrandson, Interim CFO: +46 73 378 01 75
Dan Panas, Head of Communications: +46 70 186 52 90