In the second quarter of 2024, Agora Capital Group generated PLN 337.5 million in revenue, up 3.2% over a year ago. The biggest contribution to this was the increase in advertising revenues by 6.3% to PLN 193.3 million.
Among the company’s main segments, it achieved the highest percentage growth in advertising revenues AMS Group dealing with out-of-home advertising – by 21.6 percent up to PLN 61.3 million. – This positive dynamic was mainly due to spending on campaigns implemented in digital media, backlight, 18 m2 billboards, ambient and citylight – as calculated in the Agora report.
The AMS group is growing on the screens
In the first quarter, the dynamics were much lower, which is why over the entire last half-year period, AMS Group’s advertising revenues increased by 15.7%. up to PLN 98.1 million. Tomasz Jagiełło, member of the Agora board of directors, highlighted during a video conference that: the growth in digital media was what contributed most to this.
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The share of these media in the foreign market will continue to increase. – For example, in the UK, digital already accounts for 50 percent of the foreign market, and in Poland it is 20 percent, so there is still a lot to catch up on – noted Tomasz Jagiełło.
In the radio segment, in which Eurozet has held a controlling stake since last spring, advertising revenues in the second quarter of 2024 increased by 7.8% year-on-year to PLN 77.2 million. The Agora report emphasized that “this was mainly due to the introduction of a common sales offer and changes in advertising price lists.”
In the latest waves of the study, Track Radio ZET achieved significant audience growth: from May to July this year, its share reached 15.2 percent, compared to 14 percent a year earlier. However, the EBITDA profitability of Agora’s radio division decreased in the last annual quarter from PLN 19.3 to PLN 17.4 million, among others as a result of an increase in representation and advertising expenses from PLN 8.9 to PLN 11.1 million. This is the result of frequent campaigns by Radio ZET.
– Each subsequent campaign takes us in the right direction and Radio ZET’s audience results are the highest in 10 years. It seems that our actions are effective and necessary, so you can start monetizing the audience you build – commented Maciej Strzelecki, member of the board of directors of Agora and chairman of the Eurozet group.
In the second half of June this year, Agora completed the purchase of the remaining 49% of Eurozet shares. It paid 38.75 million euros.
READ ALSO: Eurozet Group increases advertising prices again
At Helios cinemas, advertising revenues increased in the second quarter of this year by 7.7 percent to PLN 8.4 millionalthough the sale of 1.9 million tickets resulted in a 5% drop in annual revenues to PLN 40 million, and from snacks and drinks for viewers – by 2%. up to PLN 24.6 million.
Yieldbird is moving to the SaaS model
Two other business areas of the Agora group recorded much worse advertising dynamics. In the online segment, quarterly revenues from this area decreased by 12.6 percent. to PLN 29.2 million, and in the entire first half of this year. the decline was 14.7 percent. (from PLN 66.8 to PLN 57 million).
– The decline in advertising revenues was mainly due to the reduction in online advertising sales by Yieldbird, mainly as a result of lower annual traffic on publishers’ websites and as a result of the development of cooperation in the SaaS model and, consequently, limited sales of advertising services – explained in the Agora report. It was noted that in the last quarter Gazeta.pl’s advertising revenues were at a similar level to last year.
On the other hand printed and digital press segment (the vast majority constitutes “Wyborcza Gazette”) recorded a slight increase in advertising revenues – 0.7% to PLN 14.9 million in the second quarter of this year. And for the entire last half year they were identical to last year – PLN 26.1 million.
There are fewer advertisements for state-owned companies in the press
Agora has decided to increase its forecast for the annual dynamics of the Polish advertising market from 5-7 percent to 6-8 percent In the report, she emphasized that higher-than-expected increases were recorded in the first and second quarters. As risk factors, she indicated “high geopolitical uncertainty, uncertainty regarding the pace of economic growth and the level of inflation, as well as companies’ operating costs.”
In the case of television advertising, Agora increased its forecast from 3-5 percent to 4-6 percent, and for online advertising – from 5-8 percent to 7-10 percent. It did not change its forecasts for cinema advertising (9-14 percent), radio advertising (4-7 percent) and out-of-home advertising (10-15 percent).
However, in the case of press advertising, the company currently expects a decline of 8-11 percent, while previously it predicted a negative dynamics of 5-8 percent. Agora President Bartosz Hojka explained that this was due to the fact that state-owned companies limited their spending on press advertising.
– In recent years, they have been the spending leaders in this segment of the advertising market. They have spent disproportionately more in relation to this segment’s share of the advertising market. Obviously, these decisions were not substantively motivated, he said.
He noted that advertising cuts by state entities are most painful for the press. – This is a segment with a small share, so such a change immediately translates into the dynamics of the entire market – he admitted.
Now it has been undermined by the strengthening of the zloty
In terms of EBITDA, Agora Group’s profit increased from PLN 44.8 to PLN 56.9 million, and in terms of operating profits – from PLN 0.7 to PLN 12.5 million. – Agora Group is growing and improving efficiency: another quarter is behind us, in which we achieved significantly better operating results, with a simultaneous increase in staff remuneration. An increase in EBITDA of almost thirty percent is a significant step towards PLN 200 million in EBITDA, which is our target for 2026 – emphasized Bartosz Hojka, President of Agora, in the announcement.
The company’s net profitability was reduced by the deterioration of its financial balance, from PLN 20.8 million in revenues to PLN 14.6 million in costs. This is mainly the result of unfavorable changes in exchange rates for the company: in the second quarter of last year it recorded PLN 28.5 million in revenues and in the last quarter – PLN 2.3 million in costs.
As a result, Agora Group’s net income decreased from a profit of PLN 12.5 million to a loss of PLN 8.1 million. The company reported a loss after two consecutive profitable quarters: from January to March this year. it earned PLN 3.79 million net and up to PLN 50.94 million in the previous quarter.
Still, on Wednesday, following the publication of second-quarter data and a video conference with the board of directors, Agora shares rose 4.54% to PLN 10.60. At this exchange rate, the company’s valuation is PLN 493.75 million.
That’s up 21.8 percent over 12 months ago, although since January of this year there has been a 7 percent drop.
