Key Facts
-
Gross revenue of €128.5 million and adjusted EBITDA of €-7.2 million
in 2018 - Positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2018
-
€74.2 million convertible bonds conversion into equity underway,
enhancing the Company’s capital structure -
Product and business development set stable foundation for future
growth, but 2018 financials still burdened by one-off effects and
strategic decisions -
Successful product launches and important contracts concluded with
industry leaders -
Optimistic outlook for full year 2019 with an expected revenue growth
above 20 percent
Fyber N.V. (“Fyber” or the “Company”, FSE:FBEN), a leading
advertising technology company, today published its financial results
2018. The revenue development for the year was impacted by one-effects
related to Fyber’s ‘Keeping it Clean’ initiative and Google’s ban of
charging screen ads – both external factors, that affected not only
Fyber, but the wider market. Fyber’s core business outside of these
effects was influenced by resources spent on the integration of former
group companies, the roll-out of new products and platform features
including Fyber FairBid, and the technical integration of new major
demand partners, with whom the Company successfully entered into
important strategic partnership during the year.
For the full year 2018, the Company generated gross revenue of €128.5
million (2017: €229.8 million), net revenue of €46.1 million (2017:
€69.9 million) and an adjusted EBITDA of €-7.2 million (2017: €-1.2
million). During Q4 2018 the gross revenue amounted to €38.6 million (Q4
2017: €52.6 million) and a positive adjusted EBITDA of €0.6 million (Q4
2017: €2.0 million) – fully based on the core business already, as the
one-off effects were concluded before the start of the quarter.
Programmatic core business unaffected by one-off effects and growing
The Company restructured its income base in an effort to maximize
transparency and ad quality. While this incurred forgoing almost €80
million of gross revenue in 2018 compared to the previous year, Fyber
managed to conclude the one-off effects, build a strong product
portfolio entirely focused on the areas of fastest market growth,
increase the net revenue margin and achieve year-over-year growth of 38
percent for the programmatic core business.
The operational cost base for 2018 was reduced by 25 percent compared to
2017, largely based on the efforts to integrate the former group
companies and realizing related synergies. This enabled the Company to
achieve a positive adjusted EBITDA in the last quarter of 2018 despite
lower revenues.
| In € millions, rounded | Q4 2018 | Q4 2017 | Change YoY |
FY 2018 |
FY 2017 |
Change YoY | |||||||||
| Total one-off effects | 0 | 10 | n/a | 7 | 85 | -92% | |||||||||
| Core business | 39 | 43 | -9% | 122 | 145 | -16% | |||||||||
| Thereof programmatic | 22 | 16 | 38% | 65 | 59 | 10% | |||||||||
| Thereof non-programmatic | 17 | 27 | -37% | 57 | 86 | -34% | |||||||||
| Reported gross revenue | 39 | 53 | -26% | 129 | 230 | -44% | |||||||||
Important technology milestones reached
One of the highlights was the successful first-to-market launch of
Fyber’s new and innovative in-app header bidding technology Fyber
FairBid making possible a truly parallel bidding process of all
connected demand sources based on actual, real-time prices. The new
bidding technology was well received in the market and some of the
world’s leading mobile advertising networks such as Facebook Audience
Network, AdColony and Tapjoy already partnered with Fyber and the
initial results of increased yield for publishers are very promising.
Another success was the redesign of Offer Wall Edge, one of Fyber’s key
ad formats.
Furthermore, in the course of its ‘Keeping it Clean’ initiative the
Company decided to focus on core products, advertising quality and brand
safety, including the proactive discontinuation of non-core parts of the
business, namely web and aggregator-based traffic. Fyber is now focused
on in-app ads based on direct integrations with publishers and highest
standards of viewability, trackability and brand safety.
€74.2 million debt-to-equity swap
Fyber succeeded in reducing its debt burden by carrying out a partial
debt restructuring. In December 2018, an agreement was reached with the
holders of its €149.9 million convertible bonds to delay all coming
interest payments to the final maturity date of the bonds in July 2020.
Additionally, the Company initiated a voluntary debt-to-equity swap of
bonds at a swap price of €0.30 per new share. At the end of the offer
period, €74.2 million worth of bonds had been contributed to the swap.
The conversion into new shares will follow in due course, generating
247.3 million new shares and positive equity for 2019. Fyber plans to
complete prolongation of the remaining €75.7 million bonds ahead of
maturity or alternatively look for other financing alternatives
including a further debt-to-equity swap.
Preliminary results for the first quarter 2019 and outlook
Based on the promising current business development, Fyber gives an
optimistic outlook for the full year 2019: Having concluded the
restructuring process, Fyber expects to monetize on its unified product
with gross revenue between €155 and €175 million and an adjusted EBITDA
between break-even and €5 million. This growth will be based on existing
products, the roll-out of new products to a wider group of partners and
the onboarding of new partners. Already in Q4 2018, more than 30 percent
of Fyber’s gross revenue was achieved with new publishers – a strong
indicator for future growth opportunities.
Initial preliminary results for Q1 2019 support the stated guidance and
show a continuation of the growth trend in Fyber’s programmatic
business, which grew by 17 percent to €14.5 million in gross revenue,
out of the total gross revenue of €27.5 million (Q1 2018: €29.3
million). Further savings in the operating cost led to a 55 percent
improvement in adjusted EBITDA to €-1.8 million.
Fyber CEO Ziv Elul, commented: “Having completed our
restructuring process, we are now well positioned for the coming years
with a strong client base, a valued product portfolio and a close-knit
team of ad tech experts. Thus, we are very confident that we will return
to our growth path in 2019 and expect to deliver positive adjusted
EBITDA for the full year.”
The complete annual report 2018 is available on the Fyber website under: https://investors.fyber.com/reports-presentations
Key Figures
| Full year | Q4 | ||||||||||||||
| In € million | 2018 | 2017 | Change YoY | 2018 | 2017 | Change YoY | |||||||||
| Gross revenue | 128.5 | 229.8 | -44% | 38.6 | 52.6 | -27% | |||||||||
| Net revenue | 46.1 | 69.9 | -34% | 13.5 | 17.7 | -24% | |||||||||
| Net revenue margin | 35.9% | 30.4% | +5.5pp | 35.0% | 33.6% | +1.4pp | |||||||||
| EBITDA* | (7.2) | (1.2) | -83% | 0.6 | 2.0 | -70% | |||||||||
*Note: Unaudited, adjusted EBITDA excluding one-off impacts, not a
measure calculated in accordance with IFRS. For further details please
refer to the Annual Report 2018.
###
About Fyber
Fyber is a leading advertising technology company, developing a next
generation platform for the programmatic trading of ads, in a
data-driven environment. Our mission is to fuel the creation of quality
content by empowering digital publishers and app developers to unlock
the true value of their advertising properties through advanced
technologies, innovative ad formats and data-driven decision-making.
Fyber’s technology platform provides an open-access platform for both
digital advertisers and publishers with a global reach of more than 1.2
billion monthly unique users. Fyber has offices in Berlin, Tel Aviv, New
York, San Francisco, London, Beijing and Seoul. The Company employs more
than 270 people globally and is listed on the Prime Standard of the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘FBEN’ and the ISIN
NL0012377394.
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