NHST GROUP’S DEVELOPMENT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2020

During the fourth quarter, NHST Media Group achieved an increase in the sale of digital products and services, and the group’s publications continue to experience a strong demand for news. New products and services launched in the second half of 2020, such as the investment fund game Fantasyfond, newsletters targeted towards the energy industry, product enhancements in Mynewsdesk and webinars hosted by several of the publications, contributed to improved user interest and revenue streams from digital business.

Despite the challenging market situation partly driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, the group’s EBITDA before nonrecurring items ended on a par with last year’s level both for the quarter and for the full year.

The group’s publications achieved solid progress in digital subscription revenues. The users increasingly choose digital products rather than paper-based subscriptions. The sale of printed publications, both subscriptions as well as single copy sales, continued to decline.

User revenues in the Software-as-a-Service units fell in the fourth quarter compared to the same period of the
previous year. The decline is mainly caused by a weaker market following the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as
intensified competition and increased price pressure.

Adjusted for the sale of Morgenbladet, which took place at the end of the first half-year, total user revenues for the group decreased by 2 per cent in the quarter.

Advertising revenues is the part of the revenue base which has been most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. During the fourth quarter, advertising revenues fell by 18 per cent compared to the same period in 2019. Especially paper-based advertising fell, but also revenues from conferences and events were lower than in the corresponding period in 2019. However, the advertising market improved towards the end of the year, and the decline in advertising revenues was significantly lower in the fourth quarter than earlier in the year.

Several of the group’s publications showed good progress in revenues from webinars and other digital product offerings, which partly offset the loss of revenues from physical conferences and events.

The group’s cost reduction programmes, targeting savings of more than NOK 100 million in 2020, progressed as planned and gave the expected results.

The group’s operating profit before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before non-recurring items ended at NOK 25.4 million, compared to NOK 26.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2019. For the full year 2020, the group achieved an EBITDA result before non-recurring items of NOK 74.0 million, an improvement from NOK 71.4 million in 2019.

CEO Hege Yli Melhus Ask resigned from her position in November 2020, with effect from 1 December 2020.
A successor has not yet been appointed.