Storytel revenue beats expectations on audiobook demand (updated)

Storytel AB (publ)

05/08/2022 09:31

(Adds detail, background, CEO comment from interview)
    By Supantha Mukherjee
    STOCKHOLM, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Swedish audiobook streaming
group Storytel  STORYb.ST  on Friday reported second-quarter
revenue ahead of analyst expectations, helped by growth across
the Nordics, Europe and the United States, sending its shares up
15%.
    Quarterly net sales rose 28% to 781 million Swedish crowns 
($77.16 million) from 611 million crowns a year earlier.
Analysts had expected 774 million crowns, Refinitiv data shows.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nWkrb0CVxg
    Storytel performed a restructuring in the first half of the
year, with a management overhaul, a sharper focus on costs and
100 job cuts.
    "We have continued to prune the organisation," interim CEO
Ingrid Bojner, told Reuters.
    "The type of environment we are in, it will always be
important to keep a hard look at our cost base but I see the
positive effects of the growth in our priority markets."
    Bojner took the helm after Jonas Tellander stepped down in
February. 
    The company, which has 2.05 million paying subscribers,
entered the United States through its acquisition of
Audiobooks.com in November and currently operates in 25 markets
with a slate of 700,000 titles.
    Storytel also reiterated its forecast for full-year earnings
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to
come in between breakeven and a loss of 3%.
    Its second-quarter EBITDA loss narrowed to 6 million crowns
from 59 million crowns in the same period last year. 

($1 = 10.1220 Swedish crowns)

 (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm
Editing by Terje Solsvik and David Goodman)
 ((supantha.mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com; +46 70 721 1004;
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