11/12/2009 | XING
Hamburg, November 12, 2009 - XING AG (ISIN DE000XNG888) continues its course of profitable growth. Total revenues amounted to €33.2 million in the first nine months of 2009, up 32% from the same period last year (€25.1 million). Q3 revenues also developed positively, up 27% from the previous year to €11.7 million (Q3/2008: €9.18 million), and 8% over the last quarter (Q2/2009: €10.79 million). As before, the continued growth of loyal Premium members was the primary revenue generator for the reporting period. In Q3/2009, 661 662 thousand XING Premium members generated a total of €9.96 million in the “Subscriptions” segment. This represents an increase of nine percent from last quarter's results (Q2/2009: €9.18 million), and a 34% increase from last year (Q3/2008: €7.42). Furthermore, the total number of new members who chose a two-year membership in the first nine months of 2009 tripled in comparison with the same period last year.
As of September 30, 8.3 million professionals were members of the leading European business network. Alongside the continued expansion of its market leadership in the home markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland with approximately 3.6 million members, XING also further boosted its international member growth, particularly in Turkey and Spain. The Company reported its strongest quarterly results to date in these countries, gaining market share from its competitors.
Despite the continued overall negative market development for job ads, the XING Jobs section showed positive developments. In the first nine months of 2009, revenues were increased by 15% over the same period last year, to €3.27 (€2.85 million in the first nine months of 2008).
"We've invested heavily in expanding our profitable business models, and are satisfied with the development of Q3. As before, our core business drives our growth. Furthermore, we have considerably improved our service for targeted recruiting searches. By doing so, we're positioning XING as the ideal solution for professional e-Recruiting, and tapping into additional sources of revenues for continued profitable growth," explained Dr. Stefan Gross-Selbeck, CEO of XING AG.
The EBITDA margin was increased over the last quarter, from 23% to 25%. Operating six-month EBITDA also improved slightly, from €8.7 million in 2008 to €8.8 in 2009. In the first three quarters of the year, XING AG invested heavily in the expansion of its own development resources, to be able to launch new business models, products and features even more rapidly in the future, and thus tap into new sources of profit more quickly. As expected, the cumulative group profits for the first nine months of 2009 were lower than those for the same period last year (€2.5 million for 2009 vs. €4.7 million for 2008), due to these investment costs and the assignment of €1 million in one-off tax reserves for Q3. The development of cash flow was considerably more positive. After boosting its liquid assets by €1.6 million in Q3/2008, XING AG increased its cash and cash equivalents by €2.78 million in Q3/2009, to a total of €38.6 million.
About XING:
XING is the leading European online business network. Over 8 million members use XING in 16 languages to do business, find jobs, and pursue a career. XING helps members get connected and stay in touch with their contacts with customized networking solutions and services. Members are active on XING because of the real value generated, with XING Jobs, over 30 thousand specialized groups, and over 90 thousand live networking events a year, organized by members for members. Since the 2006 IPO, the XING AG share has established a solid position for itself on the stock market, the first and to date only Web 2.0 company to do so. XING AG is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, and has local offices based in its key strategic growth markets.
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