LadBible makes confident maiden update with annual growth hitting 80 per cent
LadBible Group Media, the digital youth publisher, has issued its maiden trading update this morning, with revenue hitting at least £54m, ahead of expectations and representing annual growth of around 80 per cent.
Managing brands including LADbible, SPORTbible and Tyla, direct revenue growth was driven by a significant increase in content marketing and direct display sales in the UK, Australia and Ireland.
LadBible continued to expand its remits with existing clients, and won new customers across a diverse range of sectors.
Indirect revenue also increased, primarily due to a 97 per cent increase in views of Group-generated content to 62.9bn, compared to 31.8bn in 2020, and increased monetisation across the social media platforms during 2021.
Chief exec, Solly Solomou, commented on the results: “LBG Media delivered an outstanding performance in 2021, both financially and operationally. The business operates in structurally growing markets, and it is a testament to our well-invested operations that we have the platform, the audience and the know-how to deliver relevant content to a coveted, hard-to-reach youth audience across a broad portfolio of distinct brands.”
“This positions us very well for the future, as we execute our stated growth strategy from a position of financial and operational strength.”
Brokers at Zeus Capital echoed this confidence: “We see meaningful potential for outperformance following today’s upgrade, as well as a number of additional revenue streams not reflected in our forecasts (e.g. international expansion, M&A, new monetisation of additional platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok and new capabilities).”
Its expectations for the current financial year are for an EBITDA of £20.8m on revenue of £65.5m.
The publisher started trading on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market back in December with £360m market cap.