Sector leader Better Collective has issued a profit warning after lower-than-expected activity from US partners in Q3 and a pre-regulation slowdown in Brazil.
The Copenhagen-headquartered business is now projecting FY revenue in the range of €355-375m, down from the previous guidance of €395-425m, and EBITDA from €100-110m compared to the prior €130-140m.
While the company said it “remains confident in the long-term growth potential of these markets”, it will over the next month embark on “streamlining” initiatives to shave more than €50m in annual costs from 2025.
It said it would provide further details on the cuts when issuing its full Q3 interim numbers on 13 November. In the update, it also supplied preliminary unaudited figures of €81m in revenue and €22m of EBITDA before special items for the months of July to September 2024.
CEO Jesper Søgaard said the rapid growth of the group both organically and via M&A had added complexity as well as headcount to the organisation. “As external market conditions shift, it's important for us to recalibrate our spending and investment strategies to ensure sustainable long-term success.”
He added that he was confident the business “will emerge” even stronger from the radical cost-cutting exercise, emphasising the strong underlying growth of the market, albeit being subject to volatility.
The group’s two largest acquisitions among the 35 it has completed to date were aimed at securing leadership and positioning for growth within US and LatAm markets, paying €240m for The Action Network in 2021 and €176m for Playmaker Capital in 2023.
The share price of the Nasdaq Stockholm and Copenhagen-listed business was down 36% on opening at the time of writing.