CentralNic Group - Ending a strong year at a gallop

Driven by its investment programme, CentralNic delivered record like-for-like organic revenue growth throughout FY21 (Q121: 16%; H121: 20%; 9M21: 29%), culminating in 37% organic growth for FY21. Management expects to report FY21 revenue of c US$410m (7% above our forecast of US$384m) and adjusted EBITDA of c US$45m (5% above our forecast of US$43m), implying year-on-year growth of 70% and 47%, respectively. The adjusted FY21 EBITDA margin of 11.0% softened from 11.7% in H121 and 12.7% in FY20. Although a revenue breakdown was not provided, we assume this results from the continued outperformance of Online Marketing over Online Presence. Net debt fell to US$76m from US$85m, despite c US$20m spent on the acquisitions of Safebrands, Wando, the White & Case website portfolio and NameAction, as well as payment of the final consideration for Team Internet. Adjusted operating cash conversion remained over 100%. We will review our forecasts with the FY21 preliminary results, expected on 28 February 2022.