IONOS with successful first nine months of 2023
- + 134,000 customers to 6.13 million.
- + 11 % sales from EUR 953.6 million to EUR 1,058.7 million
- + 18.0 % EBITDA from EUR 258.9 million to EUR 305.4 million
- + 11.1 % adjusted EBITDA from EUR 275.8 million to EUR 306.3 million
- Forecast 2023 specified: EUR 390 million adjusted EBITDA expected
Karlsruhe / Berlin, 10 November 2023. IONOS, the leading European digitalisation partner for small and medium-sized enterprises, continued its successful growth trajectory in the first nine months of 2023. This is reflected in the positive development of revenue and EBITDA as well as the increase in the number of customers by 170,000 to 6.13 million (compared to 5.96 million customers as of 30 September 2022).
The company's revenue increased by 11% in the first nine months of 2023, from EUR 953.6 million (9M 2022) to EUR 1,058.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA[1] rose by 11.1% to EUR 306.3 million despite continued high marketing expenditure, particularly to increase IONOS brand awareness. At 28.9%, the adjusted EBITDA margin was on a par with the same period of the previous year.
Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) after the first nine months of 2023 were EUR 0.97 [2] compared to EUR 0.59 in the same period of the previous year.
In addition to the further expansion of the Aftermarket business, the increase in sales is mainly due to the continued positive development of new customer business and the successful cross-selling and upselling of existing customers.
Products and innovations
IONOS stands for innovative, web-based products and applications. In addition to continuous optimisation and ensuring the reliable operation of all services, IONOS programmers, product managers and technical administrators have worked on numerous projects in the areas of Cloud Solutions and Web Presence & Productivity.
In the third quarter, innovations in the field of artificial intelligence took centre stage. For example, the company launched an AI-based website builder, a newsletter tool with AI functions and a domain search that utilises the new technology. In the cloud area, the first customers were able to use generative AI applications on a sovereign cloud platform as part of a beta test.
Specified forecast 2023
Following the successful conclusion of the first nine months, IONOS has specified its forecast for 2023. The company continues to expect a currency-adjusted increase in revenue of around 10% to around EUR 1.4 billion compared to the previous year. The Web Presence & Productivity segment is expected to grow by around 11% and the Cloud Solutions segment by 14 to 15%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to increase by around 13% (previously around 10%) to around EUR 390 million and the adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be around 27.5% (previously: at least 27%).
In the fourth quarter, as in 2022, IONOS is planning higher marketing expenditure to further increase brand awareness.
[1] Adjusted for investments in the expansion of the product portfolio, higher expenses for adjusted special items, in particular the replacement of systems of the United Internet Group as part of the establishment of the IONOS Group as an independent group, costs in connection with the preparation of the IPO and other special effects, such as expenses in connection with employee participation programmes.
[2] EPS excluding non-cash valuation effects from the contingent purchase price liability (9M 2023: € +0.24; 9M 2022: € +0.03). For reasons of comparability, EPS was calculated on the basis of the weighted average number of shares in circulation of 124,143 thousand, as for 9M 2023 and 9M 2022. This average reflects the capital increase from €360,001 to €140,000,000 from company funds on 1 February 2023.