Mail.Ru says IFRS net profit jumps 62% to 6.8 bln rbl in Q4 2018

MOSCOW, Mar 1 (PRIME) -- The aggregate net profit of Russian Internet company Mail.Ru Group rocketed 62.4% on the year to 6.813 billion rubles in October–December 2018, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the company said on Friday in a statement.

The aggregate segment revenue grew 33.7% to 23.441 billion rubles.

Aggregate segment earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 42.2% to 8.724 billion rubles.

For the whole of 2018, the aggregate net profit rose 6.4% to 14.099 billion rubles, including one-off non-cash impairment charge of 1.698 billion rubles in April–June 2018. Excluding this charge, the net profit grew 19.2%.

Aggregate segment revenue grew 32.5% to 75.260 billion rubles. Aggregate segment EBITDA increased 13.9% to 22.222 billion rubles.

Board Chairman Dmitry Grishin and CEO (Russia) Boris Dobrodeev said, “2018 has been a transformational year for us. The core of the business of our communications and social platforms continued to grow strongly and hence its revenues exceeded guidance. Our gaming business is scaling internationally and we had a number of strong global launches.”

They also added that, “in 2019 we will remain focused on advertising solutions and technologies as well as driving content consumption. Growing effectiveness of our advertising through ongoing adtech development and innovative new ad products, attracting new types of advertisers, such as SMEs and offline retailers, on the platform and expanding our advertising network are the areas where we will center our efforts in 2019.”

Mail.Ru Group provided the 2019 revenue and EBITDA guidance excluding its services Delivery Club and Youla. “On a pro-forma basis we expect the 2019 revenue growth of between 18–22% or 85–88 billion rubles,” the company said. EBITDA is seen at 32–34 billion rubles.

(65.8895 rubles – U.S. $1)

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