Scout24 SE (G24) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders and shareholder representatives, my name is Hans-Holger Albrecht. I am the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Scout24 SE. And according to the Articles of Association, therefore in charge of today's Annual General Meeting of Scout24 SE. On behalf of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board, I would like to welcome you to Munich and open the Annual General Meeting of Scout24 SE. I'm very pleased that after 3 virtual annual general meetings this year, we can meet again in person. The Annual General Meeting is also broadcast in full for all shareholders and shareholders' representatives via our password-protected online service. My speech and that of the Management Board will also be publicly broadcast online for all interested parties via our company's Investor Relations page. I would, therefore, also like to welcome our guests and all those who will listen to my remarks and the following remarks by our CEO, Tobias Hartmann; and our CFO, Dr. Dirk Schmelzer, online. Shareholders and shareholder representatives who follow the Annual General Meeting online, please remember that you have to log into the online service in order to be able to follow the meeting in particular, the discussion in full. Before I say a few words about the development of Scout24 since the last Annual General Meeting, and comment on the report of the Supervisory Board, let me first make the necessary formal determinations for today's Annual General Meeting. The notary Professor [ Hartwood Vicke ] will make the notarial minutes recording of today's Annual General Meeting, welcome Professor [ Vicke ]. Next to me are Mr. [ Hardin Metzer ] of -- as a legal counsel, the members of the Board of Management are all present, the CEO, Dr. Tobias Hartmann; to my right, the CFO, Dr. Dirk Schmelzer; and the Chief Product and Technology Officer, Mr. Ralf Weitz, are sitting here next to me to my right. Regarding the changes in the composition of the management board since the last Annual General Meeting, I will get into more details later. The Mr. Christoph Brand and Mr. Peter Schwarzenbauer have excused themselves from the Supervisory Board. Unfortunately, they cannot participate today due to unavoidable commitments. However, both follow the Annual General Meeting via the online service. The other members of the Supervisory Board are all present except myself. These are Dr. Elke Frank, Mr. Frank Lutz; and Mr. Andre Schwammlein. They're sitting here in front of me in the audience in the first row. I will go into more detail on the upcoming changes in the Supervisory Board later in particular, the 2 candidates to the Supervisory Board is proposing to you for election today. Supervisory Board has appointed Mr. Lutz, the Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board, as Deputy Chairman of the meeting in accordance with the Articles of Association, and he will take over chairing the meeting should I be unable to attend even if only temporarily. I would like to take this opportunity at this point to sincerely thank my colleagues on the Supervisory Board for the commitment to our company over the past year. Today's Annual General Meeting was convened in due form and time by announcement in the Federal Gazette on 11th May 2023. We the convocation notice was sent to media for EU-wide distribution on the same day. The confirmation of the Federal Gazette on the publication as well as the confirmation of the forwarding to the media for the EU-wide distribution of the convocation notice can be viewed at the request to speak table and will be recorded by the notary. The request to speak table is here in front to your left. The convocation notice with the agenda and the management's proposals for resolution were communicated to the shareholders, intermediaries and shareholder associations in accordance with Section 125 of the German Stock Corporation Act. The documents to be made accessible have been available on the company's website since the meeting was convened and are available for inspection at the request to speak table. At the request to speak table, you can also see the amended proposal for resolution for Item 2 on the agenda. The company did not receive any request to add items to the agenda or any counter proposals or nominations to be made available. Ladies and gentlemen, you have registered at the entrance with your admission ticket and your admission ticket is also your voting card. If you have received several admission tickets and have not registered all of them, you can do so at the entrance until voting actually begins. Only if all admission tickets are registered can the entire shareholding you represent be included in the attendee list and take part in the vote. If you wish to leave the meeting, you can authorize the proxies of the company or a third party to exercise the voting rights from your shares. In this case, please contact our staff at the shareholders' reception who will be happy to explain the necessary procedure to you. If you leave the meeting early, and do not wish to authorize anyone, please hand in your admission tickets at the shareholders' reception so that the attendee list can be updated accordingly. This hall called Europasaal, so that's Europe hall and the foyer, including the restrooms are part of the in-person area. The verbal contributions from this Annual General Meeting will also be broadcast over loud speakers in the foyer and the restrooms. However, it is only possible to request the floor and to hand in voting cards in the context of voting here in this room, the Europe hall. The attendee list is currently being created. After completion, I will announce the attendance and have the attendee list displayed at the request to speak table for inspection. Changes to the attendee list are recorded and supplements and communicated at the relevant times. Copies of these supplements will also be available for inspection at the request to speak table. If you would like to take part in the discussion, I would ask that you register at the request to speak table beforehand please show your admission ticket when you do so. If you want to make a motion or submit illumination, I ask you to announce it in writing together with your request to speak or to ask the staff at the request to speak table to be included. This enables us to ensure that the motion is properly recorded also in the interest of the proposing person. I would like to point out that you still have to make your motion orally as part of your verbal contributions. Today's Annual General Meeting will not be taken down in shorthand. However, the Management Board can be supported by stenographers when it comes to recording questions asked and answering them. With the exception of the introductory statements by the management Board and myself, the Annual General Meeting will not be recorded on video or audio media. The microphones and cameras set up here in the meeting room are used exclusively for sound reinforcement in this room as well as in the foyer and the restrooms for the online transmission of the introductory statements and the transmission of the entire Annual General Meeting via the password-protected online service and to the back office. No audio or video recordings may be made starting from the beginning of the discussion. In addition, I ask you to turn off or mute your mobile phones and not to use the phone in the meeting room so that we can hold our meeting undisturbed. Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to the agenda. You have been made aware of the agenda for today's Annual General Meeting, together with the management's proposals for resolution and the corresponding documents to be made available. I will therefore refrain from reading it out and we'll now give the report of the Supervisory Board on Item 1 on the agenda. In addition, under item 7 on the agenda, I will present the Supervisory Board's proposals for the election of 2 new Supervisory Board members. Ladies and gentlemen, let me give the report of the Supervisory Board to begin with. We all see that the tempo and -- everything is up and upheaval. The terrible war in Ukraine is really a tragedy for more than a year, it's been going on in all of Europe and in the entire world. The effects, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, know that is go far beyond the people that suffer on site and everything else. This affects what we do and what we do worldwide, our supply chains, our resources, our financial markets, our view on globalization and the networking -- the connections between the global markets, the really high inflation and all the changes in interest rates have an effect on the real property market as well and it really hit it hearts. Competition regarding the resources on the one hand and the more and more urgent questions regarding climate change are also part of this. We see very clearly that continuing, as always, does not work. The many challenges that we face for owners, those looking for property landlords and also agents. Those developing property everywhere in the industry is affected. Living is a basic need and has become very expensive for a lot of people. The needs of many people are harder to meet from the market and sustainability is a really big issue. Many of the processes take a long time on a highly regulated. At the same time, however, the innovation force is really strong, and the moment for constructive development comes from this crisis and it gives us a lot of impetus to act. So each one of us has to mention that we do the right thing. This is to also looking at Scout24, especially for us in the Supervisory Board and the work we do with the Management Board in order to do the right -- take the right decisions, follow the right strategies in the future; and B, flexible at the same time. So in this regard, we are in a continuous process and dialogue with the Management Board in order to get on the right path for the future. Your Scout24 has seen itself in a completely changed property market in 2022, with a growth of 15% in turnover and a dividend proposal of EUR 1 per share due to the -- are due to the share buybacks that we did and be very content with that on the Supervisory Board. Behind that result is a lot of work and discipline on the part of the company and the part of the management board and employees, whom I would like to give a heartfelt thank at this point. The development in the last 15 months with all the effects on interest rates and property market, of course, have affected Scout24 as well. Certain offers by Scout24 are actually winning in this changed surroundings. Others were not able to reach the goals that we have set the details of the actual development the Management Board will report on later. What's decisive for me is that we are able, our relevancy as a company to keep that in the long term to have long-term sustainable growth and to be able to flexibly adapt our offers to changing circumstances. The relevant developments in the property market is something that we've constantly kept in mind and discuss it together with the Management Board or to make sure that the effects on Scout24 are known. And then able to take the necessary actions. I'm convinced that also in the future, we will be able to even in changing circumstances in the future to offer enough for our customers and that Scout24 will be needed more than ever. The Supervisory Report has also -- has taken charge of everything it was supposed to do and it was our job to support the Management Board and everything they do and make sure that they know, especially when it comes to my part. We had more than 95% participation in the actual meetings and regarding the contents, I would like to refer you to the written report of the Supervisory Board. One central task of the Supervisory Board is the personnel decisions regarding the Supervisory Board. And since Dr. Thomas Schroeter is leaving, we have started to look at several options quite early on. And in the end, we decided to bundle the tasks and the existing Supervisory Board, so Ralf Weitz, is the Chief Product Technology Officer and is in charge of a bundled organization that he has actually set up himself. Dear Ralf, I wish you all the best for that. Thomas Schroeter, I would like to thank you in the name of the entire Supervisory Board and the company for all the good work that you did in the last 6 years in various positions. And I would like to wish you all the best for your future. In addition to the personnel decisions regarding the Management Board, another central task is the preparation of personal decisions regarding the Supervisory Board. And for us, sustainability called ESG, including good governance, which includes diversity is a central issue. And that's why we started thinking early on how we can include diversity and increase it in the Supervisory Board. And we looked at the competence profile and included diversity even more in it and started looking for possible candidates. And we take a lot of time for this process. And then we have 2 candidates that came up, who we will propose to you today. They will introduce themselves later and the entire Supervisory Board is convinced that with these 2 ladies, we will have a good team in the Supervisory Board. Both of them, regardless of their gender and beyond because of their professional career and their backgrounds, they will contribute especially to the competence profile and diversity concept of the Supervisory Board. We are very happy that with these 2 ladies, we have 2 candidates who -- and we hope we will get them into the Supervisor Board that -- who will really support the Supervisory Board team and perfect it. At the same time, we're losing 2 colleagues from the Supervisory Board, Peter Schwarzenbauer, Christoph Brand, both of them in the last 2 years, Peter Schwarzenbauer since 2007 and Christoph Brand since 2019. So 6 and 4 years, respectively, they have been part of decisive decisions in the Supervisory Board and been responsible for them as well. Both of them were in agreement to lay down their positions early so that these 2 ladies can come into Supervisory Board. Dear Peter, dear Christoph, thank you very much from me in the name of the entire Supervisory Board and the company for your commitment and the great teamwork that we had, and I wish you all the best for your future. Additional important topics of Supervisory Board work was the decision on the share buybacks of the year 2022 and the corresponding capital allocation in the company, supporting and monitoring M&A proposals in the context of the company strategy and also when it comes to strategy topics and product and competition and technology, sustainability and also in the personnel area, including successors and successor planning and also remuneration. Let me briefly talk about the remuneration report and the run-up to this meeting, we heard from a couple of shareholders that we changed the remuneration system because of the changes there that the report will be explained even better. And of course, we take this seriously and will make sure that in the future that this report is even more clear. Other additional details on work of the Supervisory Board, I would refer you to the detailed report there and the written report. Dear shareholders, dear guests, I thus come to the end of my report. And in the future, we will see further challenges on the market in the future, but we also see opportunities and work them out for Scout24 to make sure that property transactions become more transparent, more digital and also more fair. Even if we cannot foresee every market development, I think we're in a good way to optimally position your company, the Scout24. And I am positive that with the Board of Management surrounding, Peter Schwarzenbauer supported by the Supervisory Board, there will be a lot of room for developments. So I don't think there's a better way to get an introduction to the report of the management, and then we'll have the report of the financial, the CFO, and I pass the mic on to him now.

Many thanks, Hans-Holger. So dear shareholders, dear ladies and gentlemen, also in the name of the management board, let me give you a very warm welcome to our AGM. We are meeting again after 3 virtual and for the first time ever in person, it's great to see you all again, and I'm happy we're all in good health and here together. Last year was a year of many changes I'd like tell you what happened during 2022 within the real estate area for our customers. I'd also show you how we reacted in order to maintain the difference for our customers. Dirk Schmelzer will talk to you about the financial results, 2022 and talk about 2023. So in the beginning of last year, it seemed like the COVID pandemic had finally got under control and the financial situation would be better. But then the war in Ukraine started. So suddenly, we were all facing a new reality. We had higher energy costs, high inflation. And so these were the titles last year. So since also the finance -- the interest has increased for the first time since 2010, the real estate prices went down. So our users since last year are facing a new market situation, interest for financing real estate went from 1% to up to 4%. Banks changed the criteria for credit significantly. So for people interested in buying if they don't have enough capital, it's difficult but less offers are being received for real estate. So we need all of the marketing power and more visibility in order to really make a business. Everybody is interested in selling their houses as quickly as possible. So we need to give them high-quality property context. On the other hand, people looking to higher real estate. They are also in a difficult situation. Germany in 2022 had 1.1 million people coming to our country. On the other hand, many people due to the high interest are looking to rent a place because of this high demand vacant quota being really low in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich under 1%. We, during the last year, diversified our business in a very successful way. And we created a resilient business model. Now we are having a 3 part on a marketplace with 3 fundamental customer groups. Our 3 most relevant groups owners, people looking for real estate and customers. We are talking about projects, developers and also people financing real estate. So we are creating a meeting point between all of them and the supporting within this market situation with tailored solutions. For the owners, last year, due to the new economic situation, many questions arose. They are asking themselves how much are the real estate works and how the prices are being changing. Will the tenancy we saw last year will continue or will it change? When is the best situation to sell? Should we sell now, should we wait a little longer? And if we were to rent, how to find the correct people? Then due to the changes in the European and German loss, we also have the energy topic. And also the administration of the real estate is a big world the owners. We are trying to give the best market transparency to owners so that they can take informed decisions. Our new owner area is the central contact front for all of the needs coming from them. We do have a portfolio view different -- similar to online share. Therefore, you can see prognostics, you can see possible revenues, the situation of the demand for your object, a calculator for remodeling costs for houses and demographic data for the area also just for houses. From this point, owners can access all of the services coming from ImmoScout24 relevant for them. With just 1 click from this, you can go to the administration of your real estate within our renters' portal, and you can post your real estate in order for it to be sold or to be rented. So this is a very relevant value and we will also have the evaluation. You might have seen this in the press spring data. Due to continuous improvements has proved themselves to take a leadership position on the market, serving credit institutes with software solutions with an automate evaluation models and with the whole portfolio of digital training software. Under the leadership of the CEO and Sprengnetter, the company during the last 10 years, developed a comprehensive portfolio of evaluating tools. With the integration of the Sprengnetter products into the ImmoScout24 ecosystem for owners, but also for our customers, that are looking for real estate, we will facilitate evaluating tools. That's increasing the transparency for taking decisions. In 2021, we integrated it completely into our project landscape and we at Vermietet.de, we have more than [ 1.2 ] rented real estate objects. And we have more than 644,000 people renting their real estate. So this supports another relevant element on our way to create just one ecosystem for real estate objects. Because in Germany, currently, we have about [ 2.9 ] private landlords. About 28.6 million of all the flats on private land. This is about 60% all of other rental properties. So with this area, we are focusing on a very relevant part of the German real estate market. In our landlord platform, the owners can post announcement about renting their objects, and they can use our manager, but they will also find an administration solution in order to do calculations in order to do their tax declaration regarding the real estate and all of that, with just one center practical and transparent online tool. So let's talk about people looking for real estate. Our second customer groups, people looking for real estate are facing a big -- a lot of competitors because the offer real estate is limited. At the same time, people renting objects are facing an increase of money and -- increase of the money they need to pay for rental and also the energy cost and the Ukraine war. With our product, MieterPlus, people renting within the urban areas can access new announcement, and they directly can access a lot of the information. The inquiries will go into the folder and are being seen by the landlords. They can create a digital folder with all of the different -- all of the necessary documentation. They can integrate their identity document and other relevant documents. So these documents will be accessible to the landlords online. With this product, we are serving a big need within the current market situation because the landlords right now don't have time to go through a lot of documents, which might not be essential to them at plus mieter (sic) [ MieterPlus ]. If the member and question wants to do so, we'll find all of the data like the revenues, and they can choose which person they would like to rent their object to. We also have some prequalification which means that the documents are properly prepared. So this is another way to create more transparency. On the rental market, for MieterPlus, during the last year, due to the market situation, we had a big relevance and we had a big demand coming from the customers. The number of the members increased in 48%. We have more than 270,000 members. We are receiving from our customers, the feedback that MieterPlus helped them to find a new place to live. Of course, we are also supporting our commercial customers with current and tailored solutions. In the second quarter 2022, less people are wishing to buy because they can't pay the prices. And so you need to do more marketing and it's a challenge to navigate between the market prices and the price people are willing to pay. In 2022, to we invested EUR 53 million for the development of our product portfolio in order to even better support our customers within the market situation. Our offers, our flat rate products that people can agree upon. So through these memberships people offering their real estate objects are receiving everything in one hand and they can position themselves in a flexible way. In general, all of our membership paths are following the goal to give our customers the best marketing for their object. Even with the basis addition, smaller offices can position all of their real estate objects in an unlimited way. And thus, they are receiving an online presence. Our image addition gives even more visibility due to the image boost and the positioning of -- also of your company logo. With more extensive membership, you also receive access to potential new owners, contacts and can further expand the business. For 2022, we had 3.3% increase of customers in comparison to the year before. From January to December, we had 27.1% increase in announcements and thus a lot more of offers than we had the year before. In the last month, we also had our optimal and top products. We optimized them, and we are offering new profit plus packages, thus giving even more power -- marketing power, expert knowledge and contact details. And also our elite offers have been adapted to the new market situation. For our 3 customer groups, I explained to you how we are supporting them, how we are supporting you with the challenges within the current market situation. In all of the 3 areas, we are really supposing a difference to our customers, supporting them with difficult questions in order to reach the best decision. Our customers are willing to pay for this. And this has been seen -- yes, we could see this with the growth of our areas because we are offering the right solutions. So also for -- in 2022, we've been very successful. We had more than 100 million of private people registered at us. 270,000 customers are using us in order to look for a place and also the number of the commercial clients reached a new record level. Now I'd like to pass the floor to Dirk Schmelzer, and he will talk to you about our financial numbers.

Many thanks, Tobias. Dear shareholders, I'd also like to give you a very warm welcome to our AGM. Tobias already explained this to you, the Scout24 group, also for the new market situation and the real estate industry is in a very good position, and we are growing, why? Well, because we know the laws of the different market participants, and we created a broad specified product portfolio. In 2022, despite of the difficult situation, we had a very successful year. In general, Scout24 Group had a revenue of EUR 447.5 million, which is 15% more in comparison to 2021. And we are on the highest level of our prognostics that was at 14% to 15%. So before taxes, the results coming from the ordinary business is at EUR 251 million. So this is an increase of 12.7%. So we even exceeded the growth that was planned. The margin of 56.1% was a little lower for the year but during the year, we already saw a growth bigger than expected. As I already mentioned, dear shareholders, this success is a result of the implementation of our strategy because we are creating our diversified product offer, and we have been done so for some years now. And this growth, we've seen it in every business area. And I'd like to give you just some examples. The drivers of our business development are the segments, professional and private, which supports more than 90% of our group revenues. On one hand, we were able to increase the number of customers and 3.3% in the professional segment and then 49.1% in the private segment. On the other hand, we have a very high demand with regard to the ImmoScout24 products, and this refers to memberships, private and commercial paper ad listings, private -- other private memberships, so people looking for real estate objects. So within Professional segment, the subscription revenues grew 10%, up to EUR 260.1 million, the ARPU. So the revenue per customer grew 6.8%. Within segment Private, including platform Vermietet.de, the subscription revenues grew 52.4%, up to EUR 60.1 million, especially due to the new customers for the product, MieterPlus. The ARPU grew 2.2% up to EUR 16.50. This reflects not only the situation on the real estate market, but also the high value that ImmoScout products supports to our customers. The following picture emerges from the overview of the segment. Sales in the Professional segment increased by 10.8% to EUR 291.2 million. As expected, the segment's ordinary operating EBITDA margin fell from 64.3% in the previous year to 60.5%. This reflects the growth investments made in 2022, for example, in the Leads business. In the Private segment, there was a strong increase in sales of 28.5% to EUR 121.5 million. In addition to subscription sales, the 23.6% increase in paper ad sales of EUR 42.7 million also contributed to this. The ordinary operating EBITDA in the Private segment increased significantly from 45.6% to 51.6% despite the continued growth investments in Vermietet.de. This results from the economies of scale and the Plus product subscription business and the growth of the highly profitable paper ad business. Our third segment, Media & Other, was also able to increase sales by 9.7% -- was able to increase sales by 9.7% to EUR 34.8 million. The ordinary operating EBITDA margin improved slightly from 34.3% to 34.9%. I already presented the resulting group figures to you. This allows me to briefly comment on the financial development of Scout24 in the first quarter of the current financial year where we were able to continue the positive development of the past financial year. At group level, we achieved revenue growth of 13.0% and ordinary operating EBITDA growth of 16.3%. The ordinary operating EBITDA margin was 56.0%, which is up 1.6 percentage points from the first quarter of 2022. This underlines our strategy of operating leverage and our strong focus on profitability. After the investment year 2022, these developments primarily reflect a calming down on the cost side. In the Professional segment, we saw continued strong momentum in subscription revenues. These increased by 10.7% to EUR 70.8 million despite the currently challenging market situation for agents, we were able to also record a continuous increase in agent customers of 4.1% in a quarterly comparison in this quarter. The segment growth was therefore driven by the acquisition of new customers. The strong demand for memberships for more marketing power, and increased paper ad sales. On the other hand, there is a weaker business with additional products such as seller and mortgage leads. Against this background, the ARPU in the Professional segment improved by 6.3% to EUR 1,088. Our Private segment was also characterized in this quarter by strong market-related demand for Plus subscriptions. Overall, sales in this area increased by 23.6% to EUR 17 million. Here, the record demand for Plus products with a subscription growth of 20.6% to 342,037 subscribers and the strong increase in paper ad bookings were the main growth drivers. ARPU with Private customers increased by 2.5% to EUR 16.60. Revenue in the Media & Other segment increased by 7.9%. Also for the first quarter, let's take a quick look at our segments, which continue to develop positively. I already gave -- explained the details. So let me give you a brief outlook for the rest of 2023. Dear shareholders, the following can be said overall after the first few months of the financial year. The current developments in the German real estate market continue to have a positive effect on Scout24 product demand and sales development. The relevance of the ImmoScout24 platform and the marketing capacities of the product range have gained an importance in the current market environment. Despite the ongoing difficult macroeconomic environment, we assume that the growth momentum shown by the Scout24 Group will continue in the financial year 2023. Accordingly, we continue to expect double-digit growth rates in sales and ordinary operating EBITDA and plan to achieve Group revenue growth of 12% and consolidated ordinary operating EBITDA growth of 13% in the financial year 2023. Overall, the main focus is on increasing the Group's ordinary operating EBITDA and the associated margin, which I can explain to you even more clearly with the following slide. Back to 2022. Dear shareholders, the financial year 2022 was largely an investment year that shape the development of cost and earnings. Investments that are necessary so that we can continue to offer the products that actually make the difference in the future. As planned, we reversed the development over the course of the year and again achieved a positive operating leverage at the end of the year. At the beginning of the year, we still have a gap of more than 8.5 percentage points between sales and earnings growth. This closed almost completely already in the third quarter and then opened up again in the fourth quarter to the other earnings-oriented side. The mirror image or rather the synthesis of these trends can be seen in the ordinary operating EBITDA margin initially falling sharply, almost unchanged in the third quarter; and then finally, rising again in the fourth quarter. What can be said is that we have returned to the path of profitable growth, which we will continue in the financial year 2023 after we invested in 2022. Ladies and gentlemen, I've already mentioned that the development of operating costs got better over the course of the year, but was still above the revenue trend for the financial year 2022. We see the most important items listed here. Own work capitalized increased by 8% in the financial year '22. This increase results from IT and product developments for innovations and optimizations that support our future growth strategy. This primarily affects the further development of the landlord platform. Personnel costs increased by 11.7%. This is mainly due to increases in personnel with Vermietet.de as well as sales commissions and regular salary increases. The number of employees in the Scout24 Group was 960 at the end of 2022, which is 5.1% more than in the previous year. Our marketing costs increased by 39.4% year-on-year. The main reasons for this were the planned investments in our growth drivers, including the leads business. A TV campaign launched in the third quarter of 2022 and other online marketing measures. IT costs increased by 18.4% in the financial year 2022, which can be attributed to the integration of Vermietet.de and higher cloud-based web services. And the lateral increased as a result of currency effects and increased data processing. Purchasing costs increased accordingly by 7.7%, primarily due to the credit check integrated into the high demand Plus products. Furthermore, the purchasing costs for owner and financing leads have also increased. Other operating costs increased by 10.4%. This is mainly due to increased external personnel costs. Overall, this resulted in an increase in operating costs of 16.8% to EUR 225.1 million. The already named EBITDA from ordinary activities of EUR 251.1 million results from sales, own work capitalized and operating costs. For you as shareholders, probably more important is what does the whole thing look like in terms of per share. Nonoperating effects, which we include, in particular, the costs in the context of M&A activities, including post-merger integration as well as personnel costs from share-based payments and costs and connection with changes in the organizational structure were slightly lower at EUR 20.5 million in the financial year 2022, a positive effect at lower share-based payments and M&A activities. Reported EBITDA, therefore, even improved by 14.8% to EUR 230.6 million in 2022. Depreciation and amortization decreased by EUR 20.8 million or 33% to EUR 42.3 million. This is mainly due to the fact that the ImmoScout24 customer base was no longer written off. The financial results deteriorated significantly compared to the previous year to a negative EUR 14 million. This is mainly due to the management of our liquidity, which, for the first time, achieved a negative yield due to declining price developments on the stock and interest markets. Due to the liquidation of the Special Securities Fund in June 2022, these financial expenses have been realized. In addition, we had slightly higher income tax, but we were still able to increase net income by 36.4% to EUR 123.5 million. On the way to earnings per share, there is another positive effect, namely the reduction in the number of shares due to our continued share buybacks. As a result, the weighted average number of shares fell again last year by 11.6% to 77.8 million shares. On this basis, earnings per share for the financial year 2022 are at EUR 1.59 and adjusted this results in EUR 1.91, which is 25.7% above the previous year's figure. So once again, a very favorable development for our shareholders, which also forms the basis for our dividend proposal. The proposed dividend of EUR 1 per share for the financial year 2022 is again at the upper end of our defined dividend policy and corresponds to an attractive growth of 17.6% year-on-year. As I said, in the financial year 2022, we continued our share buybacks. We bought back shares with a volume of EUR 483.1 million. Overall, 3,400,000 Scout24 shares were canceled and the share capital was accordingly reduced. Overall, since the sale of AutoScout24, we have returned around EUR 2 billion or 72% of the AutoScout purchase price to our shareholders through buybacks. Including the debt repayment in connection with the purchase price payment, the repayment rate is even at 95%. And the share buybacks will continue in the current financial year as well. On -- the Management Board of Scout24 actually decided with the approval of the Supervisory Board on 22nd of March 2023 to buy back treasury shares with a purchase price totaling up to EUR 100 million and one or more independent tranches via the stock exchange. Already on March 31, 2023, we started another buyback program with up to EUR 60 million. And by 9th June 2023 bought back a total of another 191,554 shares with a volume of EUR 10.9 million. With the completion of the current buyback program, which will run until 2nd February 2024 at the latest, the return rate should be at almost exactly 100%. So let me remind you, again, the net sales price for AutoScout24 was EUR 2.8 billion and the share buybacks served and still serve to distribute capital to our shareholders. In this context, I will briefly report to you on how we have made use of the authorizations granted by the last Annual General Meeting to acquire and use treasury shares. First, we bought back from July 1, 2022, to December 13 of the same year, 4,573,422 shares which corresponds to around 5.7% of the share capital at that time, with an equivalent value of [ EUR 2,424,796 ]. As part of the authorization to use treasury shares result 18,337 shares to the employees of our Group companies in September 2022 as part of an employee share program combined, with a discount of EUR 20 per share. In addition, in the middle of March 2023, we redeemed 5.2 million repurchased shares, thereby reducing the share capital. In the new program, since 31st of March, we have so far bought 12,454 shares, which corresponds to 0.14% of the current share capital with a value of EUR 10,991,000. The repurchase we place via the stock exchange and for legally permissible purposes. Details can be found on the company's website on this. In relation to the current share capital of 75 million shares, we have, therefore, bought back since the last year's Annual General Meeting, 6.2%. The existing authorization to acquire treasury shares has therefore already been largely used. For this reason, we are proposing in Item 8 on the agenda today that you vote on a new authorization to acquire and use treasury shares. A note on agenda Item 2, the appropriation of profits. As you can see in the table, the number of shares entitled to dividends has changed due to the purchase of treasury shares since the date of the evolution of the Annual General Meeting on the appropriation of the net profit. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board have therefore submitted a correspondingly modified proposal for a resolution on the appropriation of profits to the Annual General Meeting. This will continue to provide a dividend of EUR 1 per note per our shares entitled to a dividend as well as correspondingly adjusted amounts for the total amount of the dividend and the allocation to other revenue reserves. As already mentioned, we are pleased to be able to pay you an attractive dividend again this year. Our existing dividend policy provides for a payout of 30% to 50% of the adjusted net income. The proposed dividend of EUR 1 per share for the financial year 2022 is again at the upper end of our defined dividend policy and corresponds to an attractive growth of 17.6% year-on-year. And with that, I hand the floor over to Tobias Hartmann, who will now present our nonfinancial results to you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Dirk. I would now like to show you how we have developed in the various fields of sustainability in 2022. First, let me summarize what we mean by sustainability. We take a holistic view on sustainability and include environmental, social and good corporate governance issues in our sustainability strategy. When it comes to the environment, we focus on our responsibility for the climate and have had a climate strategy since 2020 to reduce the CO2 emissions that we generate as a company. In the social pillar, we combined 2 aspects. On the one hand, we are concerned with our social responsibility and the creation of diverse equal opportunities and inclusive working environment for our employees. On the other hand, we also position our social commitment to the outside world here. For example, we've been focusing on supporting homeless people for a number of years. The third pillar, governance is about anchoring sustainability and ethical standards in corporate management. In 2022, for example, we developed a new code of conduct for our suppliers and service providers to ensure human rights, environmental standards on our supply chain as well. We more over have new reporting structures for diversity and created those. All 3 dimensions, ESG are important when considering sustainability and work together. Now let's move on to some of the results we achieved in 2022. In the environmental area, we've been able to reduce our emissions since the base year 2018 by around 75%. While we still emitted around 6,000 tons of CO2 equivalents in 2018, it's now less than 1,500 tons. To achieve this significant reduction we have by the end of 2020, transferred all of our data centers to a cloud solution and switched most of our company car fleet to electric vehicles. Our trial policy no longer includes flight to destinations within 4.5 hours by rail. At all our locations in Germany and Austria, we use 100% green electricity. And our employees receive discounts for using local public transport or if necessary, a job bicycle. We've come a long way with these measures. The biggest levers for us as a digital company have thus been implemented. We have therefore set ourselves a new ambitious goal for 2022. We want to be net zero by 2025. That means we want to reduce all avoidable emissions. In concrete terms, this means that we want to cause 90% fewer emissions than in 2018. In the social area, we managed to increase the number of women in our tech organization from 17% to 28% within 2 years. In the total workforce, 43% of our employees are female. By 2025, we want to achieve gender parity between men and women throughout the company. In addition, the promotion of women in management positions remains a high priority for us. For example, this month, we started a coaching program for employees. In 2022, we have again invested in raising awareness of diversity, equality, inclusion in our teams. During a diversity week, our employees were able to find out about various aspects of diverse, inclusive and equal opportunities in the workplace. We also conducted an inclusion survey for the second time to better understand what barriers our employees encounter in the company and how we can break them down. You can find out more about this in our diversity and parity report, which we published in May of this year. A third highlight of our progress in sustainability is our improved ratings and sustainability rankings for the capital market. We are particularly proud of our first place in the renowned Sustainalytics rating. In the software and services peer group, we take second place compared to 230 other digital companies. Overall, Scout24 takes 42nd place in this rating out of 1,110 companies in the software and service sector. Hopefully, you can see that not only do we run our business. We also take our responsibility for the environment and our social commitment to and outside of the company very seriously. In summary, I would like to give you an overview of our key annual results. We have come a long way towards further expanding our diversified business model. Our 3-sided marketplace, just in this past year, proved to be very crisis-resistant. We remain the first place our customers and users go to, especially in challenging market situations. With tailor-made services, we make a real difference for all 3 target groups of our ecosystem. Therefore, the sales of Scout24 SE again increased double digits. Despite a challenging year 2022, we met our guidance at the upper end. We were also able to increase our margin and group profit again despite considerable investments in our products and in marketing. Our focus is, of course, also on the return for you, our shareholders. We were also able to increase it significantly again and hopefully have made a noticeable difference for you in this way. Last but not least, we have also improved our ecological footprint. We see ourselves as pioneers in all 3 ESG fields, environment, social commitment and good governance. This is reflected in top positions in the ESG ratings relevant to the capital market. At this point, I would like to expressly thank all employees of Scout24 and ImmoScout24 as well as our subsidiaries in the past year. Our teams did an excellent job. With their great dedication, their commitment and their creativity, they've made these good results possible. Thank you for your attention.

Dear Tobias, dear Dirk, many thanks for your very extensive and valued report. Our top 7, this is about our Supervisory Board proposing 2 new members. So after other members that left us before the mandate concluded, new elections were being head, Ms. Miteva and Ms. Ouffata will be chosen up until the end of the AGM, and we are deciding on their performance on the year 2023, up until the end '24. Ms. Miteva and Ms. Ouffata are today here, and they would like to present you themself. Ms. Miteva will begin. You have the floor.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A warm welcome to you. My name is Maya Miteva, and I am the chairwoman of the Management Board of Deutsche Real Estate AG. First of all, I would like to thank the Supervisory Board of Scout24 for the nomination and express my appreciation. A few words about my current position. Deutsche Real Estate AG, based in Berlin, is a listed company and manages assets of around EUR 500 million. Together with its subsidiaries, Deutsche Real Estate AG currently manages a total of 26 commercial properties throughout Germany. Our core business focuses on holding and managing a diversified portfolio of high-yield commercial real estate. These are located both in major German cities and in promising medium-sized centers. Let me briefly describe my professional career. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts USA, with the B.A. in Economics and German Studies, I started my career in 2000 at the Investment Bank Lazard Limited in Frankfurt where I specialized in M&A consulting in the real estate industry. In 2004, I switched to Evercore, which was back then Kuna & Co. KG, a newly founded M&A consultancy with a focus on the German real estate industry. In 2011, I became Head of Transactions at Arminius Group, a private equity fund focused on commercial real estate and real estate loans. From 2013 to 2015, I was Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance and transactions at the GAGFAH Group, which is now part of VONOVIA SE,thelargest housing company in Germany. From 2015 to 2019, I served as Chief Financial and Compliance Officer at Centerscape Group, a leading investor, developer, owner and manager of predominantly food-related retail properties in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In 2019, I was appointed to the Management Board of Summit Real Estate Group, a company with a real estate portfolio value at around EUR 3 billion and a focus on commercial and residential real estate investments in Germany, the U.S. and Israel. After successfully completing the development of activities in the U.S., in July of 2022, I moved within the group to the Management Board of Deutsche Real Estate AG. As you can see, I have over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry and have extensive expertise in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, entering new markets and digitalization. As a manager and Board member, I have dealt intensively with compliance, law and regulation. In addition, I've been driving technological advances in the real estate industry through my angel investments over the past 8 years. As a co-founder of the HAPPY IMMO Club initiative, I am particularly committed to the financial education of women in Germany in the field of real estate. The HAPPY IMMO Club organizes seminars and workshops to support women in investing in real estate and combating poverty in old age. I would like to contribute my experience to the Supervisory Board of Scout24 SE. Scout24 has written an impressive growth story in recent years. I'm sure that thanks to my experience and expertise, I can contribute to continuing the success story of Scout24 SE. In particular, I can provide impetus for product development in cooperation with business and private customers because I know the business from both perspectives. In addition, I would like to contribute my extensive wealth of experience in the area of mergers and acquisitions if suitable and economically attractive opportunities arise. It would therefore be my pleasure, dear shareholders to represent your interest on the Supervisory Board of Scout24 SE, and I ask for your support. Thank you very much.

Many thanks, Ms. Miteva, I pass the floor to Ms. Ouffata. Ms. Ouffata?

Yes. Dear ladies and gentlemen, it's also a big pleasure for me to be able to present myself. I'd also like to say thank you to the Supervisory Board for your trust. And thank you for giving me the permission to be a candidate. My name is Sohaila Ouffata, and I'm the Managing Director of the platform at BMW and Ventures GmbH, they are the risk capital front within the BMW Group. Our mandate is about investing in start-ups, and we invest from 2 active funds with a volume of EUR 800 million. We invest into sustainable transformation of our industry and other industries. We invest into start apps, we manage them. This is the so-called exit, meaning that the companies are being sold, I'll go into the stock market. Since 2017. I'm the Managing Director of the European entity and I'm also part of the global team. I'm Director of the platform, meaning that I'm responsible for the growth strategies for over more than 6 portfolios, I collaborate in the definition and I implement them. Before I started working at BMW, my focus was on the digital business models and especially I worked on the market introduction of digital market models. In 2014, I was working at Sky, Germany, introducing digital market offers. I did this, especially together with digital partners, for instance, Cougar. So this activity was based on my experience, I was able to gather a Telefonica Germany during the previous years. I had been working business development and innovation in '20 -- from an 2010 to 2014. The focus, as my role as senior manager was within M&A transactions to really leverage the innovation potential of the startups and after buying those companies to use the technological platforms that have been purchased integrate them into the IT infrastructure of Telefonica Group. On the basis of the newly gained competencies, we were able to develop digital products and we introduced them into the market. I was leading big software teams, and I introduced global products within the scope of my task. And between 2007 and 2010, I was a business adviser at -- and I was working on the technological transformation for big international companies. My academic background, I studied media management, which is a hybrid coming from technology, commercial aspects and design. As you can see, technology and my enthusiasm for technology is what characterizes myself. In addition, let me say that I have a big passion for the implement -- I have a big passion for African start apps, investing through my own initiatives. Start-ups in all Africa, so we can achieve more venture capital for the African market. Furthermore, I am part of the Talent Group, which is an advisory company in Europe focused on the technology industry, and I'm also a member of MyCollective, which is an international leader for development. As you can see, my competences within venture capital, digital business models are clearly defined as such, and I'm convinced this is a good combination for Scout24. And in addition, I love technology, and I know a lot about the strategic positioning within the new market situation. And I also have operative experiences and the case of digital business models. And this goes well with the history of growth, you have love to be a part of the Supervisory Board on the basis of my combination, technology and digital economy, good governance and sustainability as well as social responsibility, I'd like to contribute with my value. Dear shareholders, may you give me your trust, supporting me with this task. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Ms. Ouffata. Ms. Miteva and Ms. Ouffata already said that in order for them to be elected they take on the mandate as a member of the Supervisory Board. Thank you so much for your attention so far. Any resolutions on the points of the agenda. I'll announce them separately before we proceed to the voting. Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear followers in the public stream on the internet. I'd like to tell you that this is the start -- this is the end of the public part to it. Thank you so much for your attention and for your interest. Let me say goodbye.