Baltic Classifieds Group LON: BCG reported 7% growth in both revenue and EBITDA for its 2026 financial year, with management pointing to resilient marketplace positions, strong real estate performance and continued pricing initiatives despite headwinds in Estonia’s automotive market.
Chief Executive Justinas Šimkus said the company delivered “a solid financial result” in a challenging market, with revenue rising to EUR 88.5 million and EBITDA increasing to EUR 68.6 million. The company maintained an EBITDA margin of 78%, which management described as industry-leading.
Šimkus said the most significant pressure came from the Auto24 business line, where the introduction of a new car tax in Estonia reduced listing volumes. Excluding that one-off effect, he said the rest of the group delivered double-digit growth.
Real Estate Leads Growth Across Verticals
Chief Financial Officer Lina Mačienė said real estate, which represented 29% of group revenue, was again the strongest-performing business line. Revenue in the segment grew 17% to EUR 26 million, with business-to-consumer revenue up 20% and consumer-to-consumer revenue up 12%.
Chief Operating Officer Artūras Mizeras said the monthly number of real estate brokers grew 3%, reaching a record 5,300 clients, driven mainly by smaller brokers moving from C2C to B2C customer status. B2C average revenue per user rose 16% to EUR 252, supported by pricing and packaging changes introduced in the autumn.
Automotive revenue was flat at EUR 31.5 million, representing 36% of group revenue. Mačienė said B2C automotive revenue grew 11%, but that was offset by a 9% decline in C2C revenue. Mizeras said C2C listed ads in autos fell 25% and active ads declined 26%, primarily because of the Estonian car tax and severe winter weather. He said combined car transactions across the company’s markets fell 11%, while average car prices rose 2%.
Jobs and services revenue grew 9% to EUR 17.4 million, with B2C and C2C each growing 9%. Generalist revenue grew 3% to EUR 13.6 million, supported by a 23% yield improvement on Skelbiu, the group’s largest generalist platform.
Costs Rise, Profitability Remains Stable
Mačienė said people costs remained the company’s largest operating expense, accounting for about 14% of revenue and nearly 65% of operating costs before depreciation and amortization. People costs rose 2% to EUR 12.8 million, reflecting higher headcount and salary reviews broadly in line with Baltic wage inflation, offset by lower performance share plan costs.
Total operating costs excluding depreciation and amortization increased 8% to EUR 19.9 million. Depreciation and amortization fell 24% to EUR 8.3 million, driven mainly by lower amortization of acquired intangibles. As a result, operating profit rose faster than EBITDA, increasing 13% to EUR 60.4 million.
Profit before tax rose 15% to EUR 58.6 million, while adjusted net income increased 7% to EUR 58.1 million. Mačienė said adjusted basic earnings per share rose 9% to EUR 0.123, while basic EPS rose 16% to EUR 0.108, helped by a lower weighted average share count following buybacks.
Buybacks Accelerate as Debt Increases
Management emphasized capital returns as a major theme. Šimkus said that by mid-June 2026, the company had repurchased more than 10% of its issued share capital. Mačienė said the company had repurchased and canceled 7.6% of issued share capital by year-end, rising to 10% by mid-June.
The company ended the year with net debt of EUR 46.2 million, equivalent to 0.7 times EBITDA, compared with 0.1 times at the prior year-end. Mačienė said BCG refinanced its debt facilities in January 2026, securing a EUR 125 million term loan facility and a EUR 20 million revolving credit facility. By the financial year-end, EUR 73 million had been drawn under the new term loan, and an additional EUR 45 million had been drawn since April to continue the buyback program.
The board recommended a final ordinary dividend of EUR 0.028 per share and a special dividend of EUR 0.003 per share, together making EUR 0.031 per share. Total dividends in respect of financial year 2026 would amount to EUR 0.044 per share, up 16% from the prior year, according to Mačienė.
Mačienė said the board had adopted a progressive ordinary dividend policy under which dividends are expected to grow broadly in line with adjusted net income, while preserving flexibility for share buybacks, M&A and other capital allocation opportunities.
AI, Data Products and Market Position
Šimkus said BCG’s leadership position remained “exceptionally strong” across major marketplaces, with traffic levels ranging from five to more than 60 times those of the nearest competitors. He also said traffic from generative AI platforms remained negligible, while direct traffic continued to grow.
Mizeras said the company’s AI strategy focuses on practical tools that reduce user friction and improve marketplace efficiency. He highlighted AI-powered CV creation tools at CVbankas, AI synonym matching for job search, AI-powered image moderation on Skelbiu and automated listing creation tools for automotive platforms Autoplius and Auto24.
In real estate, the company introduced new service packages for developers on KV.ee and launched a “Request a Viewing” lead-generation feature on Aruodas. BCG also announced the acquisition of Cenu Banka, a Latvian real estate data and market analysis platform, following last year’s acquisition of Untu in Lithuania. Mizeras said Cenu Banka strengthens the company’s proprietary data set and provides a foundation for future market intelligence features.
During the analyst question-and-answer session, management said AI-related costs were expected to reach about EUR 1 million per year in the near term, with most of that already reflected in people costs. Šimkus said the company viewed data products as a strategic advantage and expected them to be profitable, though likely at lower margins than marketplace products.
2027 Outlook Calls for Around 10% Revenue Growth
Looking ahead, Šimkus said BCG expects revenue growth of around 10% in 2027, with growth slower in the first half and faster in the second half. He said real estate, automotive and jobs are expected to be the main contributors, while the generalist business is expected to remain broadly flat.
Šimkus said the outlook reflects confidence in the company’s product pipeline and planned pricing and packaging changes, but also caution around inventory trends. He said management expects the full-year margin to be in line with previous medium-term guidance in the mid-70s.
In response to analyst questions, Šimkus said the company remains confident in pricing and packaging actions under its control, while acknowledging inventory headwinds in real estate and parts of automotive. He said Estonia’s automotive market had recovered about 70% to 80% of the expected recovery level following the car tax disruption, but management does not expect the market to fully return to prior levels, particularly for cheaper cars.
On competition, Šimkus said Autoplius currently has a five-times traffic lead over Autogidas in Lithuania, down from six times a year ago but still above the roughly three-times lead at the time of BCG’s IPO. Mizeras said Skelbiu continues to maintain strong content and traffic despite competition in consumer categories, including from Vinted, and noted that a “buy now” transactional feature for Skelbiu was in the final stages of development.
About Baltic Classifieds Group LON: BCG
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) is the leading online classifieds group in the Baltics, which owns and operates twelve leading vertical and generalist online classifieds portals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. BCG's online classifieds portfolio comprises four business lines – automotive, real estate, jobs & services and generalist. The portals are accessible through the websites of the Group's various brands via desktop and mobile.
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