Opera Reports Both Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA Above Guidance in its Second Quarter 2023 Results

10th consecutive quarter of 20+% revenue growth, exceeding the high end of previously issued guidance on both revenue and adjusted EBITDA

Q2 revenue grew 21% year-over-year, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22%

Company released Opera One, the latest version of Opera's flagship browser, incorporating new functionality and a redesigned experience

Opera introduced 'Aria', a fully integrated browser AI

Company announced a recurring semi-annual dividend of $0.40 per ADS ($0.80 annualized)

Company raises both revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2023

OSLO, Norway, Aug. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Opera Limited (NASDAQ: OPRA), one of the world's major browser developers and a leading internet consumer brand, announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023.

Second Quarter and first half 2023 Financial Highlights (in thousands, except percentages and per share amounts, unaudited)

"The second quarter of 2023 was our 10th consecutive quarter of revenue growth in excess of 20%, fueled by our strong product lineup and continued scaling among high-value users. Revenue outperformance and ongoing cost discipline translated into profits also exceeding our expectations," said co-CEO Lin Song.

"During the quarter we were able to deliver several product updates that point to continued innovation and our ability to quickly iterate. We were able to roll out an entirely new generation of our flagship desktop browser, Opera One, and introduce the world to 'Aria', our unique AI chat bot that is currently available to users of Opera for Android, Opera for iOS, and Opera One. As anticipated, Aria users are displaying increased engagement with the Opera browser, and we remain very excited about the continuation of this roll-out across our user base," continued Mr. Song.

"In particular, the much anticipated roll-out of Aria to Opera GX is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023. While still early days, we believe that the increased engagement we are already seeing will become an additional driver in our ability to grow monetization as more and more of our users upgrade to newer versions of our browsers and take advantage of this integrated service," finished Mr. Song.

Second Quarter and Recent Business Highlights

• Advertising revenue grew 25% year-over-year, and now constitutes 57% of total revenue. This revenue category was driven by Opera Ads, which continues to exceed expectations, and ongoing monetization growth for mobile and GX browsers.
• Search revenue grew 15% year-over-year. The growth in search revenue continues to be driven by our focus on users with the highest monetization potential in western markets.
• Opera had 316 million monthly active users (MAUs) in the second quarter of 2023, down slightly versus the first quarter following our continued strategy of focusing on higher monetizing users. The user base in Western Europe and North America accounted for 15% of our total footprint.
• In the second quarter of 2023, annualized ARPU was $1.17, an increase of 25% versus the second quarter of 2022.
• The Opera GX gaming browser had 23.7 million monthly active users across PC and mobile in the quarter, up 9% from 21.7 million in the first quarter.
• Opera One, our new flagship browser was made available to all desktop users.
• Aria, Opera's AI chat bot, was added to Opera One and Opera for Android during the quarter and is now also available on Opera for iOS.
• In June 2023, Opera announced an ongoing dividend of $0.80 per ADS per annum to be paid semi-annually. The first record date was in June, with payment in July.
• At the end of the second quarter, our cash position was $98 million, up $13 million relative to our cash position of $85 million at the start of the quarter. In addition to our cash balance, we have a combined $196 million of assets held for sale and receivables on our balance sheet, reflecting our 9.5% stake in OPay and remaining receivables from the sale of Star X in 2022.

Business Outlook

"The second quarter of 2023 continued the trend of revenue and EBITDA exceeding guidance, and as a result we are once again raising our full year guidance," said Frode Jacobsen, CFO.

"Furthermore, our healthy cash flow and strong balance sheet enabled us to become a recurring dividend payer in the quarter, a milestone I am incredibly proud of," concluded Mr. Jacobsen.

For the full year of 2023, Opera is raising the previously issued guidance of revenue to be $380 million to $390 million, up from $373 million to 390 million. We guide adjusted EBITDA to be between $80 million and $84 million, or a 21% margin at the midpoints, up from $77 million to $83 million.

For the third quarter of 2023, Opera expects revenue of $97 million to $100 million, representing 15% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $18.5 million and $20.5 million, representing a 20% margin at the midpoint.

Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results

All comparisons in this section are relative to the second quarter of 2022 unless otherwise stated.

Revenue increased by 21% to $94.1 million.

• Advertising revenue increased by 25% to $53.8 million.
• Search revenue increased by 15% to $38.9 million.
• Technology licensing and other revenue was $1.5 million.

Operating expenses increased by 22% to $81.7 million.

• Combined technology and platform fees, content cost and cost of inventory sold were $22.6 million, or 24% of revenue.
• Personnel expenses, including share-based remuneration, were $21.4 million. This expense consists of cash-based compensation expense of $16.7 million, a 5% decrease year-over-year, and share-based remuneration expense of $4.6 million. Share-based remuneration includes grants made by Opera's majority shareholder, which represents an expense in the P&L even though Opera has no obligation in connection with these grants, and they do not represent dilution for Opera's shareholders.
• Marketing and distribution expenses were $27.0 million, an increase of 7%.
• Depreciation and amortization expenses were $3.4 million, a 2% decrease.
• All other operating expenses were $7.4 million, a 5% increase.

Operating profit was $12.5 million, a 13% margin, compared to an operating profit of $11.2 million and a margin of 14% in the second quarter of 2022.

Net finance income was $2.2 million, inclusive of interest income on bank deposits and time-value changes of our Star X receivable, compared to a net finance expense of $13.3 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Income tax expense was $1.1 million, compared to $3.7 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Net income was $13.5 million, an 14% margin. This compared to a net loss of $5.8 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Basic earnings per ADS was $0.15 in the second quarter of 2023, compared to a net loss per ADS of $0.05 in the second quarter of 2022. In the second quarter of 2023, the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding was 179.8 million, corresponding to 89.9 million ADSs.

Adjusted EBITDA was $20.5 million, representing a 22% margin, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $16.6 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Free cash flow from operations was $13.2 million, compared to a net cash outflow of $4.0 million in the second quarter of 2022.

We have posted Opera's unaudited financial results by quarter since 2019 at https://investor.opera.com/financial-information/quarterly-results.

Conference Call

Opera's management will host a conference call to discuss the second quarter 2023 financial results on Thursday, August 24th at 8:00 am Eastern Time (EDT). Listeners may access the call by dialing the following numbers:

United States: +1 800-895-3361
China: +10-800-714-1507 or +10-800-140-1382
Hong Kong: +80-090-1494
Norway: +47 80-01-3780
United Kingdom: +44 0-808-101-1183
International: +1 785-424-1062
Confirmation Code: OPRAQ223

A live webcast of the conference call will be posted at https://investor.opera.com.

We will be tweeting highlights from our prepared remarks. Please follow along on Twitter/X, @InvestorOpera.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

We collect and analyze operating and financial data to evaluate the health of our business and assess our performance. In addition to revenue, net income (loss), operating profit (loss), and other financial measures under IFRS, we use adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow from operations, which are described below, to evaluate our business. We use these non-IFRS financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. While these non-IFRS financial measures should not be considered substitutes for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS, we believe that these measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of recurring core business operating results.

We believe these non-IFRS financial measures are useful to investors both because they allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision-making and because they are used by our institutional investors and the analyst community to help them analyze the health of our business. Accordingly, we believe that these non-IFRS financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management team and board of directors. Our calculation of these non-IFRS financial measures may differ from similarly-titled non-IFRS measures, if any, reported by our peers.

We define adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) excluding (i) profit (loss) from discontinued operations, (ii) income tax (expense) benefit, (iii) net finance income (expense), (iv) share of net income (loss) of equity-accounted investees, (v) impairment of equity-accounted investees, (vi) fair value gain (loss) on investments, (vii) depreciation and amortization, (viii) impairment of non-financial assets, (ix) share-based remuneration, including related social security costs, (x) non-recurring expenses, and (xi) other operating income.

We define free cash flow from operations as net cash flows from (used in) operating activities less (i) purchases of fixed and intangible assets, (ii) development expenditure and (iii) payment of lease liabilities.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature. These statements, including statements relating to the Company's future financial and operating results, are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as "will," "may," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "seek," "plan," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," "target," "guidance," "is/are likely to," "future" and similar statements. Among other things, management's quotations and the Business outlook section contain forward-looking statements. The Company may also make forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the Company and the industry in which it operates. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to: the duration and development of the conflict in Ukraine and related economic sanctions, as well as resulting changes in consumer behaviors; the outcome of regulatory processes or litigation; the Company and its goals and strategies; expected development and launch, and market acceptance, of products and services; Company's expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its brands, platforms and services; Company's expectations regarding growth in its user base, user retention and level of engagement; Company's ability to attract, retain and monetize users; Company's ability to continue to develop new technologies, products and services and/or upgrade its existing technologies, products and services; quarterly variations in Company's operating results caused by factors beyond its control; and global macroeconomic conditions and their potential impact in the markets in which the Company has business. All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof and is based on assumptions that the Company believes to be reasonable as of this date, and it undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that its expectations will turn out to be correct, and investors are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties faced by Opera is included in the Company's filings with the SEC, including its annual reports on Form 20-F.

About Opera

Opera is a web innovator building on more than 25 years of innovation that started with the Opera web browser. While Opera is leveraging its brand and engaged user base in order to grow and develop new products and services for people who seek a better internet experience, Opera's PC and mobile web browsers, content discovery platform Opera News, and apps dedicated to gaming, Web3 and e-commerce are already the trusted choices of hundreds of millions of active and engaged users. Opera is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "OPRA". Download and access Opera's products and services from www.opera.com.

Learn more about Opera at https://investor.opera.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @InvestorOpera.

SOURCE Opera Limited