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Affiliate Monitor Company by company Q4 results analysis
“ What will have dismayed investors – and likely contributed to the fall of Daly – was the poor performance from the North American operations ” was due in part to a shift from CPAs to revenue share but also to competition within the North American affiliate space and to tough comparables from the same period the year previous .
Daly made the point that the company was “ happy ” with how the few state launches proceeded in 2023 . “ Our business has historically been focused on launches ,” he said . “ There are many launches still ahead for North America with many states proposing bills for sports betting and igaming , but not likely any to make it live in 2024 beyond the two states already in the works .”
He noted that sports betting in North Carolina ( which finally got underway at the start of March ) would be “ much more significant ” than the launches at the end of 2023 . However , he warned that it would still likely be a lesser state than the launches this time last year of Ohio and Massachusetts .
“ Catena Media expects to bring our launch expertise to the North Carolina launch and expect a nice blend of CPA and revenue share from the event ,” he said . “ We are not relying on state launches to move the needle for us this year . The drivers for Catena Media to return to growth in the second half of this year and sustainably grow beyond that are elements in our control .”
MONEY IN THE BANK
At least the cash position for Catena is solid enough . The total brought in from its recent sales of assets came to € 76m . Its total debt stands at € 18.4m and the cash balance at the end of the year stood at € 38.5m with some of the proceeds from the asset sales yet to come . The company also has an outstanding bond of which it has repaid half to leave it with € 27.5m outstanding . The maturity of that bond has been extended to June 2025 in line with the expected date for receipt of outstanding income from the asset sales .
The company also updated its financial targets for this year . It said in the earnings release it expects double-digit organic growth in both revenue and EBITDA terms for the years 2025 and 2026 . For 2024 , adjusted EBITDA will be in the range of € 20m- € 30m .
Daly said the targets reflect the “ direction to recruit a higher number of new users under revenue share contracts and also in response to changing market conditions .” iGB Affiliate Monitor