Opera Announced Third Quarter Financial Results and Initiation of Share Repurchase Program

Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA) announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018 with the company reporting revenues of US$44.7 million.

Crucially, the company has initiated a share repurchase program where its board of directors had approved a corporate share repurchase program of up to US$1.5 million.

As quoted in the press release:

Third quarter 2018 financial highlights

• Operating revenue reached $44.7 million, a year-over-year increase of 17.4%, or 40.1% when excluding the “technology licensing and other” revenue category.
• Net income was $9.7 million, representing a net margin of 21.8%, compared to a net income of $7.5 million in the third quarter of 2017, or a net margin of 19.8%.
• Adjusted EBITDA¹ was $16.5 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 36.9%, compared to $14.5 million in the third quarter of 2017, or an adjusted net margin of 38.1%.
• Adjusted net income¹ was $12.5 million, representing an adjusted net margin of 28.0%. Adjusted net income per ADS was $0.12. Adjusted net income was $11.7 million in the third quarter of 2017, or an adjusted net margin of 30.8%.

Third quarter 2017 results included $5.5 million of other income associated with the divestment of certain intellectual property and $6.4 million of licensing revenue associated with a related technology license agreement. As a result, relative to full-year 2017 values, the third quarter of 2017 represented 104% of operating profit and 124% of net income, as well as 42% of adjusted EBITDA and 66% of adjusted net income.

Third quarter 2018 user base highlights

• Opera News average Monthly Active Users (“ MAUs”) was 121.4 million (+209.2% year-over-year).
• The dedicated Opera News app, launched in January 2018, reached 17.4 million average MAUs.
• Total smartphone MAUs reached an average 195.4 million (+14.0% year-over-year).
• Total PC MAUs reached an average 58.4 million (+18.3% year-over-year).

“We are excited to report another record quarter for both revenue and profits, as well as all-time highs for both smartphone and PC users,” Mr. Yahui Zhou, Opera’s Chairman and CEO, stated. “We are successfully executing on our strategy to build new and engaging services and offerings on top of our existing assets. We continue to focus our growth efforts on Africa, where our strong technology platform positions us on an attractive trajectory on top of compelling macro trends.”

Share repurchase program

Opera today announced that its board of directors has approved a corporate share repurchase program of up to 1.5 million ADSs to be purchased on the open market, commencing on Monday, November 12, 2018.

“Since our IPO, we have observed a decline in our share price, which in our view is not related to the performance of our business nor the prospects for our company”, said Mr. Jacobsen. “As a result, our board of directors has decided to initiate a share repurchase program, underscoring our commitment to delivering returns for our shareholders.”

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