Rocket Internet reports positive trading at selected companies

Rocket Internet SE, confirming its pre-released first quarter result said that the company’s revenues reached 20 million euros and a consolidated loss of 162 million euros compared to 140 million euros of profit in the same quarter of 2019, representing minus 1.18 euros earnings per share. The company said, Rocket Internet’s selected companies operationally developed well in the first quarter, despite the trading performance in March 2020 being negatively impacted by Covid-19.

Commenting on the results, Oliver Samwer, founder and CEO of Rocket Internet said in a statement: “Overall, Covid-19 has introduced a lot of uncertainty in our network of companies and valuations of many of our participations as well as operating performance have been negatively impacted. We expect this to endure in the short- and medium-term. Despite the imminent pain, I believe that the pandemic will accelerate the shift from offline to online in many sectors, once the economy has recovered.”

Highlights of Rocket Internet’s Q1 performance

Global Fashion Group grew group revenue to 271 million euros, which represents an 8 percent growth on a constant currency basis and increased the marketplace share of net merchandise value (NMV) transacted over the platform, which accounted for 25 percent in Q1 2020. Active customers increased by 15.5 percent to 13.3 million, with NMV per active customer up by 3.9 percent to 136 euros. The gross margin for the quarter was 40.6 percent, up 3 percentage points compared to Q1 2019 and the adjusted EBITDA margin was -8.3 percent, an improvement of 1.5 percentage points year-on-year.

Home24, the company added, grew revenue to 103 million euros, a 14 percent increase on a constant currency basis. Despite noticeable adverse effects caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, revenues in Europe increased by more than 11 percent to 79 million euros, while in Brazil, the company further said, strong revenue growth of the past few quarters continued and reached 21 percent in Q1 2020 on a constant currency basis. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved to negative 3 percent compared to negative 16 percent in the first quarter of 2019.

As of April 30, 2020, Rocket Internet had an available net cash position of 1.9 billion euros.

Picture:Facebook/Zalora