New Work SE preliminary financial results for 2023: Largest segment HR Solutions & Talent Access grows by 5 per cent amid challenging market conditions

• XING continues transformation to become a jobs network
• kununu has its best-ever year
• Pro forma EBITDA guidance of €55-65 million for 2024 confirmed
   

Hamburg, 27 February 2024 – New Work SE, the parent company of jobs network XING and employer review platform kununu, today presented its preliminary, unaudited financial figures for the fiscal year 2023. Total pro forma revenues came in at €305.6 million (FY 2022: €313.4 million). Pro forma EBITDA amounted to €97.1 million (FY 2022: €104.1 million) and was therefore within the guidance of € 92-100 million updated in May 2023. Pro forma consolidated profit totalled €38.8 million (FY 2022: €47.3 million).

The largest segment, HR Solutions & Talent Access, increased by 5 per cent to €218.6 million (FY 2022: €208.2 million). As a result, the company’s main business segment achieved its highest-ever revenues amid a difficult market environment. Meanwhile, B2C business declined by a planned 17 per cent to €73.4 million (FY 2022: €88.8 million) due to the strategic repositioning and transformation of XING into a jobs network. Consequently, monetisation efforts are focussed on recruiting solutions. Revenues in the B2B Marketing Solutions segment also fell by 17 per cent to €13.6 million, compared to the previous year's figure of €16.4 million. 

New Work SE CEO Petra von Strombeck said: "We’ve held our ground in a challenging market and are happy to continue growing in our core business, even during a recession. The transformation of XING into a jobs network is well under way and making good progress. However, our repositioning continues to weigh on our business. For kununu, 2023 was the company’s best-ever year, increasing platform sessions to more than 90 million in 2023 which is a rise of 16 per cent over the previous year. In addition, 2023 saw 14 per cent more company profile visits, along with a 28 per cent increase in Workplace Insights.

Alongside the positive developments in kununu’s B2C business, over the past months, the brand has increased its value for B2B customers. After introducing job ads to the platform, AI has been integrated to make the platform even more useful to users. Thanks to the kununu Review Summariser, companies can now quickly gauge the mood among their employees and take specific action.

The XING jobs network, with more than 22 million members, was able to increase its recruiter reply rate from potential candidates by almost 50 per cent compared to the previous year. At the start of 2024, XING launched its largest-ever marketing campaign to further advance the brand’s new positioning. In addition, the Baller League, a new football concept, kicked off with XING as a founding partner and main sponsor. The goal of this sponsorship is to support XING’s repositioning, emotionalise the brand and engage with a younger target audience. Petra von Strombeck continued: "Repositioning a 20-year-old internet brand takes time. Even during the current recession, we continue to invest in XING’s transformation of and are pleased to see that our activities are already starting to pay off." In recent months, XING has also made great efforts to improve job ad performance. As a result, the number of applications resulting from paid XING job ads has increased by 179 per cent. Focussing on jobs is not only central to XING’s repositioning, but now also features prominently on the homepage thanks to a redesigned menu navigation, resulting in some 140 per cent more Jobs visits.

New Work SE’s restructuring process is also proceeding as planned. As reported in January, the company has decided to focus on the two main brands and marketplaces, XING and kununu. "Over the last few months, we analysed our internal processes in detail and identified potential synergies," Petra von Strombeck said. "All these measures will help us to achieve our goal of becoming the number one recruiting partner by winning talent, so I can confirm our 2024 guidance communicated in January with a pro forma EBITDA of €55-65 million."

About New Work SE
The New Work Group strives towards a better working world. With strong brands such as XING, kununu and onlyfy by XING, and the largest talent pool in German-speaking countries, it claims the spot of recruiting partner Nr. 1 in these countries. By bringing candidates and companies together, it guides talents to a more fulfilling working life while simultaneously helping companies to greater success by winning the right talent. The Group has been listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange since 2006, has its headquarters in Hamburg and currently employs around 1,900 people at offices including Berlin, Vienna and Porto. Visit www.new-work.se/ and nwx.new-work.se/ for more information.