Catena Media’s Momentum Came to a Halt

Catena Media, a publicly-listed media company, has published its financial results for the second quarter of the year. Although the company opened 2022 with record-breaking Q1 results, the company seems to have lost its momentum.

Catena Media’s Revenue Declined

Catena Media didn’t manage to surpass its record-breaking Q1 financial results. The company shared that it earned $29.4 million for the last three months, which is a five percent drop from Q2 2021’s results. The company attributed the revenue decline to the economic slowdown outside of North America.

Speaking of North America, more than half of Catena Media’s revenue came from its operations in the region, the company reported. While the company’s overall revenue experienced a slight year-on-year decline, revenues from the NA market went up by 21% to $15.15 million.

 For comparison, Q1 2022 saw Catena Media earn record-breaking revenues. Back then, the company earned $47.5 million, which represented an 11% year-on-year increase. The first quarter once again demonstrated that North America is the company’s most profitable market. The region was singlehandedly responsible for $31 million of the Q1 revenues.

Catena Media’s report also mentioned that the company’s EBITDA declined by 40% during the second quarter of 2022 to $9.26 million.

CEO Daly Addressed the Difficulties

Catena Media’s decline is even more unusual when considering the rapid growth of its business in the USA. However, the company’s overall H1 results still show that the company earned 4% more revenue than in 2021. On the other hand, EBITDA remains low and has declined by 14% since H1 2021.  

Michael Daly, chief executive of Catena Media, confirmed that the quarter has been challenging for the company.

Q2 proved a challenging quarter for Catena Media as largely external factors led to a disappointing 5 percent dip in group revenue and a margin squeeze in parts of the business that caused adjusted EBITDA to decrease by 40%.

Michael Daly, CEO, Catena Media

Daly added that the decline in revenues worsened trading in multiple markets. The price of the company’s shares immediately decreased by 3% but somewhat rebounded after a while. Daly also noted that Catena Media’s casino and betting portfolio was hurt despite recent upgrades and market launches. 

A week ago, Catena Media announced that it will be evaluating its EU assets. The company said it plans to scale down some of its operations in the Old Continent and reallocate more resources toward the lucrative NA market. Overall, Catena Media plans to focus on higher-margin opportunities in NA, LATAM and APAC.