Annual report and annual financial report 2023

withGrowing impact

Highlights 2023

EUR 303.9 million ordinary operating

EBITDA 59.7% ordinary operating EBITDA margin

EUR 509.1 million

Group revenue

EUR 2.43 earnings per share

years ImmoScout24

50.5% of new hires are women or non-binary people

Preliminary remarks

General note on our financial performance indicators: acquisition and consolidation of the Sprengnetter Group

The Scout24 Group acquired 75% of the equity in Sprengnetter GmbH on 1 July 2023. Upon obtaining control as of 1 July 2023, the Group began consolidating the Sprengnetter Group's business in the Professional segment. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the financial performance indicators presented thus include the contributions of the Sprengnetter Group as of that date. The organic growth and earnings figures mentioned in isolated passages do not include any contributions from the Sprengnetter Group. For details of the acquisition of the Sprengnetter Group and consolidation, see the }Significant events in the financial year section and note }2.1 Entities acquired in the reporting period.

Note on rounding differences

Due to rounding, numbers presented throughout this report may not add up precisely to the totals indicated, and percentages may not precisely reflect the absolute figures for the same reason.

Information on quarterly financials has not been subject to an auditor's review and thus is labelled 'unaudited'.

First annual report with a consolidated non-financial statement

The consolidated non-financial statement of Scout24 SE has been prepared on an integrated basis as part of the management report contained in this annual report for the first time. The companies under review are congruent with the scope of consolidation of the annual report. Deviations from this scope of consolidation for individual disclosures are marked separately. The reporting period covers the 2023 financial year.

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Contents

To our shareholders ......................................................................................................................... 5

Interview with our CEO .................................................................................................................... 7

Report of the Supervisory Board .................................................................................................. 10

Corporate governance ................................................................................................................... 20

Investor relations .............................................................................................................................. 37

Combined management report ................................................................................................... 41

Key financials ..................................................................................................................................... 43

Fundamentals of the Group ........................................................................................................... 44

Report on economic position ....................................................................................................... 53

Risks and opportunities report ..................................................................................................... 71

Outlook ............................................................................................................................................... 85

Consolidated non-financial statement ........................................................................................ 87

Other disclosures ............................................................................................................................. 133

Additional disclosures relating to the separate financial statements of Scout24 SE ....... 137

Consolidated financial statements .............................................................................................. 141

Consolidated statement of profit or loss .................................................................................... 143

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income ............................................................... 144

Consolidated statement of financial position ............................................................................ 145

Consolidated statement of changes in equity .......................................................................... 146

Consolidated statement of cash flows ........................................................................................ 147

Notes to the consolidated financial statements ..................................................................... 148

1. Company information and basis of preparation ......................................................... 151

2. Changes in the consolidation scope ............................................................................. 168

3. Notes to the consolidated statement of profit or loss .............................................. 171

4. Notes to the consolidated statement of financial position ...................................... 179

5. Other notes .......................................................................................................................... 195

Other statements .............................................................................................................................. 218

Responsibility statement ................................................................................................................ 219

Independent auditor's report ........................................................................................................ 220

Independent auditor's report on the consolidated non-financial statement .................... 229

Disclaimer ........................................................................................................................................... 232

Scout24 | Annual report and annual report 2023 4

To our shareholders

Contents

Interview with our CEO .................................................................................................................... 7

Report of the Supervisory Board ................................................................................................. 10

Cooperation between the Supervisory Board and the Management Board ..................... 10

Main focus of work in the Supervisory Board plenum ............................................................ 11

Committees ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Corporate governance and declaration of compliance ........................................................ 15

Composition of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board ................................ 15

Supervisory Board committees in the 2023 financial year and meeting attendance ...... 17

Audit of annual and consolidated financial statements .......................................................... 17

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 19

Corporate governance ................................................................................................................... 20

Corporate governance declaration ............................................................................................. 20

Corporate governance at Scout24 SE ........................................................................................ 27

Investor relations .............................................................................................................................. 37

Development of the capital market ............................................................................................. 37

The Scout24 share ........................................................................................................................... 37

Communication with investors ...................................................................................................... 39

Scout24 | Annual report and annual report 2023 6

Interview with our CEO - review of the year and future prospects

Tobias Hartmann

'

We want to interconnect our target groups even more closely in future.

If you were looking for an apartment 25 years ago, you opened the newspaper, circled the interesting adverts - and then had to call up each advertiser individually. Until 1998, when ImmoScout24 began to digitise real estate listings: with this step, we revolutionised the search for real estate. And this at a time when the internet was still in its infancy. Since then, we have consistently developed our platform step by step, adding new services every year. Always with the aim of offering our target groups the best user and customer experience. With our platforms and service offers, we are now the leading ecosystem for real estate in Germany. This year, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of our Company's founding. In the following interview, Tobias Hartmann, CEO of Scout24, explains the topics on the agenda as we look ahead to the future, the direction Scout24 is going and the progress the Company has made in the area of sustainability.

Mr Hartmann, how would you sum up the 2023 financial year?

For us at Scout24, 2023 was a special year. The real estate market was characterised by a number of challenges, such as the steep rise in construction and energy costs, the high inflation rate and the new interest rate level. These macroeconomic factors made financing real estate much more difficult for prospective buyers than in the previous period of low interest rates. The brokerage effort needed to sell real estate has therefore increased considerably. As a result, our marketing solutions are all the more relevant. We have set new records in terms of the number of professional and private customers.

Despite all the challenges, our business has been growing continuously for 25 years, actually reaching double-digit growth in the last three years. That said, our focus this year was on further increasing profitability. To achieve this, we have raised our operational efficiency to a new level. We have further diversified our revenue streams and made important progress with our product strategy. This is also reflected in our earnings figures.

In 2023, our revenue increased by 13.8%. At the same time, we increased our ordinary operating EBITDA by 21.0%. We have thus fully met our financial guidance.

With ImmoScout24, you have increasingly developed from a classifieds portal to a digital ecosystem for real estate in recent years. What was your product strategy in 2023?

Our aim is to simplify real estate processes - for home seekers, owners and professional customers. With TenantPlus+ (MieterPlus+), we help searchers find their dream property faster, and with our buyer services, we help them to calculate the right financing for a real estate purchase. Homeowners interested in selling can find verified real estate agents and also book private selling or rental listings. Professional real estate agents are supported by us with suitable membership models to help them assess the market situation and market their properties. With this in mind, we have continued to invest heavily in our CRM systems FLOWFACT and Propstack. We refer enquiries for mortgage financing to financial advisors and banks. We also provide them with the data expertise and real estate valuations of our new subsidiary Sprengnetter.

We want to interconnect the individual target groups even more closely in future. A key pillar here is our Homeowner Hub, which serves as a central point of contact for all owner needs. We expanded this range of services even further in 2023. Owners can find an overview of their properties in the 'My Property' section, including a presentation of the value development and a return on investment calculation. They can also manage their properties in our landlord platform, check incoming invoices and create service charge statements. If they need support with the sale, we bring them together with suitable real estate agents in the Homeowner World - consistent with the interconnectivity goal.

What added value does the strategy have for Scout24?

In recent years, we have proven that our business model is resilient and works in any market situation. Finding their dream home to live in is something that is preoccupying people more than ever. Our aim is to build long-term customer relationships. This means that our customers don't just come to our platform once to list a property or search for a new home. They keep coming back because they have realised that we can do much more for them. Last year, for example, we were able to attract a substantial share of agents, who had individual listings - a service we refer to as 'professional Pay-per-ad' - to our long-term membership model.

This increases the share of our recurring revenue. Another advantage is that, in the past, the addressable market of online listings portals was primarily based on the marketing spend of real estate agents, who list real estate and want to advertise their services. In addition to our services for professional customers, we have built up a rapidly growing range of services for property seekers and owners in recent years. These three pillars form the basis for our future growth.

Scout24 acquired a majority stake in Sprengnetter in July 2023. What role does that company play in your growth strategy?

Sprengnetter is one of the market leaders in the field of professional data services for real estate valuation. And a property's valuation is of paramount importance for owners and buyers alike. It is the basis and starting point for every transaction. Through Sprengnetter, we serve financial institutions and the real estate industry with software solutions, an automated valuation model, financing appraisals and digital training and education software for real estate experts. Sprengnetter therefore fits perfectly into our strategy of simplifying real estate processes. It is important to us to create more and more transparency for everyone involved. This way, we empower people to make better decisions.

This year, the non-financial statement is part of the Scout24 annual report for the first time. What progress did you make in the area of sustainability in 2023?

Our aim is to manage all our business activities in a sustainable manner. The motto of our annual report 2023 is 'Growing with impact'. We feel it is important that we are aware of our impact on the environment and society and that we take responsibility. As a member of the UN Global Compact, we are committed to its Ten Principles of ethical conduct and incorporate them into our daily activities. In 2023, we consistently pursued our environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy. I am particularly pleased that we were able to substantially improve our carbon footprint. Relative to our 2018 baseline, we have now reduced it by roughly 76%. In the next step, we will integrate further subsidiaries into our emissions tracking system. However, despite expanding the assessment basis, our aim is to maintain our low level of emissions until 2025.

I am also pleased about our social commitment because many of our colleagues put their heart and soul into it. In 2023, we mainly focused on providing housing for homeless people. As market leader, we have, for many years now, been committed to helping those who struggle most in putting a roof over their head. For every new Plus membership taken out between September and December 2023, we donated one euro to our Home Street Home project in aid of homeless people. At the end of the year, we rounded up the donations to 200,000 euros.

What are your plans for the future?

Our passion for innovation will continue to drive us, without losing sight of the issue of sustainability. The real estate sector is responsible for around one-third of carbon emissions. Some 260,000 residential buildings need to be modernised every year in order to meet climate change mitigation targets. This is a huge task for society as a whole. We will support owners and prospective buyers with digital tools for the modernisation work needed. We already offer a renovation calculator in our new Homeowner World. Based on the key data of their property, owners can use it to calculate the costs they can expect to incur for insulating the facades, refurbishing the windows or renewing the heating technology, as well as the increase in value they can achieve as a result. We intend to focus in particular on ESG and financing products in cooperation with our new subsidiary Sprengnetter. Artificial intelligence is also high on our agenda when it comes to real estate searches.

We are proud of our long successful history. Our teams have always been the foundation of our success, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to them. Together, we have taken on challenges, overcome obstacles and constantly developed our business model over the years. On this basis, I'm convinced that we'll continue on our sustainable growth path in the future.

Report of the Supervisory Board

Dear shareholders,

We can look back on a very successful 2023 financial year for Scout24. That said, these are still volatile times. Major changes from 2022 as a result of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine continue. The ongoing high level of inflation and interest rates had an even greater impact last year on the real estate market, which has remained tense as a result.

At the same time, digital penetration is continuing apace with the help of artificial intelligence. Attention is generally turning to the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence. Customer acceptance for related products is growing. Our products remain highly relevant, especially in the current market.

Rightly so, the question of sustainability in everything we do has become essential. We clearly need to do more across society as a whole to mitigate climate change. I'm therefore particularly pleased that we will be offering our customers even more products and services that address this important topic in future. Your Scout24, dear shareholders, is excellently positioned in these growth areas: in the tight real estate market, with greater use of products based on artificial intelligence, and to increase sustainability.

Sustainable growth is driven by sustainable business practices. In this context, diversity at management levels in the Company was further expanded again in 2023. The 2023 Annual General Meeting increased the degree of diversity on the Supervisory Board further with the appointment of Maya Miteva and Sohaila Ouffata, thereby establishing gender parity. Now, at the beginning of 2024, we have also expanded and strengthened the Management Board team with Dr Gesa Crockford as of 1 April 2024.

The Supervisory Board continuously monitored, advised and supported the Management Board in its activities.

Cooperation between the Supervisory Board and the Management Board

In the 2023 reporting year, the Supervisory Board again performed all its duties and obligations in accordance with the law, the Articles of Association and the rules of procedure. The Supervisory Board accompanied and monitored the Management Board in its management of the business and advised it on all matters of importance to the Company. The Supervisory Board was at all times satisfied of the lawfulness, correctness, expediency and economic efficiency of the management of the Company. The Management Board provided the Supervisory Board with regular, timely and comprehensive information in detailed oral and written reports on all issues of relevance to the Company and the Group regarding strategy, planning, business development, sustainability, risk position, risk management and compliance. In this context, the Management Board also explained deviations between actual developments and previously reported targets to the extent necessary. Consequently, the Management Board fulfilled all its reporting obligations to the Supervisory Board in the financial year. In this context, the Supervisory Board and its committees were involved in all important business transactions and decisions of fundamental significance for the Company. Where the approval of the Supervisory Board was required for management decisions or measures by law, the Articles of Association or the rules of procedure, the members of the Supervisory Board granted their approval after intensive examination and deliberation.

Ahead of the meetings, the Supervisory Board members always had sufficient time to extensively review the information and documents presented. In the course of the meetings, the information was discussed and examined in detail with the Management Board - where appropriate also often solely within the Supervisory Board without involving the Management Board - and each member of the Supervisory Board was able to contribute, and indeed contributed, their opinions. Collaboration with the Management Board was characterised by responsible and purposeful action in all respects.

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Scout24 AG published this content on 26 March 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 28 March 2024 06:53:08 UTC.