Team Internet Group (LSE:TIG) — Annual report for the financial year ending 31 December 2025

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to the TEAM INTERNET GROUP PLC Investor Presentation. Just simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to CEO, Michael Riedel. Good afternoon to you. Thank you for the introduction, and welcome everybody to our trading updates call today on the 06/15/2026. We are today here, Billy Green, our group CFO, and I myself, Michael Reeder, the group CEO, to talk you through the following agenda. First, the business and its strategy.

0:55 Secondly, the 2025 financials and the current trading update released this morning, and then we will conclude by talking about the value and the outlook for the group. Jumping straight into it, if I if you remember only one thing from today's presentation, it should be this. The market is still looking at us through the lens of the transition of the search division that we've gone through through the last two years and not yet on the business that we've built from from what we were two years ago.

1:46 People might not appreciate yet that today, approximately 80% of our EBITDA come from the domains identity and software division on the one hand and the comparison division on the other hand to businesses that are growing strongly and that are unaffected by the search division that has caught the attention over the last couple of quarters. The the search business itself has completed the transition. The industry has consolidated dramatically, and we are believing that we are emerging as one of the leading players in in a much smaller competitive field in this vast, nascent market opportunity, but we'll add a little bit more flavor to that when we discuss the different businesses individually.

2:41 You will also have taken from the r and s this morning that we've strengthened the balance sheet. You will have seen that the strategic review is progressing well, and we are also now actively pursuing recovery for historic anti competitive conduct that has harmed the the group and and also its peers. So the question that we want to address today is simple. Does the current valuation reflect the business of TEAM INTERNET today. For those who who those who are new to the story, let us quickly recap what TEAM INTERNET what TEAM INTERNET does. The first thing that I want to highlight here is how different the group looks today compared or to how many investors might still remember us.

3:37 So we have the three divisions, domains, identity, and software, which is running a recurring digital identity infrastructure business. We have comparison that is an AI powered consumer decision platform, and we'll talk later about how we're using artificial intelligence in the smartest way for this specific vertical. And then last but not least, we have search where we are engaging with users on on platforms, like, on social media platforms and bring them to to the merchants where they can then consider their purchasing options. But I I started I started with the with the first slide with one of the key facts. Today, domains, which is a global super resilient business and comparison, which still has a very long runway for growth given that today, we are extracting most of the revenue only from the German speaking part of Europe, together represent 80% of the entire earnings of the group, and search presents much more of a future upside opportunity, and I'll come to the fact how we get there.

4:56 Yet many investors still mentally equal the search division and Steam Internet even though we've grown past that stage entirely. And with that with that said, I would now go to through the three different divisions to explain to you how exactly we intend to win the game in each of the three of them. So in DAS, DAS is a high quality infrastructure business. Everybody needs domain names. And whether you're a small business or a large business, this is how identity is defined on the Internet still in 2026.

5:45 DAS benefits from recurring revenue. You can never re outright own a domain name. You have to renew it year after year, so most of the revenue just walks back through the door again and again. With strong retention, given that we have given that we have integrations via so called APIs with most of our customers, things that our customers tend to never give up on. We've demonstrated pricing power in this business, and we are also growing our value added services. But let me go through them one by one. So we've deliberately optimized lower margin customer relationships during the year, which has led to reduced domain volumes but improved economics.

6:30 So our value added is that we can procure domain names in any country in the world, and we are paying we are being paid good value for that. We are not interested in replicating what some other competitors are doing, trading huge volumes of .com domain names to Chinese network operators. We are focusing on the quality end of the spectrum, which has then led that the revenue per domain name has increased as it has done over all of the last five years. It has also led to the share of the value added services increasing from 16% of the total revenue in DIS to 18% of DIS, and this then in combination has led to the entire profitability of the DIS segment increasing.

7:23 And given that everyone is or I should say most people are constantly asking about what does AI do to all of your businesses. The most important thing here is domains remain the foundation of digital entity, and in an AI driven world, identity becomes more and more important. Where can you see where can you see evidence of my claim? VeriSign, the world market leader on the registry part of the domain and industry, the operator of .com and .net, releases every quarter market research, and this demonstrates that 2025 was the year of the fastest growth of the domain industry in ten years.

8:11 And it shouldn't be really surprised because when you think about it, every every white coated app that should become publicly available must be uploaded to some website, which is then which then requires a domain name, and that's why why we are seeing a very healthy business here. While DAS has been our stem cell from which the entire group has been created in the first place, comparison is is a business that holds outsized potential and continues to be one of the most exciting parts of of the group. We we under understand that that we that we have seen a certain weakness in the customer engagement in the first half of two thousand twenty five due to some algorithm changes that that Google, which still is the major channel for customer acquisition worldwide.

9:14 But we've protected the economics through improved monetization. So at the same time, we've been able to extract more value from every customer that comes to a website. The international expansion is becoming is beginning to contribute meaningfully. France is now well established being the lion's share of the international revenue. Italy, Spain, and The UK are continuing to scale, but what is particularly important here is that we are using AI to industrialize content creation optimization. Let let me let me explain let me shortly explain to you why that why that is. People are asking us, why don't people just go to Che GPT and ask them what the best product is? And I can tell you exactly why.

10:08 We we have chosen the we have chosen the approach to also use large language models at scale to produce the the the consumer guides out there. However, by prebuilding them rather than responding on the fly to a prompt by a consumer, we can we can guarantee a few advantages. First, the quality is higher because the result is not depending on the individual prompting skills of the consumer, and we want to reach all consumers, not only a small intellectual need who is who are senior prompt engineers. Secondly, it means it is it is cheaper because we can combine thousands, if not millions of of of prompts into into into one and deliver the same the the the same answer to to the same question.

11:04 It also takes it also takes away the risk of hallucination and data decay to unsolved problems of large language models because we can still review the content before it's being shown to the customer, but it also leads to other more operational advantages. The pages load much faster, and and page loads time is one of the most important vital stats of any ecommerce business. People just hate to wait for fifteen seconds until they see the result. They want instant gratification, and that's what we are delivering all the time again again, million times million hundreds of millions of times, I should say, in over the course of a year.

11:51 And this is why even three and a half years after the advent of TIGIT GET and other large language model based companies, we are still thriving where others struggle with this new era of the Internet. So comparison, huge massive growth rate growth potential given that we are today only addressing about 7% of the global total addressable market through the three predominantly German speaking countries that we are that we're covering. But let's also speak about let's also speak about search. So the the transition is effectively complete as of today.

12:38 The move away from AdSense for remains is complete. There is there is not a single dollar of AdSense for remains revenue with us anymore in the second in the second quarter of the year. There was only some remaining revenues in the first quarter of the year, so we can call the the transition completed. We believe that we've taken the right the right choices in how to position us in the market and which is not and therefore, we are we are now firmly established as a podium player in this new vast and nascent market opportunity to to our regret because also personal personal fortunes are tied to this.

13:32 About half of our competitors that have not made it and and and have closed the shop, but we have we have not been giving up and are now very well positioned. Through cost optimization, automation, and innovation in how the monetization actually works, we are now in a very good position to to have a profitable second half in in search for the second half of the year. And all of this all of this in aggregate now makes us confident to say that we hear that we see a significant future opportunity to build one of the few scale operators in this in the in the sector. And while while today, the the profitability of the group is largely relying on the shoulders of DAS and comparison, we we still expect that going forward, search will start once again to contribute materially to the group earnings.

14:33 But that's that is that is the that is the backdrop to what Billy is now going to present you, which are the 2025 financials and the current trading where he demonstrates to you that how what I just said translates into actual US dollars. Thank you, Billy. Yes. Thank you, Michael. Apologies that I'm off camera, but transmission speeds indicate that I should not not have my camera on. It's it's significantly more important that you can hear what I'm saying as opposed to seeing me as I run through the slides. The first slide we have here, a lot of this data will already have been known to people who followed TEAM INTERNET for for some time. The 2025 financial highlights have been out there in the market for a for a couple of months. We've all known and seen, and indeed, we we we we saw and flagged during 2025 that 2025 would be a year of lower revenue and profitability than 2024, but an understandable, well communicated, managed pivot to a temporarily lower level of EBITDA, 42,700,000 in 2025 is is is is already a well known number, and we're confident that there will be a higher level this year, so we won't see further years of lower

16:03 profitability. If you look at the if you look at the the second row there, one of the important metrics to call out is that net debt actually decreased during 2025, illustrating that even in a challenging year for the company from a trading perspective, it is still within our within our not only our aspiration, but also within our control to to delever slightly, both gross and net debt decreased during 2025 even as even as the search part of the business engaged in the pivot from AdSense for domains to related search on content. The the the comparison and the IS businesses continue to make good progress.

16:49 And then adjusted operating cash flow, you'll see there a figure of 66,000,000 for 2025. We'll come back to that in a little more detail later, but still a very significant level of operating cash generation. This is still a very cash generative business. So even in a year that's that that proved to be more challenging than than previous years, we still generated 66,000,000 of operating cash. So that's still a huge amount of cash that we generated. In terms of the income statement in more detail, the the top half of the income statement down to adjusted EBITDA, as I said, has been out there for a while already. There's a couple of items I should just point to within the bridge effectively from adjusted EBITDA to operating loss.

17:36 By their by by their nature, the costs within that section tend to be primarily non recurring in nature. So you'll see, for example, we had an impairment of intangible assets and that relates to our search division. Given that the short term profitability of that division is lower than it had been over the previous years of fantastic growth, It's prudent and appropriate to record impairments of the intangible assets and goodwill within that search part of the business, but it means that there's less carried on the balance sheet in respect of the search business and future growth in that business is then all all upside with with with less intangible assets to amortize.

18:24 The other highly nonrecurring item within that bridge from adjusted EBITDA to operating loss, you'll see the level of foreign exchange losses there was much, much higher than usual. We typically experience net foreign exchange gains on losses in our operating profit of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000. We experienced net exchange gains in 2024. That flipped back somewhat in 2025, and we experienced net foreign exchange losses just over 6,000,000. But then in 2026 to date, we've been seeing exchange gains again. So there is a certain amount of exposure within our business to fluctuations in certain currencies. We we correctly report in US dollars, but we we have not insignificant overheads denominated in sterling, euro, and zloty amongst other other currencies, but those are the three material ones. So there will be foreign exchange gains and losses from time to time, but the level of foreign exchange losses experienced in 2025 is in no way indicative of any change or decline in the quality of our underlying cost base, which is still very, very competitive.

19:35 Just taking a quick look at the balance sheet, you'll see that there was a we're we're we're looking at slightly lower levels of working capital. So current assets, for example, lower now than they were a year, eighteen months ago. And that's mainly because of the that there was naturally a high level of working capital within the search part of the business. So now that's just trading at a lower level for for the next couple of quarters. We anticipate that current assets, for example, remain at that that lower level. And as I referred to earlier, net debt decreased by $8,800,000, and that was even after returning $6,700,000 to shareholders via the company's share buyback program, which was still running in the first half of twenty twenty five. So absent absent that absent that return of cash to shareholders, the the net debt decrease within within the year would actually have been north of $50,000,000.

20:34 So indicative of the level of cash that we are generating. On the subject of cash, cash conversion was very, very strong in 2025. We had already achieved a pleasing level of conversion of operating profits to operating cash in 2024. We then achieved a 155% in 2025. Our target every year remains to convert operating profit into operating cash at a rate of higher than 100%. In a year like 2025 when working capital was coming out of the search part of the business as we work through the pivot from AdSense for domains to related search on content, you could reasonably expect the cash conversion to be very, very impressive because we're releasing working capital into the business from the search business. But to to get to a 155% was a real achievement, and that's something that as a business it effectively keeps the bar very high for us in terms of cash conversion. We we target 100% cash conversion again this year, and and and we'll be very we'll be working very hard to ensure that the high levels of cash generation experienced over the last several years remain at a a very impressive level.

21:54 The last last word I'll say on financials, and we decided that given that the 2025 numbers have already been out there in summary for for a while and indeed we're already partway through June, and we thought it would be helpful just to give an update in respect of how 2026 has started as a as as a business. The the the group has experienced a very strong start to 2026. To date, we generated in the first five months of the year $16,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA. That would indicate a an EBITDA run rate that's higher than the level achieved in h two twenty twenty five. And as a reminder for everybody, the second half of the year tends to be almost without exception. 2025 was one was one exception because of the the time frame in which AdSense for domains gradually wound down.

22:48 But usually, h two is the is is the bumper half of the year. So because the because the comparison and search businesses, so the ecommerce and advertising industries more generally, because they are so heavily q four h two weighted. H two, we would expect to be the the higher of two halves. So we expect even better things to come this year. H one has already started very well, progressing very well. We expect a higher level in h two again so that we can hopefully show that we've returned to year on year growth this year following the the decline we saw in financial terms in 2025. The the reasons behind that growth, the DIS and comparison businesses both continue to grow at a at phenomenal rate, really, both individually and and in in combination.

23:41 Those two parts of the business have shown very pleasing levels of growth versus 2025. The search side of the business, whilst it's contributing less to profitability right now than it was this time last year, it's showing signs of returning to full profitability contribution in the second half of the year for for three reasons. One of which is the gross revenue of the search business has been stronger in in recent weeks and months than it was around the start of this year when when related search on content was still really at its nascent stages. We're also targeting margin expansion within the search part of the business, gross profit, gross margin expansion, plus as well the cost base of the business has been reset at a more competitive level prospectively.

24:31 So right the way through the p and l for the search part of the business, we've we've been successful in in effectively rebasing, restructuring the business for a new lower level of re revenue generation, and we're confident that Search's contribution in the second half of the year will be more significant than it was in the first half of the year. And with that, I will hand back over to Michael. Thank you, Billy. So we're coming to the last chapter of today's presentation and we're we're starting with the highlights, the strategic review, and the strategic review is progressing very well as we've confirmed this morning.

25:19 We are continuing discussions with selected parties so that they can do their final homeworks, like confirming financing capacity, etcetera. As you know, the board always said we would only pursue transaction if it delivers fair fair value. We are under no pressure to transact. But the but the offers the offers that we are it received off as as we have now repeatedly confirmed are materially in excess of here, says it's 120,000,000 sterling. Given that we are reporting dollars, it's materially more than $160,000,000. And therefore, it also means it will be in excess of the entire gross debt that the company currently holds and and also leave some some some some material spare change for for other purposes, but we'll we'll come to that in the in the q and a section.

26:27 The business itself that we are that we that we are that we are selling here is performing very well, as you know from the first few slides that that we presented to you. And in terms of timeline, you've all been very patient with us to find to find the right partner or the right potential partners, plural, for this transaction, but we understand it's time to come to come to a final call here, which we expect to deliver in the first half of q three. And given that domain names have some level of regulation subject to customer conditions and approvals, we then expect the transaction still to complete in the course of 2026 if a transaction is finally agreed.

27:20 Again, the most important point is here, we reaffirm our guidance on value and are looking forward to the next update on this topic. On the last slide, I I mentioned that we are under no that we are under under no pressure to sell the business other than our relentless effort to crystallize the value that we've built in this in this business. We have we have renegotiated our our credit facilities, which now include aligned maturities. So no part of the debt becomes due before about sixteen months as of today, which gives us a lot of headroom to to find the best solution for for the future balance sheet of the group.

28:20 The banks being cognizant of the progress that they're making with the business have rewarded this with a notably widened covenant headroom, which is very much appreciated. We've, at the same time, also right sized the volume of the loan facilities given that currently, we're rather looking at generating sales proceeds rather than doing material m and a. We've also downsized the the facility a bit just to bring it in line with our current ambitions, aspirations, and needs, which avoids unnecessary cost of financing. And and the full refinancing is still is still progressing, but, again, now with with a slightly improved well, I should say, materially improved timeline until when we need to present you with a with a long term solution for for the topic.

29:23 But, again, next maturity is only in sixteen months, which gives us considerable time as of today. Then to the then to something completely new, I wanted to address the antitrust claim that you will have read about this morning. So this claim arises from conduct of a material intercompany that has already been established by the final regulatory decision. We've also, in the last couple of weeks, either seen court rulings or have seen court rulings being announced for the near term future, and we now feel we now felt that the that the claim becomes sufficiently substantiated that we we believe it is now the right time to disclose this this process. In order to not in order to prejudice the the process, we we must retain the exact amounts, strategy, the exact allegations, the exact party for us.

30:37 But we can confirm that we are now actively pursuing recovery of the losses that we've suffer suffered, and also our peers have suffered for an extended period of time. The the timing, the outcome, and the amount still remain uncertain. This is why under international financial reporting standards, we have not recognized an asset. However, on our on our best commercial judgment, we believe that the successful outcome could be material in the context of the company's current market capitalization. And we will we will update you on this topic as appropriate when there is any progress on it. Moving moving to the to the last part, wrapping it up.

31:33 Let me finish where I started. So we are we are cognizant of the challenges that the group has seen, but we still believe that the current the current view is still too much on the disruption that we are now through with and too little on on the business as it stands today. Again, 80% of group of 02/2025 group EBITDA was coming from DAS in comparison unaffected by the search transposition and both performing strongly. Search is now through the transition and positioned for recovery. The strategic review is progressing. The balance sheet has been strengthened, and we've now got an additional potential source of value through the antitrust claim.

32:24 Therefore, we enter the the second half of the year with a position of strength, and we've not yet put it into we've not yet put it into paper, but I want to give that I know it will come up in the in the questions later. The question is, what will TEAM INTERNET be once the once the strategic review would finally end with the sale of the DIS segment. And without keeping it keeping it simple, in ecommerce, you you typically speak of three stages of conversion. The awareness phase, so people people get aware of your product.

33:13 They consider it for potential purchase, and they ultimately convert. What the search division does, it takes consumers from the awareness phase to the consideration phase, and this and the comparison division then takes users from or consumers from the consideration phase to the to the actual conversion phase. So with over the two businesses, we can then we can then cover the entire conversion funnel as the online marketers call it in one single in one single business model. Comparison or delivering or delivering high teens million EBITDA contributions even though we are today only addressing 7% of the global market opportunity, and a search has already demonstrated that this business model, once fully refined and and holds to perfection, can deliver double digit million EBITDA contributions, and and we hope that this future growth story will be exciting for you to also enjoy to enjoy being a shareholder of TEAM INTERNET more than you did for the last two years.

34:31 This is where this is the message of today, and we're now happy to take your questions. That's great, Michael. Billy, thank you very much indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I would like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via our Investor Dashboard. Michael, if I may, I'll hand back to you to chair the q and a, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Yes. Very, very, very happy to, and I'll take the questions in the sequence that I see them on screen. But, also, at first glance, it looks like we can we can summarize some of them quite well.

35:20 So in the event DIS proceeds at a level that exceeds the debt pay repayment, what is management order priority for a surplus, buybacks, dividends, m and a, or reinvestment? So, yes, first of all, the expectation is that the that the sales pros the sales proceeds would exceed the amount the total amount of debt, so there would be a surplus. And while while the board is yet while while while the quantum and the timing are yet uncertain, the most likely use for it would be would be a tender offer helping helping the helping the market to to rebalance the register based on based on the strategic pivot so that we would that we would later then be starting the journey with a with a shell register that is very comfortable with the with the growth story for the remaining digital commerce platform that we are building.

36:28 And a general dividend strategy and m and a are then are then steps that come that come later. But in in generally general terms, I should say, the board will be the board board will be more careful and and and and on on the m and a side, treading, being most being very selective, looking only into highly highly adjacent pieces of m and a that very neatly fit into the strategic vision of the digital commerce platform. And but that is still that is still way out. For now, focus on focus on the topics of of the delivery of the CV review, then the material distribution, and only then we will be able to turn our attention again to to to growing the the new core of the business.

37:31 Going to the going to the next question. Right. It has the same focus on DAS, but more a question around has the process now moved to a preferred bidder or exclusivity stage? We don't see need to to grant exclusivity at this at this point, and we are we're we're carrying on with we've chosen our words carefully in the r and s. We are moving on with this with selected parties who are now allowed to do their final homeworks, including confirming their financing capacity. And yeah. So there there is material progress from our last announcement on topic on the April 24.

38:20 Next question is now that the AFT to RSAB transition in search is described as substantially complete, has the search segment's revenue run rate stabilized in absolute terms through the first part of two thousand twenty six, or is there still some sequential decline as the new model scales? I would really like to differentiate here between AdSense for domains revenues and and ASOC revenues while because it's it's it's two different journeys to for cons for for consumers, for for the advertisers. The revenues that we are currently doing with related search on content are already higher than the revenues the the business was doing with AdSense for domains when we when we took control of it in December 2019.

39:21 That's to me that's for me the main reference point. The the margins in in RSOC are not yet quite where they were at at the end of two thousand nineteen when we were when, of course, the business had already nine years of constant optimization of the AdSense for domains consumer journey, whereas for rated search on content, we can now only speak about a little bit more than one year of true optimization effort. But I I I I I understand this this is a valid question, and we will we will we will consider because I don't want to make a mistake in now reciting any figures spontaneously.

40:12 We will consider updating the market on on this in more detail when we come out with a h one trading update, which we hope we can provide you with before the annual general meeting is being conducted in the next month. It's next question is so so so sorry. I overlooked one. Depending on what has or hasn't been published this morning, could the board give shareholders a clear sense of how the DIS process currently stands? I think I've I added detail to what we said in the r and s. Yeah. So level of interest is still very strong.

40:59 I think there is well, the question is then again the the question that ends again with the quest with with the with the future with the future distributions. So, yes, dividend policy. We've we've never we've we've never we've never canceled the dividend policy that you've seen for the first time in our two thousand twenty annual report published, I think, in April 2023. We've just currently suspended it for the for the reason being that today liquidity preservation was more important in the in the in the phase of this transition. However, in the in in the world where we have materially paid off all debt what we will have paid off all debt, we would only have fresh debt if we if we would consider it helpful for, for example, tax optimization or other purposes.

41:58 But we should then also then again reestablish our our dividend policy. However, the accept the accept quantum and the exact timing is is yet to be deliberated by the board depending on the progress of the other topics we talked about today. So here, the next point is it would be useful if you could say a few words and update shareholders on the strategic direction and future of the comparison division. In particular, how do you see the partnership with BestPick developing and scaling in The US market, and does the board envisage retaining the search division to support that growth or a search also on a review as part of the wider portfolio assessment?

42:49 So first, BestPick is one of our own brands. So we are we are pursuing a strategy to have dedicated brands for each market given that product comparison markets individually tends to be rather rather national markets. Few few few few people who have their normal residence in one country do a lot of comparison shopping in in other countries. So the growth the growth of the the growth of comparison business has multiple dimensions. For now, we are talking mostly about the internationalization because it's the the first one that we've launched.

43:38 It is the one that is that is very live, and that is also on that is also the largest on a pure on a pure numbers play. I mentioned before that's the that the current German, Austrian, Switzerland market we are that happened our historical core market only represents 7% of the global ecommerce market. The other the other the other vector along which we are expanding is the the number the the channels through which we engage with with consumers. And here, classical search engines like Google and Bing are still very dominant, but also here, we're experimenting with with engaging with users on social media and in in other in other similar types of websites, which then again holds material potential to engage with users that we currently cannot reach with the way that we interact with the market.

44:39 And and the and the third and the third vector, what's what would be extracting more of the value that we create in the market for ourselves. So we have already in we have historically relied very much on on commissions from ecommerce partners, which are still the the bulk of all our income, but we've also struck partnerships with the manufacturers of the products who now pay us additional commissions on on on top. And here, we might go deeper and potentially just accept offers from directly from the customers and and and going from the commission based model to a drop shipping based model similar like large large American companies like Wayfair are operating this, which then holds even more potential for extracting more percentage margin of the gross merchandise value that has been that has been referred. So these are these are the the three the three main vectors, and we will we will we will we will see to also to also add to the set of strategic KPIs that we share with the market once once the once these two additional growth vectors have picked up more momentum.

46:08 The next question next question is, has management's confidence in achieving a DS valuation materially buffed in November market cap? Yes. It yes. We we we are cognizant of the fact that the market cap today is lower. This is this is why we've always been very specific in the in our r and s tool to to make clear that we are talking about the November 11 market cap of around a $160,000,000. And, again, in in the deck today, we have we have put the work materially in both. So we're not talking about a tiny bit above $160,000,000. Second sub question following the refinancing, does the board now feel it has sufficient time and flexibility to maximize value rather than being driven by finance deadline?

46:59 Yes. Absolutely. That is true. Third, assuming a DS transaction completes, how should shareholders think about the value of the remaining search and comparison business? Valid valid valid question. While I have already alluded to some aspects of it, we have the business our comparison business that is that is succeeding in what I call the end game of ecommerce. So we can already today put fully paid ads on search engines like Google and Bing and still extract a lot of value from from then converting the consumer that has only considered the transaction to make them an actual customer.

47:52 So we take the risk that whether the customer actually buys something, but given that we are really good at converting these customers and actual buyers of the goods, we make we make considerable money from this from this operation. And in terms of all the business model that you see online, it doesn't get any better than that. If you can if you can make a living from taking the risk of converting a customer who's only considering a transaction into an actual customer, then then you're basically unstoppable. And that's that's that's what we now what we now need to prove that we cannot only do that in a German speaking market, that we can also do that internationally, and France is a very good example and proof point that we will get there.

48:39 And search search, at the end, I don't know on the last slide, I was talking about this conversion funnel awareness, consideration, conversion. This is then this is then another important another important growth factor. And while while, of course, we have to concede that this business has shown unprecedented volatility and admittedly also and moves unforeseen a move by our our largest trading partner that have been unforeseen by us and everyone else in the industry. The good news is we've now found a floor, and from here on, it can only get better with the with this business.

49:26 Many have given up. We have we have not, and we are now poised to reap the rewards of that of that bold move. Moving on to the next question, how are you financing your substantial damages claim? Given given the specifics of the case, we determined that doing self funding would be better than litigation funder given that there is already regulatory approval or regulatory decision that that clearly proves the the fact that there was anticompetitive conduct, we we feel we feel confidence that it's it's the it's the it's the economically wiser choice to self fund, and we're only talking about a low single digit percentage of of the potential award that we're working towards.

50:30 I'll take the next one if that's okay, Michael, because it relates to the mechanics of the covenant calculations. The question is, would you kindly clarify the advised increase in leverage to 2.9 x adjusted EBITDA from your r and s of today? How has this arrived at? In in practice, the the level of or the leverage calculation as is used for our covenants with our banks, it's not it's not calculable from readily available or publicly available information because there are some add backs and restrictions and reductions as as you would typically expect to experience in any facilities agreement. For example, the level of the level of net debt that's used for our covenant compliance is not accounting net debt. It includes, for example, letters of credit, which are correctly off balance sheet for IFRS purposes.

51:24 Likewise, the EBITDA that's used for calculating covenants for for for for for external compliance. They would include, for example, add backs of rent, which is capitalized under IFRS 16. So the the the figure that's used for covenant compliance is not the same as the the the accounting level. But I think it's important that people that we that we enable people to continue to track both an accounting basis and also the actual basis that's currently being used with our lender group. Thank you. Thank you, Billy. Next question is you also mentioned some time ago partnerships in the different business divisions. Are these now less likely, especially in comparison search divisions, if you now feel you're on a strong strong footing?

52:13 And this is what about the DAS division if this does not conclude in a in a in a sale? So we we're still we're still pursuing strategic partnerships, but in in in search with the with the fast evolution of the industry, it's still too early to find the right partners. Why would I know that they're the the right guys for the next ten years? In in in search, we might we might identify such a partner earlier than than in search. The question on DIS, to me, it is currently an afterthought because our conviction is that we will come to to terms that are acceptable not only acceptable, also representing the full fair market value for the business very, very, very soon.

53:16 If, however, if, however, there was some negative surprise and bidders would start shipping the price for which we have absolutely no indication that it would happen. We we still have we still have a very decent performance plan for the for the for the division that that will that will continue that we let it continue on its on its earning increasement earnings growth earnings growth trajectory and and then see whether whether we'll find a solution in year two from from today. But, again, let me just reiterate. I'm just saying this because of the s because of the question was asked.

54:05 I can to to me, it is too improbable that there will not be an outcome that I would make this my main priority and that I would reoccupy myself of that too much at this point in time. Next question, margins are clearly improving. Do you have a target for margin improvement across the group? I think we'll we'll rather guide to to margins for different for the different businesses. The blended rate will always will always be the function on the exact growth rate of the different businesses. But food for thought, maybe for another update for our h one trading update or the trade h one trade results roadshow.

54:53 Any updates, recouping funds from previous owners of Shines? Yes. This is still ongoing, and there will be there will be, of course, the warranted disclosures in the annual report. However, for now, there's no material movement that would make us believe that we would get more or less money than we always than we always anticipated. So that's why we've not included it in today's update. But, yes, we're still pursuing this. However, compared to the antitrust case, this is a rather smaller amount. On the coming coming to to the the antitrust case, what does the board consider material in terms of the current market cap? So, again, we will not disclose the amount that we are that we are looking for, given that it was prejudiced, the amount.

55:48 But material so we've been told by Citi investment bankers, material is generally considered 20 or more. And we've, of course, carefully thought about every single word in the trading update this morning. 20% of our market cap today is is something that everyone in the team would be very disappointed in if we could not comfortably jump over that hurdle. Again, timing timing unknown. As always, when you go in onto into a courtroom, there's always some risk that something that some of your assumptions don't hold true. But with our best judgment today, we confidently stand behind the work material.

56:40 Moving on to the last few questions. What will be the action plan if the ASL will not go through? I think I already mentioned that. So we have our own plan, what we will what we will do with the business under our own if it remains under our watch, and where we have a good plan to let it continue on on the now five year trajectory of of growth from of growth and pro of profit growth from 2022 to today. And then but let me also let me also be clear. The domain business is a great business. I love the domain business. I've I've I left my I I I left my investment management career many, many years ago to go to to to build a business in the domain industry.

57:41 But I've consistently said that while comparison is a great business and domains are great business, they don't they give us a con a conglomerate discount on the level of of of the Internet group. It's just two businesses that have a very different very different reasons why they are great businesses to be invested in. And so I've also been clear, I think, the last three years that there would be one point in time when they would when they would split. And if the point in time would not be this year, then it will be '27 or '28. I still stand behind the conviction that that both businesses individually would be more valuable than with with a public company umbrella over them.

58:35 So if a few question, I think, have come. Sorry. I'm sometimes I have just moved here in the in the q and a bar, but I think the last question is any further update on the legal action. I think I've addressed this before, and I There's I'm sorry to interrupt, Michael. But while while you're reviewing one or two, there's one question that says when you when you say you expect search to be profitable in h two, do you mean on EBITDA basis? And yes. Yes. Of course. We do. So when we say profitable, we're not just talking about generating more revenue or generating a a gross profit for search. Search needs to be and will be profitable on an EBITDA level.

59:21 It's it's show it's it's right now, it's it's it's effectively breaking even, but it will contribute more to profitability in the second half of the year. And that's real profitability EBITDA, not just gross profit. Thank you, Billik. Right. So here, there's still one question again about the level of valuation for for DIS asking whether it is in line with the sum of the parts level implied by sell side research for for for for DIS. Billy, do do you remember from the top of your heads the the the bandwidth in which these estimates are?

1:00:25 Would that be is it fair to read the evaluation point? Well, we'll we'll we'll have we'll have to come back we'll have to come back to that. Again, the the guidance of materially above stands, and we've we've we've made this reconfirmation today confidently. The again, let us get let us get back to back get back to that, and so we we we still plan for trading update including the full h one figures this year, and we then update the market shortly until until the until the day that an SBA has been signed.

1:01:19 It is this is this is all optional, but we are we are very we are very confident that based on on on the on on what we currently have in our hands that we will have a satisfactory outcome of this. Looking at the looking at the clock, we're also now arriving at the the full hour. Thank you again for all your thoughtful questions, and we'll we're all looking forward to to the next time that we will meet. And in the in the May in the meantime, remain available for any further questions either through the IMC channel or through your, brokers. Thank you very much, and, we are we are looking forward to, deliver you more proof point of our conviction that h two will be will be the final, pivot, moment of pivot for this group very shortly.

1:02:19 Fantastic. Fantastic. Michael, Billy, thank you for updating investors today. Could you please ask investors not to close this session? As you know, we'll automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to