SONG Akazoo SA

NEW YORK and LONDON, Dec. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Akazoo S.A. (NASDAQ: SONG) ("SONG" or "Company"), a leading global music streaming platform and media technology company with a strong international market position focused on emerging markets, today announced improved financial results for the three month and nine month periods ending September 30, 2019. Highlights include:

• 5.5 Million Premium Subscribers end of Q3, Up 28% Year-over-Year ("YoY")
• Q3 Revenue of €35.0 Million, Up 24% YoY
• Nine Month 2019 Adjusted EBITDA of €11.3 Million – Ahead of FY 2019 Guidance of €11m
• Raising FY 2019 Revenue Guidance from €134 Million to €136.5 Million - up 30% YoY with QoQ revenue growth accelerating in Q4

Third Quarter Financial Highlights:

Revenues increased 24% to €35.0 compared to €28.1 million in the third quarter of 2018, driven principally by ongoing user acquisition spending with Eastern European and select LATAM territories leading growth trends. Customer acquisition efforts were tempered early in the quarter prior to receiving the $55 million of gross proceeds from the equity financing in September, a trend that reversed following receipt of the proceeds. Average revenue per user (ARPU) for premium subscribers remained stable at €2.05, representing a relatively equal growth in subscribers across regions.

Adjusted gross margin of 41.4% in Q3 improved from the 40.4% in Q3 2018. The adjusted gross margin excludes media costs, which are costs incurred to acquire and retain subscribers. Contributing to the increased margin was a deceleration in the growth in media spending prior to the closing of the equity financing. Operating expenses increased as a percentage of revenue in Q3 due to higher costs following the listing in addition to increased content delivery and bandwidth spending. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes transaction related costs, for the quarter was €2.9 million bringing nine-month Adjusted EBITDA to €11.3 million, ahead of full year 2019 guidance of €11 million.

Balance Sheet Highlights:
Cash and cash equivalents totaled €45.5 million at September 30, 2019. The balance sheet was strengthened due to the receipt of gross proceeds of $54.9 million generated from the equity financing in September 2019, referred to above. There were no short- or long-term borrowings at the end of Q3.

Management Commentary:
"We are pleased with the solid revenue and subscriber growth in the third quarter and first nine months of the year. Additionally, we are excited about being well capitalised following the closing of the equity financing late in Q3. As we deploy new growth proceeds, our quarter-over-quarter revenue growth has accelerated in the fourth quarter. In 2020, we expect to see the initial benefits from increased user acquisition initiatives and spending and new partnerships such as our recently announced Rakuten Viber global strategic partnership," said Apostolos Zervos, Founder & CEO.

About Akazoo
Akazoo is a global, on-demand music and audio streaming and media and A.I. technology company, founded 2010, with a focus on emerging markets and a presence in 25 countries. Akazoo's premium service provides subscribers with unlimited online and offline high-quality music streaming access to a catalogue of over 45 million songs on an ad-free basis. Akazoo uses patented A.I. for music recommendations and offers online and offline listening. Akazoo's free, ad-supported radio service consists of over 80,000 stations and exists as a separate services and application. As consumers across the globe continue to shift their media consumption to mobile devices, Akazoo is equipped with a world-class mobile application and user experience which works seamlessly across a multitude of mobile devices and provides a high-quality user experience across a range of mobile networks from 2g to 4g LTE and soon 5g.

Use of Non-IFRS Measures
We define EBITDA as Net Income before Net finance costs, Income tax expense and Depreciation and amortization. We define adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA excluding one-off transaction costs of €0.49 million for Q2 2019, €0.39 million for Q3 2019 and €1.26 million for the nine-months ended September 2019 incurred in connection with our equity financing and business combination transaction in 2019.  We believe Adjusted EBITDA is useful to our management and investors as a measure of comparative operating performance from period to period and among companies as it is reflective of changes in pricing decisions, cost controls, and other factors that affect operating performance, and it removes the effect of items not directly resulting from our core operations. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA also is useful to investors because this metric is frequently used by securities analysts, investors, and other interested parties in their evaluation of the operating performance of companies in the technology industry and other industries similar to ours. Our management also uses Adjusted EBITDA for planning purposes, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and financial projections. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool. Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA is not intended to be a measure of discretionary cash to invest in the growth of our business, as it does not reflect tax payments, debt service requirements, capital expenditures, and certain other cash costs that may recur in the future. Management compensates for these limitations by relying on our results reported under IFRS as issued by IASB in addition to using Adjusted EBITDA supplementally.

We define "Free Cash Flow" as net cash from operating activities less capital expenditures. We believe Free Cash Flow is a useful supplemental financial measure for us and investors in assessing our ability to pursue business opportunities and investments. Free Cash Flow is not a measure of our liquidity under IFRS and should not be considered as an alternative to net cash from operating activities.

Akazoo defines Adjusted Gross Profit as Gross Profit plus Media Costs added back, which are costs incurred to acquire customers, consistent with reporting of public peers.

Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Gross Profit and Free Cash Flow are non-IFRS measures and are not a substitute for IFRS measures in assessing our overall financial performance. Because Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Gross Profit and Free Cash Flow are not measurements determined in accordance with IFRS, and are susceptible to varying calculations, it may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures presented by other companies. You should not consider Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Gross Profit and Free Cash Flow in isolation, or as a substitute for an analysis of our results as reported on our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this proxy statement/prospectus.

Forward Looking Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, based on the current expectations, estimates and projections of the Company about its operations, industry, financial condition, performance, results of operations, and liquidity. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Statements containing words such as "may," "could," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "projections," "business outlook," "guidance," "estimate," or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements represent management's current expectations or predictions of future conditions, events or results. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about, or are based upon assumptions regarding, the Company's strategies and future financial performance; expectations or estimates about future business plans or objectives, prospective performance and opportunities and competitors, including revenues; customer acquisition and retention; operating expenses; market trends, including those in the markets in which the Company competes; liquidity; cash flows and uses of cash; capital expenditures; the Company's ability to invest in growth initiatives and pursue acquisition opportunities; the Company's products and services; pricing; marketing plans; the sources and uses of cash; and the continued listing of the Companies' securities on the Nasdaq Capital Market. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations only as of the date hereof. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual performance and results to differ materially from those predicted, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly release the results of any revision or update to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Financial Statements
The results of operations for the interim periods presented herein are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full fiscal year. These statements do not include all information or the footnotes necessary for a complete presentation of financial position, results of operations and cash flows in conformity with IFRS. These statements should be read in conjunction with the Company's consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, incorporated by reference in the Company's Shell Company Report on Form 20-F filed on September 17, 2019 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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SOURCE Akazoo S.A.