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Good morning, everyone, and welcome for our Q1 presentation. Kristin will join us today from the U.S. on video. So I hope the line is stable. PC is in the studio and will provide some more color on the development in the quarter.
As last time, we would have a Teams session with analysts where they can ask a lot of questions after the presentation. And Kristin, who is also heading in Nordic Marketplaces will join us for this session. So with this, I will hand over to PC -- sorry, Kristin.
All right. Thank you so much, [ Amboya ], and a very good morning to everybody. So in this quarter, we made important progress related to the major structural changes, which we announced in November and December. And alongside these processes, we are currently developing comprehensive measures to adjust the organization and cost base for a new setting and a more challenging macroeconomic environment, but I'll come back to that.
Related to the structural changes, I want to highlight four things. First, we were pleased to see that the Adevinta offer, which values our current stake at approximately NOK 40 billion, received all required regulatory approvals and the expected settlement of the transaction is now set for May 29. Second, in March, we could announce a final agreement with [indiscernible] Trust relating to the sale of our news media operation. The transaction, which will be presented to the Annual General Meeting for shareholder approval today is a key milestone in transforming today's Schibsted into two more focused companies. And third, we also finalized the capital return package of about NOK 29 billion, reinforcing our commitment to strong shareholder returns. And finally, we announced today the acquisition of the remaining Finn stake of approximately 10% from Polaris Media which is another step in simplifying the overall structure of Schibsted and crystallizing our equity story.
Financially, Q1 saw a slight dip in group revenues to NOK 3.794 billion, an underlying 1% decline. Though EBITDA rose by 7% to NOK 454 million due to improved profitability in News Media. The Nordic Marketplaces segment experienced a robust increase in average revenue per ad and continued growth in transactional revenues despite the broader market volatility. However, EBITDA came in 2% below last year at NOK 411 million. That's driven by investments in transactional models and the transition towards a unified technology platform. Concurrently, the ongoing reorganization of the group is hampering the implementation of cost measures at the moment. I'll come back to that, too.
In the Growth & Investment segment, reduced demand for Lendo and Prisjakt led to a revenue decline that we have begun implementing cost-saving measures to mitigate that. Now I said I wanted to come back to the dual task of taking on a major transformation while also developing measures to adjust the organization and cost base for a new setting and a more challenging macroeconomic environment. And I think this is the most important piece of context for this quarter. And I think it is important to be clear about the choices and priorities that we are making in this situation.
Right now, we're in the middle of a series of demanding complex and critical processes regarding their transition into two more focused companies. We must provide reassurance to our employees, ensuring they feel secure and maintain their loyalty and also enthusiasm for what lies ahead. And at the same time, we need every hand on deck to ensure a successful separation into two companies with all that entails from legal procedures to people placement processes, strategy alignment, service agreement development and not to speak of the separation of data, systems and infrastructure.
So that is why this transition has to be our main focus right now, including creating a good foundation for the new Schibsted marketplaces company, fostering enthusiasm for the new project and making sure we have the speed we need going into the future. Alongside this, we are conscious of the need for cost control and for developing comprehensive measures to adjust the organization and cost base for a new and more focused setting.
We will deliver on this, but we have to do things in the right order, making sure that we comply with legal procedures, making sure we keep enthusiasm for the new project. and making sure we do not make rash decisions to cut costs short term while losing opportunities long term. So given this, we are suspending our financial targets as of now, but I want to emphasize the temporary nature of both that suspension and of the transition that we are going through right now. And we're going to present strategic initiatives and comprehensive measures at our Capital Markets Day in Q4. And that combined will make sure we have the right structure and the right speed going into 2025.
All right. Let's move to ESG. And I'd like to highlight three key areas of our progress on taking responsibility being transparent and integrating sustainability into our business. First, I am proud to report that we have continued to reduce our carbon emissions across our value chain. In 2023, we achieved a 17% reduction attributed to the decreased paper use and also enhanced efficiency in our delivery operations. This significant decrease keeps us on track to meet our 55% reduction target by 2030 with a total reduction of 33% now since 2018.
Second, I would like to showcase the salary comparison tool launched on Finn jobs in the first quarter. This tool enhances transparency and fairness in the job market, fostering a more equitable environment for both job seekers and employers. And then lastly, I want to highlight our response to the new EU Corporate Sustainability reporting directive. In 2023, we launched our first sustainability statement, structured and informed by the directive to prepare for upcoming legal requirements and maintain transparency in our performance.
Let me then present our business in more detail. And first up is Nordic Marketplaces. Nordic Marketplaces delivered a foreign exchange-neutral revenue growth of 6% in Q1, driven by solid growth in Classifieds revenues despite the challenging macro conditions. As seen in previous quarters, growth was primarily driven by the mobility and real estate verticals, alongside solid growth in transactional revenues in recommerce. The growth was partly offset by the job vertical, which continued to see significant volume decline due to the market headwinds. Advertising revenues continue to be affected by a volatile market with an accelerated year-on-year decline compared to the previous quarter.
EBITDA margin decreased year-on-year, mainly driven by investments to drive new business models in mobility, real estate and recommerce as well as costs related to transitioning to a common tech platform. Additionally, a change in revenue mix, given good progress in transactional models, while revenues from the jobs vertical declined contributed to the decrease.
Looking at profitability, we acknowledge that the cost development needs to be further addressed. But as just mentioned, the ongoing reorganization of the group is hampering implementation and our ability to implement cost measures temporarily.
Let's then go and take a closer look at the four verticals, and we will first develop into the underlying traditional classified revenue drivers across all the markets. Mobility reported a strong uplift in ARPA across all markets, primarily driven by professionals due to harmonizing pricing structures across segments, combined with growth in the upsell products. Volume development follows similar trends as the previous quarter but with an accelerated volume decline in Norway for both private and pro. This is market-driven and is also affected by the timing of Easter being in Q1 this year.
Looking at jobs, Norway experienced double-digit ARPA growth driven by the new segmented pricing model combined with upsell products. Similarly, Finland demonstrated a noteworthy ARPA uplift driven by a change in product mix and price adjustments. Volumes continue to be affected by the market headwinds with particular challenges in Finland and Sweden.
And then within real estate, we continue to see exceptional growth in ARPA in Norway, driven by several factors like the introduction of new packages in leisure homes for sale, a new business model for new construction as well as regular price adjustments. In Finland, while ARPA has seen some improvement compared to previous quarters due to price adjustments, the mix of houses for sale versus rental adds continue to dampen ARPA. On the volume side, the development in Norway is still affected by market headwinds, while I am pleased to see continued solid volume growth in Finland as we progress towards securing a #1 position.
Looking at financials then. Mobility vertical saw solid revenue growth despite the volatile macro environment in the quarter. And foreign exchange neutral revenues increased 11% compared to last year. Classified revenues demonstrated an underlying 16% growth for the quarter primarily driven by ARPA increases. Additionally, Nettbil achieved a robust growth of 17% during the quarter despite the macro climate.
In Q1, transactional models continued combined -- contributed with a total of NOK 73 million in revenues, which is an increase of 27% compared to last year. Following the January launch of Wheelaway in Sweden, we now operate transactional C2B platforms in three out of four markets. And as mentioned, macro conditions continue to impact the advertising market. And in Q1, advertising revenues in the mobility vertical showed a decline of 12% on a foreign exchange neutral basis. Total costs increased year-on-year, driven by investments in new initiatives like Nettbil, Autovex and Wheelaway, combined with the transition to the common tech platform. Despite the cost increase, EBITDA increased 22% compared to Q1 last year, driven by higher revenues with margin ending at 49%.
Then jobs, where the challenging macroeconomic environment is really predominantly affecting jobs, as I have mentioned. However, we are very pleased to witness a strong ARPA contribution from the new segmented pricing model launched in the first quarter. Together with an increase in upsell products, this resulted in the strong ARPA growth that we see in Norway. This offsets the impact of decreased volume resulting in only a 2% revenue decrease in Norway compared to last year.
Looking at total revenues for the job vertical, market challenges in both Sweden and Finland resulted in a decline of 8% compared to last year on a foreign exchange neutral basis. EBITDA was impacted by lower revenues, combined with higher costs driven by the transition to a common tech platform and thus decreased by 20% compared to last year.
Real estate continues to demonstrate resilience to market conditions and reports a strong 15% foreign exchange-neutral revenue growth. This growth was primarily driven by strong ARPA in Norway and solid growth in our rental platform, CASA. Revenues in Norway, the largest part of our real estate business increased by 14% despite the muted volume development. In Finland, we are pleased to see an accelerated progress towards the #1 position, which can be attributed to our intensified marketing efforts. Our rental platform, CASA in Sweden, continues to show solid growth in its main KPIs with growth in signing value being the most important. The acquisition of HomeQ will further strengthen our rental position in Sweden.
Similar to the other verticals, costs are up compared to last year, primarily driven by investments in CASA, acquisition of HomeQ and the transition to the common tech platform. EBITDA ended in line leading to a 26% margin. And when adjusting for the transactional models, margin in traditional real estate is 34% in the first quarter.
For recommerce, I'm pleased to announce that we now have a transactional model in three out of four countries marked by the late March launch of ToriDiili in Finland. I will shortly comment more on that important milestone in the transition towards a verticalized business. But looking at the financials in the quarter, the main driver for the revenue growth was the transactional business, where we continue to see solid uptake both in volumes and monetization in Norway and Sweden. Total foreign exchange neutral revenues growth for the quarter was 20%, driven by strong growth of 36% in classifieds. The advertising market continues to face challenging macroeconomic conditions, resulting in a 19% year-on-year decline in advertising revenues on a foreign exchange neutral basis.
EBITDA for the quarter resulted in a loss of NOK 82 million. That's primarily due to continued investments in the transactional business model and the transition to the unified tech platform, which then offsets the revenue growth. And then related to the transition to a unified tech platform, we did make crucial progress in the first quarter. We could finally launch our new Nordic platform in Finland which is based on Finn and Tori has successfully transitioned all private users onto this new platform. This means that nearly 1/5 of the total Finnish population has already logged in which means that we have managed to maintain the same proportion of logged-in users after the migration. And logged in users is a crucial metric as it provides us with important insight, allowing us to further improve our offering over time.
Other key performance metrics, such as new approved ads and users with leads and weekly return rates also -- are also performing at the same levels post migration. And this indicates that users remain engaged in a similar manner as before despite the substantial changes in user experience brought about by the new platform. We also see a steady growth in adoption of new features by the users such as personalized recommendations and user ratings. And the implementation of the new platform also enabled us to actually just a couple of weeks after the migration to launch the transactional offering ToriDiili in the Finnish market. And we're pleased to report a promising start mirroring the strong initial success of our Fiks Ferdig product in Norway 2 years ago, and that was achieved even before we started any major marketing efforts.
All right. We'll go to News Media and subject to approval at Schibsted's Annual General Meeting today, this marks the final quarter in which we include the News Media segment as part of our portfolio.
In the first quarter, the News Media segment faced market challenges, including reduced advertising in Norway and ongoing declines in casual sales and print subscriptions. But despite these headwinds, this segment benefited from a strong digital advertising performance in Sweden and stable subscription revenues resulting in foreign exchange neutral revenues that were just marginally lower than the previous year. And on the cost side, the implementation of the cost reduction program continued to yield benefits. And even amidst the high inflation, the segment achieved a 4% reduction in cost levels significantly enhancing EBITDA, which reached NOK 61 million, and I would say that's an impressive improvement over last year's figures. So it's fair to say that News Media is exiting on a strong note.
Then next up is delivery. Performance in Q1 was affected negatively by a continued decline in newspaper circulation as well as fewer work days due to Easter. Also, more levering continued to decline compared to last year driven by changes in consumer shopping behavior. Revenues in Helthjem Netthandel on the other hand, increased by 13% compared to last year, driven by increased volumes in B2C and higher C2C volumes due to Finn's transactional recommerce offering, Fiks Ferdig. And total cost decreased 10% in Q1 compared to last year, driven by the continuous cost focus. EBITDA improved slightly compared to last year, ending at NOK 1 million.
And then last but not least is growth and investment, which consists of brands like Lendo and Prisjakt. Total consolidated revenues in the segment decreased 12% on a foreign exchange neutral basis, primarily driven by the macroeconomic environment. Revenues in Lendo continued the negative revenue development and declined by 19% on a foreign exchange neutral basis as the macroeconomic environment causes banks and borrowers to be more cautious. This primarily affects consumer loans in Sweden and Norway, while we continue to see good growth in Denmark and within new product verticals such as business loans, credit cards and car loans.
Prisjakt also faced a challenging market environment with revenues declining by 10% on a foreign exchange neutral basis. This was mainly due to the macroeconomic climate and the Google core update which reduced organic traffic and cost a drop in advertising sales. Conversely, revenues in SMB Group increased across all markets, leading to a growth of 9% on a foreign exchange neutral basis although EBITDA was impacted negatively by a marketing campaign that we ran in the first quarter.
To counter the downturn in Lendo and Prisjakt, cost-saving measures have been initiated, leading to reduced operating costs and helping to offset the decline in EBITDA in this area. Overall, total EBITDA for the segment fell by 27% compared to the previous year. And with that, I'll hand it over to you in Oslo, PC?
Thank you, Kristin, and good morning, everyone. Let me present some more details on the financials for the first quarter.
Overall, foreign exchange neutral revenues for the quarter ended minus 1% versus last year, affected by the continued volatile macroeconomic environment. As commented on, this development was driven by the 6% underlying growth in Nordic Marketplace, offset by the decline in growth and investment and delivery. Group EBITDA ended at NOK 454 million, 7% up from the same period last year despite the slight revenue decline. This is mainly driven by the cost program in News Media, but also supported by cost initiatives in delivery, Lendo and Prisjakt, offsetting the challenging revenue development in these units.
As mentioned by Kristin previously, the EBITDA in Nordic marketplace declined year-on-year despite the revenue increase. This is driven by new business models' investments in mobility, real estate and recommerce. Combined with costs related to the transition into a common technology platform.
Let's move into our income statement. Our operating profit for the quarter ended at NOK 5 million, down from NOK 20 million last year. EBITDA is improved by NOK 31 million, while other income shows a reduction of NOK 45 million. Other income this year include transaction costs related to the anticipated sale of News Media, while last year included a gain from a sale of a subsidiary. Adevinta is now presented as discontinued operation on a single line. Since the uncertainty related to completion of the transaction is considered to be very low. Previous periods are re-represented to be comparable.
Profit and loss from discontinued operation is negative in Q1 due to impairment done by Adevinta in their operations in Canada, which is quite significant, almost NOK 0.5 billion. Last year were positive because of Schibsted reversal of impairment following the increase in the share price back then. The Adevinta TRS is not represented as discontinued. So the TRS has a very limited effect in Q1 this year but contributed almost NOK 300 million positive to financial income in Q1 last year. So in total then, net profit for the group ended at around minus NOK 1.2 billion in Q1.
Our operating cash flow fell in the quarter by NOK 107 million. NOK 60 million of this is related to payment of restructuring costs from previous periods, and the remaining is normal seasonality related to working capital development. CapEx in Q1 ended at NOK 219 million, down 7% from last year. Around half of these investments are directly linked to our Nordic marketplace business. And more than half of this again is connected to what we have mentioned a few times today around our transition to a common technology platform.
Schibsted has a very solid financial position and the balance sheet, even before the closing of the Adevinta transaction and the sale of our news media operations. Both are as expected to close during the second quarter with the total proceeds amounting to around NOK 29 billion. A bond of NOK 500 million was repaid at maturity in March. The revolving credit facility is not drawn and secure a good liquidity buffer going forward. And our public rating of BBB stable confirms Schibsted as a solid investment-grade company.
A dividend of around NOK 450 million or NOK 2 per share has been proposed for the AGM decision later today. In addition, Schibsted, as previously communicated, has proposed to the general meeting to return most of the capital to be received from the above-mentioned transactions. A special dividend of around NOK 20 billion and a multi-year buyback program of approximately NOK 4 billion. The remainder of the cash proceeds around NOK 5 billion, primarily intended to be used to strengthen our balance sheet and reduce our net debt.
Moving to outlook. Our internal and the latest internal forecast related to 2024 show some gaps to the midterm targets as our financial results continue to be impacted by the volatile macroeconomic environment. As Kristin has alluded to earlier, 2024 is a major transition year for Schibsted due to the Adevinta sell down, but also the separation and the sale of our news media operations.
Under normal circumstances, appropriate measures will already be well underway and in effect. However, the separation and the related reorganization of the entire group means that implementing the necessary cost measures takes longer due to both legal but also procedural kind of considerations. We will continue implementation as soon as we possibly can, but we would do so in a long-term sustainable manner rather than taking unnecessary risk to improve the financials in the short-term perspective. And it is in this context that we then are temporary pausing our current financial target for Nordic marketplace. Then I guess the question is, okay, so what are we then actually looking at. So for 2024, what we do expect is a temporary reduction in growth rates and margin to somewhat below the previous targets that we have communicated. Schibsted Marketplace continues to operate robust businesses with unique market positions in our different markets and our ambition to remain high for '25 and beyond.
As Kristin has alluded to, we are now in the midst of a process to update our strategy, develop a comprehensive set of measures to adapt the organization and the cost level to this new situation. We look forward to come back later in the year in a Capital Market Day that is planned for Q4.
Before we move into Q&A, let me quickly comment on the acquisition of the Finn stake. We will acquire Polaris, 9.99% stake in Finn, which going forward, will give us full control and ownership of the centerpiece of our marketplace business. Following the previous announced transformative initiatives and projects, this is another step of simplifying and unlocking the full potential of the Schibsted group. Total transaction value is NOK 2.5 billion on an equity basis. We see this as value accretive for Schibsted and takes into consideration illiquidity and minority discounts. The settlement of this transaction will happen by issuing new B shares in Schibsted to Polaris, a structure that was necessary to enable the deal to happen.
The subscription price per B share will be based on the average daily VWAP in the period from 19th of April, the 3rd of May. The transaction and the share issue is expected to be completed during the month of May. And with this, I suggest that we start the Q&A, Amboya.
Okay. Let's start with the teams here, and then we can also go back to the written questions.
First in line here is Will Packer. Will, please go ahead.
So you've withdrawn the NMP guidance today. Could you help us think about 2024 margins for that segment? Consensus has a margin expansion, which could look optimistic now. Should we expect margins to be down year-on-year versus 2023, considering the lack of cost action, jobs weakness, recommerce headwinds, et cetera?
And then my other question is regarding the dissynergies. So I've asked a couple of times after that and each time you've argued it's a work in progress, which is very understandable. Now we're removing media from our forecast from next quarter, it seems pretty close. So perhaps we can have some update there on any dissynergies? How should we think about the central cost number going forward? Any color would be helpful.
Yes. So I mean, we gave some perspective now in my voice over related to the discontinuing of our ambitions externally. So, we're not going to give you the exact details around that. And I think that is because we are still in this macro environment, it's a bit hard to predict exactly where especially in the second half, how that will go. And that, of course, could impact. And then as -- even if we find it difficult to implement cost measures as we normally would have done, we are working on it. And it comes a little bit back on how much effect are we able to get in '24 versus run rate into next year.
So I think I'll come back to the current guiding that we are giving not officially is that somewhat below our previous targets on both growth rates and margin you should be expected. But we are not looking at a collapse of our financials here, but I just find it important that when we see these challenges, I would rather be upfront and talk about it and show you in full transparency where we are, given that we have limited room now to mitigate the situation.
Then on your second question around dis-synergies and central costs and so on. So I understand there's a strong need to better understand the opportunities and the challenges related to the separation. But I also ask you for a bit of patience because we are still in the midst of separating the organization and the company. We are, of course, we have better and better visibility both in terms of the great opportunities that we now have to reset the cost base and take out some of the costs that we carry today. But also, as we have talked about before, negative synergies of splitting one company into two. But I think it's the expectation should be that the net of those two will be positive. And you should not expect any immediate sort of changes short term of significance because after closing, there's a TSA in place. So it will be relatively stable in the beginning.
So just to come back on the 2024 messaging. So you've drawn the guidance and suggested that the margin ambitions will take somewhat longer to achieve, which I understand. But obviously, there's quite a wide range of outcomes that we could model. Is there any color you can offer us at all on the cadence of margins from here even into next quarter? Because it does feel like there's a pretty wide variance ahead potentially.
I'll think I'll leave it with the perspectives that I shared both in my presentation and also in the answer here.
Thanks, Will. I think next, we have PV on the line. So PV, please unmute them and go ahead.
Let's start with two. On mobility and the ARPAs, especially, so they jump to low double-digit growth now, but -- and presumably, that's probably going to be the -- roughly the level for the rest of the year as we kind of move to over the comparison period last year. But maybe thinking more long term on mobility ARPA. So for 2025, are we then going to go back to like CPI pricing and low single digits? Or is there some kind of change in your approach? How you think about the ARPAs in mobility. That's question number one.
And then the second is on the kind of you talk about adapting the organization and the cost base. But where do you see kind of the need or the opportunity depending how you want to frame it for these? Like where will your focus be when you're thinking about this reorganization? And how do you benchmark what the opportunity or potential is? How do you know where to kind of set your targets.
So I can take the mobility question, and then PC can take the cost question. I think when it comes to the ARPA levels that you see this year and the growth from last year, I think you can expect roughly the same levels going forward. And looking into next year, I think we have said before that we are working very actively on this topic. We see huge opportunity in monetizing mobility better across all the Nordic markets. So I don't think you should expect that we go back to on the CPI increases, but you should definitely expect more than that. We are -- we have an ambitious agenda in this area.
Yes. And then on your second question on where do we see opportunities? I mean, in general, we see opportunities everywhere. So no area is kind of safe in a way where we think we are fully kind of set up in a very -- most effective way. But I think where the big change that naturally comes from this is that if you look at the organizational structure of Schibsted today before the separation of News Media, we are set up on a relatively sort of big and also high structure. It is natural when we now carve out half of the organization in terms of number of people and also revenues to take a full relook into what is the organizational structure that we need in this new setting.
So that will apply that we have opportunities to collapse some of the leadership structures, think differently. And then we have also talked about before that looking at what is our agenda going forward where we have previously, for a good reason, had a quite sort of wide and expansive agenda in terms of different areas. We are now looking at how can we focus the company around our Nordic marketplace business, and that also allow for rethinking some of our current cost structures. But we are also looking into -- I mean, with the technology development happening now, there's great opportunities to be more efficient in how to do product and tech development, just pure efficiency focus and cost.
So given the situation we are now, we are not sort of doing it as forcefully as we would in a normal situation, and this will also then come back once we are out of this separation focus. And in terms of benchmarking, I mean we are doing different things. We, of course, are looking at our natural peers, looking at what they are doing and where do we stand compared to them. There are, of course, always differences. But of course, we get inspired by some of our peers having completely different multiples, no different EBITDA margin levels that we have. So we're looking at that, but not necessarily the answer is to be exactly on the same level, but working ourselves through that. So when we come to the Capital Market Day, we will give you more color on where do we see the opportunity and for the next coming years.
Looking at the queue, we have Silvia on the line. So Silvia, please go ahead.
The first question I have is on the macro environment. It looks like something changed since the full year results in February, given your decision to suspend the guidance. So I wanted to ask if you could talk about the impact that you see in some of the other verticals. So beyond the ones we know are more cyclical, given that there seem to be a bit of an impact on the cars volume as well a reminder of the typical performance through the cycle of the other verticals would be helpful.
And then second question on the costs in Nordic marketplaces. You mentioned they increased partly because of the investment into new products. Can you tell us if this is marketing step-up or other type of costs that you're putting into the business?
And then final question on the time line for the transition to the common tech platform. It sounds like that's underway. But do you have an estimate of how long that would take. And what sort of investment is going into CapEx versus OpEx given that you called out a little bit of that into CapEx?
The time line was related to...
To the transition of the tech platform in Nordic marketplace.
Okay. So what I suggest, Christian, I can start a little bit on the overall macro and touch a little bit overall on cost and maybe then you can support a bit on overall macro by verticals and more specifics around the tech platform and what we're doing.
So if you look back, I mean, there is no radical changes in the macro environment since we met 3 months ago. But as we also said back then was that when we set out these ambitions by vertical, both on the top and the bottom line, there has been a much tougher macro environment during those 5 quarters. Also in February, what we said was that we are under pressure. We revised the ambitions for jobs, and we said that we are under pressure in the other verticals. And we were hoping for a bit of a rebound in the second half.
I think what we're looking at right now is that rebound, at least I don't dare to bet that that's going to happen. It might happen, but I don't think we can plan for it to happen, and that gives us a bit more pressure on several revenue streams, not dramatically, but it puts on some more pressure. And that combined that with our lack of ability to really mitigate this on the cost side leaves us in a tough situation. But maybe you want to sort of talk a little bit on the vertical side.
Yes. I think what we have seen for several quarters is that the macro affects primarily jobs and advertising and that continues, but more or less in the same way as we've seen before. You asked specifically about mobility and the volumes in this quarter. I think what's important to understand here is that the comparables on the professional side over last year was really high due to changes in the regulations and rules around benefits around electrical vehicles that boosted the volumes last year. And then you see it in the year-over-year numbers this year.
But still this year, if you compare it to, let's say, 2019 to 2022 numbers, it's on the same level. Then on the private volumes, there is a drop in volumes, that indicates a shift that we actually have seen over quite some time to more, let's say, convenient models such as Nettbil. So you will actually find some of that volume back again in Nettbil volumes. Yes, I think those are maybe the most important things.
So let me then touch quickly on the question on the cost in the Nordic marketplace and then you can elaborate a bit on the common tech platform.
So the cost increase that we see in Q1 versus last year is mainly around resource related costs, both our own personnel, but also combined with our consultancy cost. This is driven basically by two factors. One, as everyone else, we have a kind of a 5-plus percent inflationary pressure on our salaries, but also that we are now more than 100 people more than what we were in Q1 last year. And the main reason for this 100 more people is actually twofold. It's around 50, which is our investments into our view business models, the Nettbil, Autovex, Wheelaway and CASA, specific investments that we believe create value long term, but doesn't help us short term on the financials. And the second part is we are today around 50 people more in our product and tech organization to enable the transformation into a common tech platform. And I think it's a good segue into you.
Yes. And then we announced this transition to a common tech platform already at the Capital Markets Day, but we haven't spoken enough about it maybe, but this is a multiyear effort to streamline our technology platforms. That will, in the long run, enable a better cost structure because we will not duplicate efforts across four different markets. And it will also enable us to have faster innovation speeds. We see this now when we have the same platform in Norway and Finland that we can develop things once and roll it out in two countries more or less immediately, and at the same time. So this is something you should expect to see for several years, which is really something that will bring us over to a different cost structure in the long run.
And I think we can take some written questions before we then continue on teams. So staying with you, maybe Christian. Recently, we have seen some more competition on classifieds in Norway both in real estate mobility. Do you have any details like is this impacting the business? How do you look at this competition?
Yes. So we have seen the drive initiative in mobility in Norway. That's primarily an initiative around dealer management systems, where part of the branded dealers have opted to go for that, and they compete with our own dealer management system, CarWeb. We still see that we have an extremely strong position in mobility in Norway. We are certain that we are delivering the best marketing solution and the best effect for dealers in Norway.
Similarly, on real estate, [indiscernible] launched, we are certain of our strength and our ability to deliver leads to agents and sellers of properties. As an example, if you just look at the comparison between Yem and Finn, we have around, I don't know, 21,000 houses for sale on our side. And Yem has about 1/3 of that on their side. We deliver about -- we have about 0.5 billion visits to real estate in a year. So we are definitely being the main destination for property buyers and sellers.
And then maybe for you, PC, some questions on the acquisition from the Finn stake. I mean, first, like why is this transaction happening in shares instead of cash. Then there's a question like now you're doing this transaction with a Finn stake. Do you also have any plans doing the same with the [ Helthjem ] stake in Polaris? And then the third question on the transaction is if there was any dividend from Finn to Polaris before the deal completed for 2023.
Yes. So on your first question related to cash versus shares. I think it's a natural question to ask, given our current situation, where we have access to a lot of cash. But this was simply necessary to enable the deal to happen. So we're basically standing in the option of doing this and paying in shares or not doing it at all. And I think by doing it even if it is in shares, it's a much better deal than a no-deal scenario.
In terms of whether we are looking into other parts of our business to further streamline, I'm not going to go into details on that. But the general message of trying to simplify the whole group. I mean that goes in our legal structures and how we are set up, how we are organized is an important part of the agenda going forward. So they will become, but I'm not going to comment specifically on Health or anything else on that.
The question related to whether there has been any dividend before. No, not for '23, that is -- it will come after. And any dividend is included in that price that we have disclosed today.
Maybe one more financial question before we go back to Teams. On Adevinta, how will we report Adevinta going forward in Schibsted. Will you just give like a result in the net income? Or will you also give like a segment split of the company going forward?
Yes. As we have talked before, we'll come back with a bit more color on this at a later stage. But what you should expect is there will be any differences in our valuation of this stake will be seen in financial income and financial expenses. We will be open and transparent on our valuation model on how do we derive those results. I don't think you should expect that we will give sort of segmented detailed information on a regular basis.
We can go back to Teams a little bit. I think, [indiscernible], you have asked the question, so maybe you can go next in line. So please unmute, [indiscernible].
Yes. Thank you. So another question from me on the upcoming cost cuts. How I understood it correctly that these cost cuts will be shared with the market not before Q4? And if so, why wait until Q4 as the media deal is set to close relatively soon.
Yes, I think -- I don't think you should expect any major announcement around our cost before our Capital Market Day in Q4. I mean, we're still having closed the sale of our News Media transaction. The expectation is that, that will happen in the first half of June. Of course, we are not standing still. We are preparing and we are, as I said, looking at what are the opportunities but also what are the challenges in terms of negative synergies. Though we need to see this in a total context in terms of what is our strategy going forward, what is our agenda? What's the portfolio of Schibsted marketplaces? And what is the underlying growth and our cost agenda as part of that. So I'm not going to promise any details before we come to Q4.
And it seems like Will, you have your hand up again. So if you want to ask a question, please. Please go ahead.
Sorry, I turned my hand down.
And then PV is still your hand from the previous questions? Or do you have any one?
Yes. A couple. So maybe can we recap the Finn deal. In terms of timing, why is it attractive now? So I mean, I think it's attractive, but you could have argued the same thing 5 years ago. So a lot of things are happening in the business. now with Adevinta and news. So why are you doing it now and not some other time? That's the number one question. Then on -- just an update on DBA transactional start. Is that -- should that be expected this year still? Or then also an update on Oikotie moving to the shared platform?
And lastly, I would like to pick your brain a little bit on CASA investment because it seems to be clearly like putting some burden on real estate profitability at the moment. So how I guess you could say bullish our view on that business long term because the risk that I see for that business is that you invest a lot now and sometime over the next 10 years, you will end up in competition with Hemnet, which is not a reality today. But it might be a reality at some point. So how kind of aggressive do you want to be knowing that there is at least some risk that you're kind of building a business in the shadow of a giant in some way because of their dominance in for sale. So that's it.
I'll take the first one, and then maybe you can cover the second and the third question. So why now? I mean it's -- I don't know the details of what discussions has been before I joined Schibsted, but I know it's been a topic for a long period of time. But it takes two to tango. You need someone that is willing to sell, and you need to come together in valuation that is attractive for both parties. And given these big changes that have happened now over the last 6 months, that also changes a little bit of the situation and have helped us to sort of enable this at this point in time. So there was a window of opportunity now, and we took it.
Yes. When it comes to DBA and Oikotie, I don't think I will disclose anything due to competitive concerns and situation. So we will have to come back to those questions when they are relevant. When it comes to CASA, I think it's important to be very clear that we have now the leading position in rentals in Sweden. We had it already in the C2C market with CASA. Now with HomeQ, we are adding on the B2C position strengthening our overall network effects significantly in the Swedish market compared to Hemnet, that has basically nothing in that segment. So I think we are in a very strong position, both now and long term to build that segment with this transactional model and also with this SaaS model that HomeQ provides to the market. So we invest in this. And yes, it does hamper our profitability in the short term, but we do see opportunity in this -- significant opportunity in this long term.
Okay. And I think there's one more hand up from Rasmus. Maybe you haven't had the question -- the possibility to ask the question. So maybe last question from you, Rasmus, and then we conclude the Q&A today before the AGM starts in half an hour.
Yes, I'll be quick. So I'm thinking you could have withdrawn 1 or 2 of the vertical. So should we interpret this as all verticals are below or potentially below your midterm guidance? Is that correct?
Thanks for the question. Yes, that's a good one. I mean there are some differences between the verticals. But the macro uncertainty and volatility, of course, hit a little bit different, but it is present in most of the verticals to some degree. The challenge that we have alluded to several times today in terms of our ability to act, mitigate and address the situation, that basically goes across for all the verticals. And that's why we find it sort of cleaner and simpler just to say that we are now in a situation where we really want to focus on building the company for the future. We want the management teams and the organization really to address that, so we can come out of 2024 with the best possible run rate and have a good discussion with you in the CMD later in the year rather than try to figure out how to deal with certain short-term pressures. So that's why we ended up, it was cleaner and easier just to remove it, and then we will come back in a couple of quarters with a comprehensive update.
Okay. But then thanks so much for joining us today and be in touch.