Opera Limited, one of the world’s largest internet consumer brands with hundreds of millions of users worldwide, today announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.

“Opera’s performance in 2022 is off to a great start, both as it relates to our product portfolio and in terms of monetization and financial results coming in ahead of expectations. As a segment-oriented web browser and content platform provider, we continue to see increased adoption of our products in western markets, where more and more people choose Opera (NASDAQ:) over default solutions, and we maintain a very strategic and significant footprint amongst monetizable users in emerging markets”, said Co-CEO Song Lin.

“The world, and in particular the situation in Europe, is looking very different today than it did at our last quarterly release, but we find that tailwinds in our business are offsetting the monetary impacts of the war as it relates to Opera. While we are excited about the continued momentum in our business, this naturally fades in importance relative to the grave situation unfolding and the millions of people affected, including among our own staff and their families.”

Recent business highlights and the first quarter

• Advertising revenue and core search were up 41% in the first quarter. This was due to the strong ARPU trend from our browser and news users as well as our ability to leverage our strong advertiser demand through Opera Ads.
• Opera’s average monthly active user base was 339 million MAUs in the quarter; with a continued directional shift towards higher ARPU markets. The Americas saw the highest user growth, with North America seeing a 15% increase and South America seeing a 10% rise. We continue to invest in emerging markets for users we think will be monetizable.
• Opera GX’s gaming browser saw over 16,000,000 monthly active users on PC and mobile during the first quarter. This represents a healthy trend with 14% sequential growth.
• Opera Web3 was the latest addition to the family. It released its beta version. Opera now supports most of the major blockchain ecosystems.
• Our minority stakes in Nanobank (previously StarMaker) and Star X were sold. The second sale took place after quarter-end. The two transactions total $211 million in cash proceeds, with no contingencies. We also had $182 million in cash and other marketable securities as of the Q1 end. OPay’s 6.44% share remains.
• The company purchased 569 000 ADSs for an average of $5.33 each, for a total of $3,000,000. We still have $47 Million under our buyback authorization.

Perspectives for the business

“Due to the core revenue generation of our business scaling ahead of expectation, we exceeded the top of our guidance ranges for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter and we are in a position to maintain our prior full-year guidance” said CFO Frode Jacobsen. “Revenues generated from our users located in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine accounted for approximately 10% of our revenue in the past, and it is the strength of our underlying business that offsets the expected decline in this region for the year as a whole.”

Opera projects revenue at $300-$310 million in 2022. It is a 22% rise at the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA will be between $50 and $60 million. This would give Opera an 18% margin of profit at the middlepoint compared to 12% for 2021.

Opera anticipates revenue between $71 million and $74 million for the second quarter 2022. This represents 21% growth year-over-year at the midpoint. Opera expects adjusted EBITDA to range between $8 million-12 million. That’s a 14% margin.

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