Flat quarter, stronger half
Catena Media reported revenue of €9.5m for the second quarter of 2026, down 1% from €9.6m a year earlier, as renewed volatility in organic search rankings weighed on the affiliate group’s core business. Adjusted EBITDA fell 11% to €1.2m, giving a margin of 13%, down from 14% in Q2 2025. Reported EBITDA dropped 46% to €1.2m against a €2.2m comparator that had been lifted by a one-off €1.4m gain on the disposal of intangible assets.
The first half told a different story. Revenue for January to June rose 12% to €21.8m, adjusted EBITDA climbed 70% to €3.9m, and the adjusted EBITDA margin widened to 18% from 12%. New depositing customers (NDCs) from continuing operations reached 59,354 for the half, up 41% on the prior year, with the quarterly figure up 23% to 24,781. North America drove nearly all of it: revenue from the region rose 20% to €21.0m in H1, now 96% of group revenue from continuing operations.
CEO Manuel Stan attributed the quarterly dip to conditions across the sector rather than company-specific problems.
“These results reflect industry-wide headwinds in organic search and mark a pause after several quarters of strong operating performance.”
Cash and cash equivalents stood at €13.0m on 30 June, more than double the €6.6m held a year earlier, after net cash from continuing operating activities of €4.4m for the half.
Casino grows, Sports keeps shrinking
Casino remains Catena Media’s main engine, generating €8.5m in Q2, up 8% year on year and 90% of group revenue. NDCs in the segment grew 35%. Adjusted EBITDA fell 18% to €1.1m, though, giving a margin of 13% against 17% a year earlier, and revenue was down 22% quarter on quarter from Q1’s €10.9m. Social sweepstakes casino revenue grew year on year on the back of the MRKTPLAYS platform despite regulatory pressure on that sub-segment, though it stayed below the Q4 2025 peak. PlayUSA’s loyalty product PlayPerks, launched in January, drove double-digit CRM growth.
Sports had a harder quarter. Revenue fell 43% to €1.0m, a 10% share of group revenue, and NDCs dropped 13%. Catena Media chose not to optimise products for the World Cup this year, and the tournament delivered no meaningful uptick as a result. Stripping out the esports business sold in 2025, the year-on-year revenue decline was 35%. Adjusted EBITDA nonetheless rose to €0.1m from €0.02m, as the group put development effort into new features ahead of the NFL season, which will be the first with widespread user access to prediction markets.
Hybrid bondholders offered 20 cents on the euro
The most concrete move in the report concerns Catena Media’s outstanding hybrid capital securities, CATME H01. The board has evaluated the instrument as part of an updated capital allocation plan and, in a letter to shareholders, chairman Erik Flinck set out to correct what he described as market confusion about its structure.
“We recognise there is significant uncertainty and misunderstanding in the market regarding the nature of the hybrid capital security.”
Flinck confirmed CATME H01 is classified as equity, not debt: holders cannot demand repayment or force default, and any resumption of interest payments is entirely at the company’s discretion. Catena Media does not intend to resume payments for the foreseeable future. As of 30 June, the securities carried a nominal value of €43.7m and deferred interest of €5.4m; a further deferral on 10 July took accumulated deferred interest to €7.0m, with the coupon rising to three-month STIBOR plus 12% under the instrument’s terms.
With little market demand for a perpetual, non-redeeming instrument on which interest is not being paid, liquidity for existing holders has been thin. Catena Media is responding with a voluntary offer to buy back CATME H01 at 20% of nominal value, SEK 20 for every SEK 100, with no accrued or capitalised interest included. The offer was announced in a separate press release on 11 August 2026, with application details to follow on the company’s investor relations page.
Beyond organic search
Stan used the results to restate a strategic shift the board began exploring earlier this year: moving Catena Media from a traditional affiliation and lead-generation model toward what he called a technical infrastructure platform connecting publishers and advertisers across a wider set of verticals. Investment in the project began in Q2, showing up in higher capital expenditure, and the company has reorganised its product teams around it. Stan said final testing is expected in late 2026 ahead of a commercial launch in the first half of 2027, citing competitive reasons for withholding further operational detail.
MRKTPLAYS, the group’s existing marketplace product, now contributes more than a third of group revenue and is the model for the wider platform. Stan was clear the shift is not a retreat from SEO.
“To be clear, this is not a retreat from organic search and traditional search engine optimisation. We will continue to invest in and develop our core organic brands.”
Governance moved in parallel. The 27 May AGM re-elected Erik Flinck, Sean Hurley and Martin Zetterlund to the board and added Seth Young as a new director, while the 30 June EGM authorised the company to buy back up to 10% of its issued shares (7,877,444 shares). On 11 August, Catena Media confirmed it would launch a buyback of up to 5.98% of outstanding shares, solely to cover obligations under its long-term incentive programme rather than as a capital return signal.
Outlook
Catena Media has kept its 2026 targets unchanged: double-digit organic growth in group revenue and adjusted EBITDA, and net interest-bearing debt to adjusted EBITDA of 0 to 1.75. On the H1 numbers, the growth target is on track even after a soft second quarter; the earnings target depends on whether the organic search recovery recorded after the end of Q2 holds into the second half. The next update, the Q3 report, is due on 10 November 2026.
Source: Catena Media plc
