Last Friday, the exec team at [praized subtype=”small” pid=”7a4e7f1586dc54f8f2f5f0da536a084d” type=”badge” dynamic=”true”] presented their 2009-2011 plan to financial analysts. I just read through the presentation and here are the interesting highlights:

2008 Overview:

• Difficult year 2008 for the group (total revenues are down 4.8%) but they met their ebitda guidance (nonetheless down 6.6%)
• In Italy, print revenues were down 1.1% but online revenues were up 18.4%. Online revenues represent more than 15% of all Italian revenues.
• Interestingly, Seat experienced explosive online revenue growth (+27%) in Q3 and Q4 2008 because of new Internet offers launched in September. I believe those new products are priority placement and SEO/SEM offers (see slide 10 of this presentation).
• Online product gross margins (72%) are almost as high as print margins (75%)

Usage and advertiser data:

• 22M print users
• 11M online users
• 500M look-ups per year (print & online)
• 500,000 advertisers

Ongoing strategy:

• Their main strategy: “Invest in the Italian core business and protect Seat’s strong cash flow generation to position the Group for successful refinancing of debt in 2011”. It could be summed up as “Italy and Online” + “International assets not core”.
• 2011: they expect Internet revenues to be higher than 25% of total revenues
• Online usage will be driven by improved functionalities, SEO and branding
• Online revenues will grow through product innovation and new salespeople
• Move to pay-for-performance in their voice product