BALLERUP, DENMARK – GN today announced the release its Interim Report for Q3 2024. The company experienced further margin expansion and strong cash flow, despite facing varying growth trends across its divisions.
Financial Highlights and Strategic Initiatives
- Hearing Division: Achieved 10% organic revenue growth, fueled by market share gains and the continued success of the ReSound Nexia product line. The divisional profit margin increased by 5.9 percentage points, reaching 34.8%, supported by synergies and strategic cost management.
- Enterprise Division: Faced a 7% decline in organic revenue growth, mainly due to economic challenges in Central Europe, although North America and other global markets showed signs of stabilization. Despite these challenges, the division maintained a profit margin of 33.8% through company-wide synergies and cost-saving measures.
- Gaming & Consumer Division: Experienced a 20% decline in organic revenue, impacted by market fluctuations and the wind-down of the Elite and Talk product lines. The division still managed to achieve a profit margin of 4.0%, reflecting efforts to mitigate losses through promotional activities and operational efficiencies.
Overall Financial Performance
GN Store Nord’s reported EBITA rose 29% year-over-year to DKK 553 million (approximately USD 80 million), driven by group-wide synergies of approximately DKK 115 million (USD 16.6 million) and a stringent focus on cost control. The company’s EBITA margin expanded by 3.6 percentage points to 13.3%. Free cash flow, excluding mergers and acquisitions (M&A), reached DKK 786 million (USD 113.7 million), marking the strongest third-quarter cash flow in the company’s history. Net interest-bearing debt decreased to DKK 9.7 billion (USD 1.4 billion), with an adjusted leverage of 3.5x.
“As a result of the continued execution of our transformation to unfold the full value of GN’s potential, we significantly increased our margins and generated strong cash flow of DKK 800 million (USD 115.7 million). Our Hearing division continued to perform very well with market share gains and solid growth. Our Enterprise division faced headwinds from challenged markets in major European countries, while the U.S. and Rest of World saw recovering enterprise markets. Our Gaming business had a difficult quarter, but we remain confident that the business will be back in growth mode in Q4. Overall, I am pleased with the progress we are making with creating a stronger GN and preparing us for future growth.”
–GN CEO, Peter Karlstromer
Outlook and Guidance for 2024
GN has revised its financial guidance for 2024, adjusting its organic revenue growth forecast to 1% to 2% from a previous range. The EBITA margin guidance remains unchanged at 12% to 13%, while the free cash flow, excluding M&A, is now expected to exceed DKK 1,100 million (USD 159 million).
The Hearing division is projected to continue its upward trajectory, benefiting from favorable demographic trends and the strong momentum of ReSound Nexia. GN anticipates that the division will achieve organic growth near the upper end of its initial 8% to 12% target.
The Enterprise division, though challenged in Central Europe, is expected to see improvements in 2025, driven by a recovering market. The Gaming & Consumer division will focus on navigating market softness while winding down certain product lines, incurring extraordinary costs estimated at DKK 200 million (USD 28.9 million) for the year.
**The full report can be viewed here.
About GN
GN brings people closer through our leading intelligent hearing, audio, video, and gaming solutions. Inspired by people and driven by innovation, we deliver technologies that enhance the senses of hearing and sight. We help people with hearing loss overcome real-life challenges, improve communication and collaboration for businesses, and provide great experiences for audio and gaming enthusiasts. GN was founded more than 150 years ago with a vision to connect the world. Today, inspired by our strong heritage, GN touches more lives than ever with our unique expertise and the broadest portfolio of products and services in our history – bringing people closer to what is important to them.
We market our solutions with the brands Jabra, ReSound, SteelSeries, Beltone, Interton, BlueParrott, Danavox, and FalCom in 100 countries. Founded in 1869, GN Group employs more than 7,000 people and is listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen (GN.CO).
Source: GN
