By Stuart Thomson
Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) will benefit from faster than expected growth of its streaming offering in the Netherlands and its new distribution deal with Tele2 in the Nordic market, according to a research note from Berenberg.
Berenberg’s analysts hailed “a bout of positive newsflow on the company” since its last note in February, including its Dutch launch and the Tele2 announcement as well as a legal win in a historic case against TV 2 Danmark, which will see the latter pay SEK600 million to NENT, and its name change.
Citing Sensor Tower data, Berenberg said that downloads of the Viaplay app in the Netherlands in its first 27 days appeared to be 300% higher than downloads over the aame period following its Polish launch.
Berenberg increased its subscriber forecast for the Netherlands from 500,000 to 700,000 by the end of Q1 on this basis.
The analysts said that many of these additional subscribers are likely to have signed up earlier than they may otherwise have done, and it raised its full financial year subscriber expectations by a conservative 230,000, which would take the total base to two million.
Berenberg was more cautious on the impact of NENT’s deal with Tele2, noting that “the terms of the deal are not entirely clear at this point”.
On the downside, the analysts predict as slight reduction in advertising revenues this year as waning consumer confidence and the invasion of Ukraine take their toll.
The bank reiterated its buy rating for NENT stock and raised its price target to SEK535 from SEK525.
