Storytel expects slower streaming sales growth in third quarter

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Audiobook streaming group Storytel <STORYb.ST> said on Tuesday it expected streaming revenues to rise 21% year on year in the current quarter, a lower growth rate than in the April-June period, weighing on the Swedish company's stock.

Storytel, which competes with the likes of Amazon's Audible <AMZN.O> and is present in some 20 markets, has continued to grow its subscriber base sharply during the pandemic, with second-quarter streaming sales up 43%.

While its stock had dropped more than 10% from its July peak by market close on Monday, it was still up 90% for the year and by nearly 16% so far in August.

Storytel shares were down 6.6% by 0809 GMT.

"The lower-than-expected forecast to Q3 suggests the share could be weak today," Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Hjalmar Ahlberg said in e-mailed comments following the results.

Storytel still stood by its forecast to reach 1.5 million paying subscribers on average by the end of the year and kept its 2020 streaming sales forecast nearly unchanged, looking for 32% growth to 1.9 billion crowns ($217 million), versus 1.9-2.0 billion previously.

The company, which is currently loss-making due to spending on international expansion, made a quarterly loss before tax of 73 million crowns versus a loss of 98 million a year earlier.

(Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Jason Neely and Simon Johnson)