Business summary
Owned by three members of its management board, who still control >50% of the votes, Wirtualna Polska Holding (WPL) is the largest Polish operator of online portals. Among its websites, there are wp.pl, interia.pl and o2.pl, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th most popular online information portals in Poland, money.pl (No 1 financial portal in Poland), WP Sportowe Fakty (online sports service), pudelek.pl (No 1 entertainment portal), wakacje.pl (No 1 travel search engine), among others. Wirtualna Polska also operates the digital TV channel WP (available on the 8th multiplex (MUX8), on Cyfrowy Polsat and CANAL+ satellite platforms, in selected Polish cable networks and the Pilot WP service) and radio Open.fm (most popular internet radio in Poland). Since December 2024, the company has also been a strong international player in travel due to its acquisition of 100% of the Czech Invia Group for c. EUR 244m, which apart from Czechia is active in Germany (operates the popular travel search engine ab-in-den-urlaub.de there), Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. Wirtualna Polska Holding currently has >2,000 employees and has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2015, when it debuted at an IPO price of PLN 32. Apart from 2020, the company has been a regular dividend payer, with its dividend policy foreseeing a DPS of PLN >1/year and a target payout ratio of max. 70%.
Below is an overview over the latest traffic statistics of its web portals:
Source: similarweb.com, East Value Research GmbH
Financials
Since 2014, Wirtualna Polska has demonstrated rapid growth, with revenues increasing at a CAGR of 22.8% to PLN 1.57bn in 2024 and EBITDA rising at a CAGR of 25.9% to PLN 446.8m. Between 2022 and 2024, the company recorded an average gross margin of 65.8% and an average ROCE of 14.2%. Following the acquisition of Invia Group — which, according to Wirtualna Polska, generated annual revenues of EUR 183m and adjusted EBITDA of EUR 37m in 2024 — WPL’s revenues reached PLN 912.8m in H1 2025 (+24.9% y/y). Adjusted EBITDA amounted to PLN 207.7m (+13.7% y-o-y, with a margin of 22.8%), while net income declined to PLN 3.2m (-91.7% y-o-y).
The sharp drop in profitability y-o-y was mainly driven by a 46.2% increase in external service costs (including, for instance, marketing and IT services), PLN 12.7m higher interest expenses, and a 34.7% increase in depreciation and amortization following the Invia acquisition in Q4/24.
Regarding business segments, Tourism has become the most significant for WPL, accounting for 48.7% of total revenues and 37.5% of total adjusted EBITDA in H1/25. Other key segments include Advertising (35.6% of revenues and 53.5% of adjusted EBITDA) — the most profitable segment, with an EBITDA margin of 34.1%— and Consumer Finance (12.8% of revenues and 7.5% of adjusted EBITDA). Thus, the group’s overall performance is dependent on the economic cycle.
As the Invia acquisition was financed with debt, WPL’s net debt increased to PLN 1.26bn after H1/25, up from PLN 482.6m at year-end 2024. Although net gearing of 140.5% is high, the structure of interest-bearing debt is favorable, with 94.8% being long-term. In H1/25, WPL generated solid net operating cash flow, up 20.7% y-o-y to PLN 297m.
Summary & Conclusion
Over the past 12 months, WPL’s share price has declined by 28%, significantly underperforming its benchmark index, the mWIG40, which delivered a 32.6% return over the same period.
Although WP’s share price currently trades below its 200-day moving average, the stock appears to present an attractive long-term investment opportunity. WPL is management-controlled, has a strong brand, an excellent track record, and ranks among the largest listed online groups in Central and Eastern Europe. The group has consistently generated EBITDA margins above 20%, and current sell-side consensus estimates for its EPS growth in 2026E and 2027E of 127.8% and 17.5%, respectively, stand well above the corresponding P/E ratios of 8.2x and 7.0x.
In terms of market potential, both advertising and travel spending in Central and Eastern Europe still offer significant growth opportunities compared with Western Europe. For instance, in Poland, advertising spend per capita remains roughly 3.5 times lower than in Germany, while household spending on travel in Poland, Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia represents only 3–4% of total expenditures, compared to 6.1% in Germany.