20th May 2015 06:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Zoopla Property Group PLC Wednesday reported higher profits for the first half of its financial year, as revenue was buoyed by higher revenue per agent and higher advertising revenue, and the company said it had stemmed the loss in agents that had been caused by the opening of a new rival property portal.
The company, which is set to expand from its property sales and rentals portal into utility and financial services price comparison by buying uSwitch for up to GBP190 million, reported a pretax profit of GBP18.4 million for the six months to end-March, up from GBP16.3 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP42.0 million from GBP38.3 million.
The number of agent members to its property portal fell 16% in the half after a consortium of estate agents launched Onthemarket.com in January, but this was offset by 13% growth in average revenue per agent and 23% growth in other revenue that was driven primarily by higher advertising revenue as well as growth in its overseas and commercial property portals.
"Since the end of the period, UK agency churn has slowed significantly with a net loss of 106 UK Agency members in April. We expect agency churn to return to normal historic levels over the coming months as we remain by far the best value digital marketing proposition available to property professionals in the UK. The group is trading in line with management expectations and is well positioned for long-term growth," it said in a statement.
Despite the loss of agents, traffic to its websites and mobile apps grew 11% to 265.5 million in the six months. Mobile devices now account for 63% of monthly visits and are up 34% on the year.
Zoopla declared a maiden interim dividend of 1.0 pence a share.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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