- Chairman's Statement
- Chief Executive's Report
- Financial and Business Review
- Principal Risks and Uncertainties
Chairman's Statement
Our second year as a public company has been characterised by change both within and outside the Group.
The credit crunch, or liquidity crisis in the banking system, spread and deepened during the year. We saw the failure of a number of banks, whilst others both in the UK and overseas required rescue packages from Governments and Central Banks.
Against this economic backdrop and the deteriorating market conditions in the second half of the year, the Group recorded revenue growth of 10% to £178.8m for the year ending 31 December 2008 underpinned by strong visitor growth in the year of 32% to 120.1m visitors. These solid figures are in spite of a significant decline in revenue from the Money vertical in the second half of the year, due entirely to the credit crunch.
The diversity of our business has proved to be, and will continue to be, an important strength with the growth in the Insurance, Travel and Home Services verticals helping to offset declines experienced in the Money vertical.
The worsening economic conditions and the turmoil in the credit and wider financial markets have resulted in the Group recording an impairment charge of £70.0m against goodwill in 2008. The Group is therefore reporting a statutory loss after tax of £59.1m for the year.
However, we remain strongly cash generative and ended 2008 with a balance sheet containing no debt and a cash balance which increased during the year by £19.5m to £73.5m. Despite a 9% decline in adjusted EBITDA to £48.4m, this is a creditable set of results given the challenging market conditions experienced during the year.
In August 2008, we announced that we would implement an enhanced dividend policy paying approximately one half of adjusted net profits as dividends each year. In October 2008 we paid our maiden interim dividend of 1.3p per ordinary share.
In line with this revised dividend policy, the Board recommends a final dividend of 2.2p per ordinary share, to be paid on 1 May 2009. If approved by shareholders, this will make a full year dividend of 3.5p per ordinary share.
In last years' statement I referred to the importance of improving our management process and upgrading the quality of our management team. The Group has grown rapidly in the last nine years, but is now of a size and complexity that requires a different management approach to that when the Group was in its entrepreneurial 'super-growth' phase. This is particularly so given the challenges of the credit crunch and the consumer recession.
In December, we announced that the Group's founder, Simon Nixon, had decided to step down from his role as Chief Executive Officer on 25 February 2009. Simon became Executive Deputy Chairman on that date. In his new role, Simon will focus on strategic innovation and development.
It is a tribute to Simon's vision and commitment that the Group has developed into the business it is today. On behalf of the Board and shareholders I would like to thank Simon for the immense contribution he has made to the development of the Group and look forward to working with him in his new role.
In December we announced that Peter Plumb, who joined the Group earlier in the year, would join the Board as an Executive Director with effect from 1 January 2009 and replace Simon as Chief Executive Officer on 25 February 2009. Peter is a tried and tested general manager in international, marketing-intensive businesses and brings with him a wide mix of skills and experience. He was previously UK managing director of dunnhumby Limited, the customer insights business and prior to that held senior positions with Disney, Dyson and PepsiCo. The Board is confident that Peter will steer the executive management team through the challenging market environment.
The Group has further strengthened the Board with the appointment of Graham Donoghue, the Managing Director of Travel, and David Osborne, the Marketing Director, as Executive Directors with effect from 23 February 2009. Graham joined the Group in July 2008 from TUI Travel plc where he was new media director and David joined the Group in February 2009 from easyJet where he was UK regional general manager.