Press Releases
Preliminary Announcement
25/02/2009
Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC Preliminary Results for the year ending 31 December 2008
Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC ("Moneysupermarket.com" or the "Company"), the UK's leading price comparison website, is pleased to announce its preliminary results for the 12 months to 31 December 2008.
| Financial highlights(1) | 2008 | 2007 | Change |
| Revenue | £178.8m | £162.9m | 10% |
| Adjusted EBITDA(2) | £48.4m | £53.0m | (9%) |
| Goodwill impairment charge | £70.0m | - | n/a |
| Statutory (loss) / profit after tax and impairment charge | (£59.1m) | £9.4m | |
| Cash balance | £73.5m | £54.0m | |
| Total dividend for period | 3.5p | 1.63p |
Financial highlights
- Total revenues of £178.8m up 10% from £162.9m in 2007.
- Adjusted EBITDA of £48.4 million (£53.0m in 2007).
- Revenues in Insurance grew by 38% to £77.7 million (£56.4m in 2007). Insurance represented 45% of internet revenues (37% in 2007). Travel revenues were 27% higher at £19.1 million (£15.0 million in 2007) whilst revenues in Money fell 10% year on year to £68.3 million (£76.0m in 2007).
- Cash balances of £73.5 million (2007: £54.0m) at year end and the business remains cash generative and debt-free.
- Goodwill impairment charge of £70.0m recorded in the year.
- Final Dividend of 2.2p bringing the full year dividend to 3.5p per ordinary share.
Operational highlights
- Market leading position maintained
- Moneysupermarket.com and travelsupermarket.com both number one in their sectors
- Brand continued to strengthen - target of 80% for online brand recognition achieved by September 2008
- Visitors(3) to the Group's websites increased by 32% to 120 million (91m in 2007).
- Transactions on the Group's websites increased by 23% to 71.4 million (58.2m in 2007)
- New management team put in place to lead the business through
the next stage of its development.
- Simon Nixon moves to Executive Deputy Chairman with effect from today
- Peter Plumb appointed as Chief Executive Officer with effect from today
- David Osborne joined as Marketing Director and joined the Board on 23 February
- Graham Donoghue, MD of Travel, promoted to the Board on 23 February.
The Board is proposing a final dividend of 2.2p per ordinary
share. If approved by shareholders at the forthcoming Annual
General Meeting, the final dividend will be paid on 1 May 2009 to
ordinary shareholders on the register on 27 March 2009.
Commenting on the results, Gerald Corbett, Chairman, said: "As
Simon moves to his new role, I would like to thank him for his
immense contribution to our business. The past twelve months have
further demonstrated the benefits of moneysupermarket.com’s
diversified business model, with growth in Travel and Insurance
compensating for the decline in Money. We are, however, now in the
grip of a full scale recession and it is the task of the new
management team to get us through it whilst preserving our brand
and market position."
Peter Plumb, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Because of the recession, we are currently trading at levels well below last year. My first task is to reconfigure the business for this lower level of revenue. We will review the cost base, we will extract more value from lower online and offline marketing spend, we will re-engineer our systems and get closer to our providers and customers.
"We have a strong market position, the internet continues to grow and we are the pre-eminent brand. The immediate task is to get leaner and more efficient, continue to generate cash and ensure the business is well positioned for when the recovery eventually comes.”
– ends –
Results presentation
There will be a presentation for investors and analysts at 1 Finsbury Avenue, London EC2M 2PP at 9am this morning. The presentation will be streamed live: visit http://corporate.moneysupermarket.com/ to register and watch.
For further information, contact:
Paul Doughty, Chief Financial Officer,
moneysupermarket.com
Tel: 01244 220653
Ian Williams, Director of Communications,
moneysupermarket.com
Tel: 07515 329671 or
ian.williams@moneysupermarket.com
Susanna Voyle or Lizzie Morgan, Tulchan Group
Tel: 0207 353 4200
Notes
- The financial highlights relate to the Adjusted Income
Statement covering the years ended 31 December 2008 and 31 December
2007 assuming a debt free acquisition of Moneysupermarket.com
Financial Group Limited by the Company on 1 January 2006, from
which date intangible amortisation commenced, and a share option
charge which reflects the average charge over the vesting period of
currently unexercised options.
- Adjusted EBITDA is calculated by the Directors by making
certain adjustments to the historical compensation levels of the
Directors and senior managers, and share based bonus awards to
employees on the listing of the Company. These adjustments reflect
the Directors’ and senior managers’ profit share,
discretionary bonus and related employer’s national insurance
contributions. They also include charges relating to the issue of
free shares to each eligible employee to the value of £3,000,
charges relating to the conditional share award made to Gerald
Corbett on listing and charges related to share based compensation
relating to options issued prior to listing. Charges relating to
the impairment of goodwill in 2008 have also been added back to
calculate adjusted EBITDA.
- As noted in the prospectus issued in connection with the
listing of the Company on 31 July 2007, the Group’s visitor
numbers during the period between January and May 2007 were
understated due to certain visitors not being assigned a unique
global user ID. The issue was resolved in May 2007 and has not
impacted visitor numbers in the Insurance vertical after May 2007.
The Group has not been able to quantify the exact extent of the
understatement.
The Group recorded a substantial increase in its reported visitors from 27 April 2008 to the end of June 2008 following a release made in respect of the anti-virus software AVG. In assessing whether a webpage was safe it ‘followed’ every link or url displayed on an email or webpage to the destination website. This meant that many web based businesses including the Group recorded visitors from users of the AVG software who themselves did not technically visit the website. The 2008 visitor count has been adjusted for the estimated impact of this. AVG released a further update to its anti-virus software in early July 2008.
View the full Preliminary Announcement in PDF format. (244KB)
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