Strong trading results; Final dividend increased by 30%
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 2013.
|
Financial highlights |
2013 |
2012 |
Change |
|
Revenue |
£225.6m |
£204.8m |
10% |
|
Adjusted EBITDA |
£84.0m |
£66.5m |
26% |
|
Statutory profit after tax |
£34.7m |
£24.8m |
40% |
|
(Net debt)/cash balance |
(£21.1m) |
£18.7m |
n/a |
|
Final dividend for the year |
5.12p |
3.94p |
30% |
|
Ordinary dividend for the year |
7.28p |
5.74p |
27% |
|
Special dividend |
12.92p |
- |
- |
Financial highlights
Revenue increased by 10% to £225.6m (2012: £204.8m);
Gross margin increased to 77.8% (2012: 74.1%);
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 26% to £84.0m (2012: £66.5m);
o Adjusted EBITDA margins increased by 5 percentage points to 37%;
MoneySavingExpert.com continues to trade well, generating £13.3m EBITDA (2012: £2.8m);
Excellent cash conversion at 105% of adjusted EBITDA;
Net debt of £21.1m (2012: net cash £18.6m) reflecting the payment of a £70m special dividend to shareholders during the year;
Ordinary dividend for the year increased by 27% to 7.28p per share;
o Final dividend increased 30% to 5.12p per share (2012: 3.94p per share).
Operational highlights
Market leading position maintained in competitive market place
MoneySavingExpert.com delivered strong trading results in first full year of ownership
Clear benefits of diversified business
o Growth in Energy and Travel revenues offset the impact of Funding for Lending upon the Money vertical and a slowing Insurance business in the second half of the year.
Outlook
Group trading in the first two months of the year has been satisfactory. Revenues are mid single digit ahead of the same period last year.
Trading within the Group has been largely consistent with the trends seen in the fourth quarter of 2013 with strong growth in TravelSupermarket.com and MoneySavingExpert.com, offset by Home Services, where growth rates have slowed.
Further investment in our core sites and marketing, and a positive outlook on natural search with Google, give the Board confidence in the outlook for the full year.
Peter Plumb, MoneySuperMarket.com Chief Executive Officer, said:
"We invested across the business last year and it paid off nicely with higher revenues, profits up 26%, and a dividend that was tripled as we returned over £100m to shareholders.
We won't stand still - we'll build on our innovation in 2013 by doubling our capital investment for 2014, and bringing market leading services in Travel and Insurance to customers' mobiles and desktops.
Our goal is to save more people more money in 2014, and we're on course to deliver that."
