Carsales revenue and profits climb in ‘record performance’ under new CEO
Carsales.com’s new CEO and managing director, Cameron McIntyre, is off to a strong start, as the company reported yet another record year of growth.
Carsales.com’s revenue was up 8% to $372.1m, and its net profit after tax was up 8%, from $110.5m last year to $119.1m in FY17.
Carsales experienced another year of ‘record’ growth
The company, which began in 1997, reported an EBITDA [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] of $176.5m, up 4% year on year.
In a statement, McIntyre – who replaced co-founder Greg Roebuck – said he was very proud of Carsales’ efforts this year.
“FY17 yet again represented a year where many new milestones were reached and challenges overcome and I’m delighted to deliver another year of record performance,” McIntyre said.
Carsales’ growth since FY13 shows incremental increases
“This year has seen solid contributions from Carsales’ core domestic business units and very pleasingly Stratton Finance moved back into revenue growth in the fourth quarter of the year. Some of our other adjacent business opportunities such as Redbook Inspect and Tyresales are continuing to demonstrate strong revenue growth potential.
“We view our international expansion as one of the key contributors to our long-term growth strategy and over the past 12 months we have continued to see some very positive developments,” he continued.
In the company’s domestic private business – which includes Carsales.com.au, BoatPoint.com.au, Bikesales.comau and PrestigeNewCars.com.au – revenue was up 27%, with increasing contributions from other markets across Tyresales and RedBook Inspect.
Locally, dealer was up 8%, display was up 7% and data and research services reported revenue growth of 10%.
Carsales’ domestic products
This year also saw a 12% increase in online advertising, from $240.7m in FY16 to $269.1m for FY17.
“The evolution of products such as advertising depth, instant offer and the launch of our natural language search are three clear examples of the effort going into strengthening our market-leading products,” said McIntyre.
“There is plenty more to come with our investments in data science and artificial intelligence providing further opportunities to create more compelling personalised experiences for consumers and our commercial customers”.
Looking to FY18, McIntyre said he expected domestic adjacent business to continue to build scale and breadth.
“Assuming market conditions remain stable we anticipate revenue, EBITDA and NPAT growth will remain solid in the domestic core business. Our Finance and Related Services business has demonstrated signs of stabilising in Q4 which we anticipate will continue into FY18,” he said.
