Carsales revenues rise on domestic and international growth
Carsales has reported online advertising revenues rose 13% to $129.8m for the half year, with total operating revenues rising to $178.6m.
Carsales’ Greg Roebuck (retiring), non-executive chairman Jeffrey Browne and incoming CEO Cameron McIntyre
However, the result was hit by issues in its financial and related services division, which reported revenue down 22% to $26.1m due to “volume shortfalls as a result of issues at a major lender in the period”.
The online classified specialist saw earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 2% to $83.2m, but reported net profit was down 8% to $47.2m.
Carsales CEO Greg Roebuck, presenting his final results before retiring and handing over the CEO role to Cameron McIntyre, said the performance and been driven by domestic and international operations and came despite the issues surrounding financial and related services.
“We are expanding the business globally, implementing our world class technology and know-how to provide market leading solutions across our traditional classifieds and complementary market businesses,” Roebuck said.
“To once again deliver record revenue and EBITDA performance whilst consolidating our domestic market leading position, growing our international presence and responding to short term challenges in our finance business is very pleasing and is a testament to the strength of our strategy and the quality of the carsales team.”
Highlights for the first half included display revenue up 9% on the prior comparative period, dealer revenue up 10% domestically, and private seller revenue up 26%.
“The growth in our domestic business has been extremely satisfying and continues to demonstrate that there are still significant opportunities in the Australian market,” he said.
“Our private business grew revenue 26% and has performed well competitively; and products such as Instant Offer have been very well received by customers. The growth in tyresales.com.au and RedBook Inspect are especially noteworthy as we expand our adjacencies.”
The company has also continued its international expansion in Asia, South America
Roebuck said 2017 had started positively and Carsales expected solid growth over the remainder of the year.
“The second half has commenced well with January once again proving to be an attractive month for car buyers in the domestic business,” he said.
“Domestic adjacencies continue to build scale and breadth with a number of significant opportunities. Assuming these conditions continue to be stable we anticipate FY17 revenue, EBITDA and NPAT growth will remain solid in the domestic core business.”
The company’s share price rose by 7% on the results, taking it to a market capitalisation of $2.6bn.
