Trade Me 2017 financial year results released today
Trade Me have released their full year results for the 12 months to 30 June 2017 to the NZX and ASX this morning. Trade Me chairman David Kirk said the 2017 financial year had shown “excellent progress” for the company with revenue and net operating profit all at record highs. Trade Me’s revenue reached $234.9m this year, up 7.7 per cent on $218.0m in 2016. In the second half of the 2017 financial year, revenue grew by 6.7 per cent year-on-year. Trade Me’s net operating profit was up 12.0 per cent year-on-year to $93.0m, well ahead of last year’s $83.0m. Trade Me Motors, the company’s largest classified vertical, reported a healthy revenue increase of 8.2 per cent, albeit down slightly on the 11.2 per cent increase in revenue growth last year. Trade Me CEO Jon Macdonald said that the Australian arm of their business, MotorWeb, had been performing particularly well. Revenue across the entire MotorWeb business is up 14.6 per cent. He also said that the revenue increases were driven by increased demand for their premium products, indicating that dealers are spending more on advertising with the company. Year-on-year, dealer premium revenue growth was up 26.8 per cent, total dealers yield growth up 3.2 per cent, and total listings up 5.2 per cent. Trade Me released data indicating they hold close to a 60 per cent market share of the motoring classifieds in New Zealand, the market itself being worth around $89 million. Autofile reported on July 11 that Trade Me had entered into a conditional agreement to purchase cloud-based dealer platform Motorcentral. Motorcentral offers a Dealer Management System that allows users to track vehicles, stock and sales online, and automatically send vehicle listings to retail websites such as Trade Me Motors, Driven and Auto Trader. Macdonald expressed Trade Me’s continued interest in acquiring the business upon release of the company’s financials. “We’re very excited about prospects for this business, and eagerly awaiting clearance from the Commerce Commission to proceed,” he said. The sale is subject to approval from the Commerce Commission, who provides an “indicative timeline” of 40 days for assessing a clearance application. Trade Me is also performing well in its general items market place, with a 7.1 per cent growth in revenue year-on-year well out performing last year’s 3.5 per cent growth. The Trade Me Jobs side of the business continues to be the “star performer” with 25 per cent revenue growth, according to Macdonald. On August 8, the NBR reported that Trade Me’s shares fell to a near six-month low. The fall in share price came after global online retailer Amazon announced it was establishing a base of operations in Melbourne for its Australian launch later this year. It remains to be seen if this will have an impact on the business, with the both the company’s financial outlook and sales revenue appearing strong.
