Record year for Rightmove

25th Feb 2011 07:39

Revenue and profits at property web site Rightmove came in a shade shy of market expectations, though the results still set new records for the group despite a tough year for the UK housing market.Revenue in 2010 rose from £64.5m in 2009 to £81.6m in 2010, a bit lower than the £82.2m the market had been expecting.Profit before tax rose from £36.5m to £52.2m, versus expectations of £53.3m.Diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations surged to 34.60p (market consensus: 36.16p) from 26.33p. Underlying basic EPS rose 34% to 39.8p from 29.6p the year before.The proposed final dividend of 9p is up from 7p the year before and takes the full year dividend to 14p, a 40% increase from 2009's 10p.The number of advertisers on Rightmove's site grew by 2% in 2010 to 18,042 from 17,664 the year before, and the average revenue per customer rose to £379 per month from £308 per month in 2009.Website traffic grew year on year with page impressions up 17% to 7.6bn, generating record visibility and enquiries for the site's advertisers.Enquiries from mobile communication devices soared, with the company recording 222m mobile page impressions, up 900% on 2009.The company's positive net cash balance at the end of 2010 had improved to £23.1m from £3.4m at the end of 2009, with cash boosted by the initial net proceeds of £13.3m on the disposal of the Holiday Lettings business.Ed Williams, managing director of Rightmove, waxed lyrical about the company's importance to the property market on its tenth anniversary, claiming: "Rightmove today is considered not simply a listings portal, but an amphitheatre for the entire property industry where we assist our member advertisers in communicating their brand, properties and expertise to the British home-moving public."Chairman Scott Forbes was slightly less purple in his prose. "In terms of financial results, 2010 set new records for organic growth, revenue and profits," Forbes said.On a more sober note, Forbes predicted that transaction volumes in the housing market are not likely to see much improvement on 2009 and 2010 levels, but given that its customers had survived the housing market downturn this long, he was hopeful that most would make it through 2011 as well.The current year has started well. "January 2011 has seen us send a record number of enquiries to our advertisers. The growth in mobile traffic continues to be strong and increases at an even faster rate than for the main website," Forbes said."Average spend per advertiser started the year very healthily and is expected to rise further over the coming months. Overall advertiser numbers are stable, at similar levels to late 2010," he added.