Moneysupermarket makes loss

Moneysupermarkt.com saw a 10% increase in turnover in 2008 on the back of a 38% rise in insurance sales to £77.7m, with insurance making up 45% of internet sales.

But troubles elsewhere led to a board reshuffle and a £70m goodwill charge leading to a £59.1m after tax loss.

Highlights

• Total revenues of £178.8m up 10% from £162.9m in 2007.
• Adjusted EBITDA of £48.4m(£53.0m in 2007).
• Statutory loss after tax and impairment charge of £59.1m compared with a profit last year of £9.4m
• Revenues in Insurance grew by 38% to £77.7m (£56.4m in 2007). Insurance represented 45% of internet revenues (37% in 2007). Travel revenues were 27% higher at £19.1m (£15.0m in 2007) whilst revenues in Money fell 10% year on year to £68.3m (£76.0m in 2007).
• Cash balances of £73.5m (2007: £54.0m) at year end and the business remains cash generative and debt-free.
• Goodwill impairment charge of £70.0m recorded in the year.
• Final Dividend of 2.2p bringing the full year dividend to 3.5p per ordinary share.
• Visitors to the Group's websites increased by 32% to 120 million (91 million in 2007).
• Transactions on the Group's websites increased by 23% to 71.4 million (58.2 million in 2007).

The company also announced management changes

• Simon Nixon moves to executive deputy chairman with effect from today
• Peter Plumb appointed as chief executive officer with effect from today
• David Osborne joined as marketing director and joined the Board on 23 February
• Graham Donoghue, MD of travel, promoted to the board on 23 February.

Commenting on the results, Gerald Corbett, chairman, said: “As Simon moves to his new role, I would like to thank him for his immense contribution to our business. The past twelve months have further demonstrated the benefits of moneysupermarket.com's diversified business model, with growth in Travel and Insurance compensating for the decline in Money. We are, however, now in the grip of a full scale recession and it is the task of the new management team to get us through it whilst preserving our brand and market position.”

Peter Plumb, CEO, said: “Because of the recession, we are currently trading at levels well below last year. My first task is to reconfigure the business for this lower level of revenue. We will review the cost base, we will extract more value from lower online and offline marketing spend, we will re-engineer our systems and get closer to our providers and customers.

“We have a strong market position, the internet continues to grow and we are the pre-eminent brand. The immediate task is to get leaner and more efficient, continue to generate cash and ensure the business is well positioned for when the recovery eventually comes."