Revenue growth for Deeside based price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com

Ewloe headquartered Moneysupermarket.com, the UK’s biggest price comparison website saw revenue grow by 12% in 2016 according to results published today.

Revenue increased to £316.4m versus £281.7m the previous year, adjusted operating profit was up 8% to £107.8m.

Group gross margins dipped by 5% to 75% due to an increase in planned marketing spend a statement from the company says.

Revenue in MoneySavingExpert.com rose 20%, growth came mainly from credit cards, current accounts and also utilities, which continued to benefit from the success of Cheap Energy Club and a number of collective switches.

MoneySavingExpert.com contributed £26.2m to Group adjusted operating profit (2015: £21.4m).

TravelSupermarket.com revenues fell 9% following planned changes to the customer offer at the end of 2015.

[miptheme_quote author=”Peter Plumb, Moneysupermarket.com CEO” style=”boxquote text-left”]

“We saved nearly seven million families £1.8bn on their household bills in 2016, which helped us grow revenues by 12%.  This adds up to another great year for the Moneysupermarket Group.  We increased the dividend 8% and are announcing a £40m share buyback.

“Our technology investment programme is equipping us to save more families more money on a wider range of bills in the years ahead. Using data to make comparison more personalised, more informed, quicker and easier is differentiating us from other comparison sites.”

[/miptheme_quote]

Outlook:

Insurance revenues and the core Money business have delivered strong growth in the first two months of the year the company said however,  low interest rates continued to weaken savings and current account switching and energy is trading lower.

Group revenues are currently behind last year, the Board says it is confident of delivering its expectations for the year.

Market reaction.

Google

Shares in Moneysupermarket (MONY) dipped following the release of financial results.

City analysts say the company’s revenue growth was pinned to advertising spend and gross margins reduced to 75%, from 80%.

MoneySupermarket told investors revenues for early 2017 are behind those seen last year.

Liberum Securities analyst Ian Whittaker, in a note, said: “Our concern with MONY has always been that revenue growth is linked to marketing spend and therefore margins could come under pressure going forward as competition in the price comparison website space intensifies.

“These results have realised our concerns.”

Deeside based MoneySuperMarket takes top spot in most complained about adverts on TV in 2016