Embargoed for release at 07.00 hours, 7th November 2013
RIGHTMOVE PLC
INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
Rightmove plc ("Rightmove"), the UK's number one property website, publishes
its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1st July 2013 to date.
Financial and operating information relates to the period 1st July 2013
to 31st October 2013 unless otherwise stated.
Current trading
The last four months have continued to show healthy growth in revenue and
earnings and strong cash generation.
Average revenue per advertiser ("ARPA") has continued to increase as customers
continue to increase spend on additional advertising products to promote their
brand and properties. The number of Agency and New Homes developments on the
Rightmove website at the end of October stood at 18,372, up 2% since the first
half of the year.
We have continued to promote our brand in order to further increase our
audience reach for our customers with investment in TV advertising, search
engine optimisation and a campaign targeted at London. We ran a national TV
campaign, featuring Blondie's soundtrack `Dreaming' in August, September and
October. We have also continued to develop our industry-leading desktop and
mobile platforms to best showcase our customers' brand and properties in front
of the most home hunters, whether they are at home or on the move.
The resulting activity on Rightmove has been strong with page impressions up
around 30% compared to the same four months of 2012. Our mobile platforms have
continued to grow rapidly with over 1.7 billion pages viewed in the period,
almost double the same period last year. The increase in traffic, coupled with
the roll-out of local geographic telephone numbers, has resulted in new records
for the number of enquiries generated for our customers, up 80% compared to the
same period last year.
Agency & New Homes
ARPA for the period in both our Agency and New Homes business units showed
further growth compared to the first half of the year, reflecting the further
adoption of additional advertising products and the effect of increases to our
membership fees. Spending is up across our range of additional advertising
products including strong demand for our New Homes email campaign service. We
have delivered over seven thousand email campaigns on behalf of our New Homes
customers this year to over three million home hunters.
Agency membership at the end of October stood at 16,093, a 2% increase since
the first half of the year whilst the number of developments at the end of
October stood at 2,279 an increase of 31 developments since the first half of
the year.
Other businesses
Our overseas property and data services businesses, both modest contributors in
terms of overall revenue, continue to trade healthily. The number of overseas
customers at the end of October stood at 1,077, an increase of 220 since the
first half of the year.
Dividend and share buybacks
As previously announced, an interim dividend of 11p per share will be paid on
8th November 2013 to shareholders on the register as at 11th October 2013.
Since the announcement of the half year results on 31 July 2013, the Company
has acquired and subsequently cancelled 1m shares at a cost of £23.4m. As at
31st October 2013 Rightmove had £15.8m of cash.
Outlook
The Board is confident of meeting its expectations for the current year. The
Board remains confident of making further progress in 2014, subject to there
being no significant downturn in the UK housing market.
Enquiries:
Please contact Rightmove plc Press Office on 0207 0870605 for:
Nick McKittrick, Chief Executive Officer
Robyn Perriss, Finance Director
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