Rightmove.co.uk How Britain has moved in last 15 years full year results
Scott Forbes
Chairman
(1) Before share-based payments and NI on share-based incentives.
(2) Before share-based payments and NI on share-based incentives and no related adjustment for tax.
STRATEGIC REPORT - Business model
Rightmove is the UK's number one property portal and operates a two-sided network. On one side we have the UK's largest and most engaged property audience and on the other side we have the largest inventory of properties. We benefit from strong network effects as our property audience and the properties our customers advertise create a 'virtuous circle' enhancing the Rightmove value proposition.
Rightmove is free to the consumer and is where home buyers and renters turn to first as they can see virtually the whole property market in one place. It is equally compelling to home sellers and landlords as it is where nearly all home buyers and renters are searching and researching the market.
Our customers are primarily estate agents, lettings agents and new homes developers advertising properties for sale and to rent in the UK. We offer the most significant and effective exposure for their brand and properties, the largest source of high quality leads together with best in class software providing market insight and tools that empower their decisions and help drive business efficiencies.
Our principal sources of revenue are the monthly subscription fees paid by customers to advertise all of their properties and the fees paid for additional advertising products and packages. Our additional advertising products enable customers to promote their properties, brands and proposition more strongly and gain a competitive edge.
As the property industry becomes more digital, Rightmove's market leading audience and best in class software is becoming more valuable to customers. Our customers' spend on digital advertising is growing as the property advertising market continues to shift structurally from offline to online and also as customers choose to reinvest the savings from the business efficiencies that our platform and the internet brings. We expect that our growth will continue to come through product innovation and pricing.
We also continue to develop a number of smaller adjacent businesses focussed on advertising overseas and commercial properties and property related data and valuation services.
STRATEGIC REPORT - Chief Executive's review
15 SUCCESSIVE YEARS OF GROWTH
Rightmove celebrated its 15th birthday in 2015 delivering bothanother record year of results and our 15th successive year of growth. Our customer base grew by 2% to reach an all-time high of nearly 20,000, our property stock advantage increased to nearly 50% more than any other UK portal, we attracted an additional 200 million visits to Rightmove, we generated 16% more leads for our customers and our underlying operating profit grew 16% to a record £144.3m.
It is remarkable how far Rightmove has come. Our progress is testament to our disciplined focus on the UK property advertising market and the huge effort Rightmovers have put in to build this business together with our industry customers. Rightmove has changed the way Britain searches and researches property and we look forward to delivering continued growth and further empowering the UK's decisions around property.
Our Strategy
The place that consumers turn to first and engage with most when searching and researching property
Further Reading
Emoov.co.uk what Brexit means UK House prices
estate regeneration statement GOV UK DCLG ,Lord Heseltine ,Brandon Lewis MP
CountryWide plc CWD : unveils annual mixed bag results, after a tumultuous year + Zoopla strong start trading year report
GeoPhy Exodus from EU may spark correction in the rental market
HMO manager fined £20,000 for allowing his tenants to live in “unacceptable” conditions.
Best of Both Worlds ,Social housing: tenants will need to live in an area for four years : the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union
Nobroker.com Homes, one step closer to making estate agent obsolete , new round of funding
Bank of England's unease over market's rate view Carney & Shafik
Councils will compete to process planning applications and be able to offer fast track application services under new proposals.
UK International Development Minister Nick Hurd announces new mobile technology partnership with GSMA
BARRATT House Builder PROFIT AND REVENUE JUMP 40% IN STRONG FIRST HALF
A MILLIONAIRE Cyber-stalked a property developer who he thought was seeing his girlfriend
Hula (short)
Highlights
Financial highlights
2015
|
2014
|
Change
| |
Revenue
|
£192.1m
|
£167.0m
|
+15%
|
Underlying operating profit(1)
|
£144.3m
|
£124.6m
|
+16%
|
Basic earnings per share
Underlying earnings per share(2)
Final dividend
|
114.0p
121.4p
27.0p
|
97.7p
100.3p
22.0p
|
+17%
+21%
+23%
|
·
· Underlying operating profit(1) up 16% to £144.3m (2014: £124.6m)
· Underlying operating margin(1) of 75.1% (2014: 74.6%)
· Underlying earnings per share(2) up 21% to 121.4 (2014: 100.3p)
· £112.5m (2014: £103.4m) of cash returned to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks in the year
· Final dividend of 27p (2014: 22p) per ordinary share making a total dividend of 43p for the year (2014: 35p), up 3%
Operational Highlights
· Agency and New Homes customers up 448 (+2%) since the start of the year to an all-time high of 19,752
(31 December 2014: 19,304)
· Nearly 50%(3) more UK residential properties on Rightmove than on any other portal
· Strong audience growth
o Rightmove's share of traffic of the top four UK property portals has grown across the board(4); on a time basis including desktop and mobile traffic it increased to 77% (January 2015: 74%)
o Visits up 18% year-on-year to a record 1.3bn (2014: 1.1bn)
o Pages viewed up 14% year-on-year to a record 17.5bn (2014: 15.4bn)
· A record 49.8m leads generated for our advertisers, up 16% year-on-year (2014: 42.8m)
· Average revenue per advertiser (ARPA)(5) up £70 (+10%) to £754 per month on the same period a year ago (2014: £684)
(1) Before share-based payments and NI on share-based incentives
(2) Before share-based payments, NI on share-based incentives and no related adjustment for tax
(3) Source: AlphaWise, Morgan Stanley Research Jan 2016
(4) Source: Comscore (users, visits, pages and time measures)
(5) For Agency and New Homes customers
Nick McKittrick, Chief Executive Officer, said:
"Rightmove celebrated its 15th birthday in 2015 and together with the support of nearly 20,000 customers, it has changed the way Britain searches and researches property.
Our property stock advantage coupled with our brand strength and innovation have substantially increased our audience size and engagement this year. We attracted 200 million more visits in 2015 as more people came to search and research the only place with a million properties for sale and to rent in the UK.
We help our customers succeed by delivering great value marketing and by helping drive business efficiencies. We have grown our customer base by 2% during 2015 to a record high and continue to build broader relationships to support customers' ambitions. We continue to break records at the start of 2016 having already generated over 9 million leads for our customers."
STRATEGIC REPORT - Chairman's Statement
I am pleased to present Rightmove plc's results for the year ended 31 December 2015.
As we report on our 15th consecutive year of growth, I'd like to pick up on a theme raised in the Strategic Report: 'Doing the right thing'. This uncompromising principle supports the ethos of the Group. The philosophy drives our high achieving network business and what we do for our trade customers on one side of the network and our web and mobile visiting consumers on the other side. It also extends to our focus and behaviours towards all stakeholders including our investors, analysts, employees and our Board.
The team's relentless focus and sensitive examination of our consumer experience has been the catalyst for continual improvements to site navigation and design. We aim for simplicity of use and an engaging experience. Of course our site traffic is in part a natural consequence of the best consumer proposition in the market, with almost 50% more listings than any other UK property portal, but it is in the main driven by the huge trust built up in our brand over the past 15 years. The team works diligently to maintain a site that delivers the desired information when it is wanted and in the form it is wanted and we achieved an enviable 99.997% level of site availability last year.
Our nearly 20,000 customers have benefited from our ever-growing popularity with the British home moving public. We have delivered 15 consecutive years of site traffic growth for our customers and have been consistently ranked in the top ten sites in the UK irrespective of cyclical housing demand. Last year we attracted 200 million more consumer visits than the previous year and generated a record 50 million leads for our customers. Rightmove's popularity is showing no signs of letting up and we have already set new site traffic records this January.
Our customers have also benefitted from a continuous roll-out of additional advertising products to reach their audience of home sellers, landlords and home hunters. There is a wide range of choice and discretion to shape and reinforce brand identity on Rightmove to compete for business and market homes. There is also an increasing range of valuable tools, support and data available to our customers to assist them to operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently.
Since Rightmove's strategy does not depend on capital expenditure or M&A, the Board has a policy of distributing all of its free cash flow each year. In fact, Rightmove has returned all of its free cash flow since inception, totalling nearly £600m, through a combination of increased dividends and share buybacks. Our shareholders benefit from a predictable business model that is buoyed by our growing market leadership, together with clear and refreshingly candid communication from our executives.
Once again, the Board and I are grateful for the confidence and support of all our customers and for the talent and dedication of our employees. Together their efforts have positioned Rightmove as the essential marketplace for home hunters to find their next home and for property advertisers to reach by far the widest possible audience.
Financial results
The strength of our business model and core value proposition underpin record financial results in 2015. Underlying operating profit(1) was up 16% to £144.3m (2014: £124.6m) driven by strong organic revenue growth of 15% to £192.1m (2014: £167.0m) and continued focus on cost control. Underlying basic earnings per share (EPS)(2) was up 21% to 121.4p (2014: 100.3p), even greater than the percentage increase in profits and in part attributable to £76.1m of share buybacks as part of our policy of returning cash to shareholders.
Returns to shareholders
Our commitment to return excess cash promptly to investors continues to be as strong as ever. Cash conversion remains in excess of 100% of operating profit. In 2015, we returned a further £112.5m (2014: £103.4m) to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.
Dividend
The Board previously announced that it would increase the interim dividend to 16p (H1 2014: 13.0p) per ordinary share, which was paid on 6 November 2015. Consistent with our policy of increasing the total dividend for the year broadly in line with earnings, the Board proposes to pay a final dividend of 27.0p (2014: 22.0p) per ordinary share for a total dividend for the year of 43.0p (2014: 35.0p), an increase of 23%. The final dividend, subject to shareholder approval, will be paid on 3 June 2016 to all shareholders on the register on 6 May 2016.
Corporate governance
One of the Board's responsibilities is ensuring that the Group applies good governance to facilitate effective management of a high growth business. As the Company's Chairman I am pleased to note that the Group is continuing to foster an environment of entrepreneurial leadership and innovation in a framework of responsible governance and risk management as set out in the Corporate Governance Report on pages 26 to 42.
- Revenue up 15% to £192.1m (2014: £167.0m) with growth achieved across all business areas
· Underlying operating profit(1) up 16% to £144.3m (2014: £124.6m)
· Underlying operating margin(1) of 75.1% (2014: 74.6%)
· Underlying earnings per share(2) up 21% to 121.4 (2014: 100.3p)
· £112.5m (2014: £103.4m) of cash returned to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks in the year
· Final dividend of 27p (2014: 22p) per ordinary share making a total dividend of 43p for the year (2014: 35p), up 3%
Operational Highlights
· Agency and New Homes customers up 448 (+2%) since the start of the year to an all-time high of 19,752
(31 December 2014: 19,304)
· Nearly 50%(3) more UK residential properties on Rightmove than on any other portal
· Strong audience growth
o Rightmove's share of traffic of the top four UK property portals has grown across the board(4); on a time basis including desktop and mobile traffic it increased to 77% (January 2015: 74%)
o Visits up 18% year-on-year to a record 1.3bn (2014: 1.1bn)
o Pages viewed up 14% year-on-year to a record 17.5bn (2014: 15.4bn)
· A record 49.8m leads generated for our advertisers, up 16% year-on-year (2014: 42.8m)
· Average revenue per advertiser (ARPA)(5) up £70 (+10%) to £754 per month on the same period a year ago (2014: £684)
(1) Before share-based payments and NI on share-based incentives
(2) Before share-based payments, NI on share-based incentives and no related adjustment for tax
(3) Source: AlphaWise, Morgan Stanley Research Jan 2016
(4) Source: Comscore (users, visits, pages and time measures)
(5) For Agency and New Homes customers
Nick McKittrick, Chief Executive Officer, said:
"Rightmove celebrated its 15th birthday in 2015 and together with the support of nearly 20,000 customers, it has changed the way Britain searches and researches property.
Our property stock advantage coupled with our brand strength and innovation have substantially increased our audience size and engagement this year. We attracted 200 million more visits in 2015 as more people came to search and research the only place with a million properties for sale and to rent in the UK.
We help our customers succeed by delivering great value marketing and by helping drive business efficiencies. We have grown our customer base by 2% during 2015 to a record high and continue to build broader relationships to support customers' ambitions. We continue to break records at the start of 2016 having already generated over 9 million leads for our customers."
STRATEGIC REPORT - Chairman's Statement
I am pleased to present Rightmove plc's results for the year ended 31 December 2015.
As we report on our 15th consecutive year of growth, I'd like to pick up on a theme raised in the Strategic Report: 'Doing the right thing'. This uncompromising principle supports the ethos of the Group. The philosophy drives our high achieving network business and what we do for our trade customers on one side of the network and our web and mobile visiting consumers on the other side. It also extends to our focus and behaviours towards all stakeholders including our investors, analysts, employees and our Board.
The team's relentless focus and sensitive examination of our consumer experience has been the catalyst for continual improvements to site navigation and design. We aim for simplicity of use and an engaging experience. Of course our site traffic is in part a natural consequence of the best consumer proposition in the market, with almost 50% more listings than any other UK property portal, but it is in the main driven by the huge trust built up in our brand over the past 15 years. The team works diligently to maintain a site that delivers the desired information when it is wanted and in the form it is wanted and we achieved an enviable 99.997% level of site availability last year.
Our nearly 20,000 customers have benefited from our ever-growing popularity with the British home moving public. We have delivered 15 consecutive years of site traffic growth for our customers and have been consistently ranked in the top ten sites in the UK irrespective of cyclical housing demand. Last year we attracted 200 million more consumer visits than the previous year and generated a record 50 million leads for our customers. Rightmove's popularity is showing no signs of letting up and we have already set new site traffic records this January.
Our customers have also benefitted from a continuous roll-out of additional advertising products to reach their audience of home sellers, landlords and home hunters. There is a wide range of choice and discretion to shape and reinforce brand identity on Rightmove to compete for business and market homes. There is also an increasing range of valuable tools, support and data available to our customers to assist them to operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently.
Since Rightmove's strategy does not depend on capital expenditure or M&A, the Board has a policy of distributing all of its free cash flow each year. In fact, Rightmove has returned all of its free cash flow since inception, totalling nearly £600m, through a combination of increased dividends and share buybacks. Our shareholders benefit from a predictable business model that is buoyed by our growing market leadership, together with clear and refreshingly candid communication from our executives.
Once again, the Board and I are grateful for the confidence and support of all our customers and for the talent and dedication of our employees. Together their efforts have positioned Rightmove as the essential marketplace for home hunters to find their next home and for property advertisers to reach by far the widest possible audience.
Financial results
The strength of our business model and core value proposition underpin record financial results in 2015. Underlying operating profit(1) was up 16% to £144.3m (2014: £124.6m) driven by strong organic revenue growth of 15% to £192.1m (2014: £167.0m) and continued focus on cost control. Underlying basic earnings per share (EPS)(2) was up 21% to 121.4p (2014: 100.3p), even greater than the percentage increase in profits and in part attributable to £76.1m of share buybacks as part of our policy of returning cash to shareholders.
Returns to shareholders
Our commitment to return excess cash promptly to investors continues to be as strong as ever. Cash conversion remains in excess of 100% of operating profit. In 2015, we returned a further £112.5m (2014: £103.4m) to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.
Dividend
The Board previously announced that it would increase the interim dividend to 16p (H1 2014: 13.0p) per ordinary share, which was paid on 6 November 2015. Consistent with our policy of increasing the total dividend for the year broadly in line with earnings, the Board proposes to pay a final dividend of 27.0p (2014: 22.0p) per ordinary share for a total dividend for the year of 43.0p (2014: 35.0p), an increase of 23%. The final dividend, subject to shareholder approval, will be paid on 3 June 2016 to all shareholders on the register on 6 May 2016.
Corporate governance
One of the Board's responsibilities is ensuring that the Group applies good governance to facilitate effective management of a high growth business. As the Company's Chairman I am pleased to note that the Group is continuing to foster an environment of entrepreneurial leadership and innovation in a framework of responsible governance and risk management as set out in the Corporate Governance Report on pages 26 to 42.
Board changes
Jonathan Agnew and Judy Vezmar both retired from the Board at the Group's Annual General Meeting in May 2015 after nine years of service. On behalf of the entire Board, I would like to thank them both for their substantial contributions to the Group, and wish them every success. Peter Williams has ably replaced Jonathan Agnew as Senior Independent Director and Remuneration Committee Chairman.
Outlook
Our results for 2015 show us continuing to outperform expectations. Based upon strong customer numbers and traffic, and healthy growth in average spend per advertiser at the start of the year, the Board remains confident of continued success in 2016.
Scott Forbes
Chairman
(1) Before share-based payments and NI on share-based incentives.
(2) Before share-based payments and NI on share-based incentives and no related adjustment for tax.
STRATEGIC REPORT - Business model
Rightmove is the UK's number one property portal and operates a two-sided network. On one side we have the UK's largest and most engaged property audience and on the other side we have the largest inventory of properties. We benefit from strong network effects as our property audience and the properties our customers advertise create a 'virtuous circle' enhancing the Rightmove value proposition.
Rightmove is free to the consumer and is where home buyers and renters turn to first as they can see virtually the whole property market in one place. It is equally compelling to home sellers and landlords as it is where nearly all home buyers and renters are searching and researching the market.
Our customers are primarily estate agents, lettings agents and new homes developers advertising properties for sale and to rent in the UK. We offer the most significant and effective exposure for their brand and properties, the largest source of high quality leads together with best in class software providing market insight and tools that empower their decisions and help drive business efficiencies.
Our principal sources of revenue are the monthly subscription fees paid by customers to advertise all of their properties and the fees paid for additional advertising products and packages. Our additional advertising products enable customers to promote their properties, brands and proposition more strongly and gain a competitive edge.
As the property industry becomes more digital, Rightmove's market leading audience and best in class software is becoming more valuable to customers. Our customers' spend on digital advertising is growing as the property advertising market continues to shift structurally from offline to online and also as customers choose to reinvest the savings from the business efficiencies that our platform and the internet brings. We expect that our growth will continue to come through product innovation and pricing.
We also continue to develop a number of smaller adjacent businesses focussed on advertising overseas and commercial properties and property related data and valuation services.
STRATEGIC REPORT - Chief Executive's review
15 SUCCESSIVE YEARS OF GROWTH
Rightmove celebrated its 15th birthday in 2015 delivering bothanother record year of results and our 15th successive year of growth. Our customer base grew by 2% to reach an all-time high of nearly 20,000, our property stock advantage increased to nearly 50% more than any other UK portal, we attracted an additional 200 million visits to Rightmove, we generated 16% more leads for our customers and our underlying operating profit grew 16% to a record £144.3m.
It is remarkable how far Rightmove has come. Our progress is testament to our disciplined focus on the UK property advertising market and the huge effort Rightmovers have put in to build this business together with our industry customers. Rightmove has changed the way Britain searches and researches property and we look forward to delivering continued growth and further empowering the UK's decisions around property.
Our Strategy
The place that consumers turn to first and engage with most when searching and researching property
estate regeneration statement GOV UK DCLG ,Lord Heseltine ,Brandon Lewis MP
CountryWide plc CWD : unveils annual mixed bag results, after a tumultuous year + Zoopla strong start trading year report
GeoPhy Exodus from EU may spark correction in the rental market
HMO manager fined £20,000 for allowing his tenants to live in “unacceptable” conditions.
Best of Both Worlds ,Social housing: tenants will need to live in an area for four years : the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union
Nobroker.com Homes, one step closer to making estate agent obsolete , new round of funding
Bank of England's unease over market's rate view Carney & Shafik
Councils will compete to process planning applications and be able to offer fast track application services under new proposals.
UK International Development Minister Nick Hurd announces new mobile technology partnership with GSMA
BARRATT House Builder PROFIT AND REVENUE JUMP 40% IN STRONG FIRST HALF
A MILLIONAIRE Cyber-stalked a property developer who he thought was seeing his girlfriend
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