Bouyant jobs market drives Seek's revenues

Seek.com.au has reported strong growth in its business with revenues for the half year to 31 December climbing 48 percent year on year to $70.0m.

The online jobs advertiser also achieved an net profit after tax growth of 63 percent to $23.9m. EBITDA for the same period also grew 63 percent to $34.6m.

Seek joint CEO Paul Bassat said that the Australian employment market remained strong and the migration of classified advertising from print to online continued to drive growth.

“We have increased our strong leadership position in the online employment market and have seen significant increases in ad volume and number of job seeks visting the site in both Australia and New Zealand," Bassat said in a stock exchange statement.

“We have also expanded our product range with the introduction of Premium Listings and the new Seek Commercial portal dedicated to businesses and franchises for sale.”

The company had also aggressively targeted high growth markets such as government, healthcare and education, and increased its geographic penetration in areas such as Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, Bassat said.

Seek’s board has declared an interim dividend of 6.0 cents per share, fully franked, an increase of 62 percent from the dividend of 3.7 cents paid in the same half last year.