MoneySuperMarket Financials: Latest Snapshot

MoneySuperMarket, one of the big comparison sites in the UK insurance market has publsihed its latest financials, covering the opening half of 2023.

The news is generally good, with a healthy 23% increase in insurance product sales, revenue is also up. The brand is known for its TV ad camapign with Dame Judi Dench heading up a diverse teams of people looking to save consumers money on a range of products. That must be a significant overhead and it will be interesting to see if it continues to deliver as the effects of higher mortgage and rent payments eats into disposable spending later in 2023 and early 2024.

Here’s the results update in bullet point format;

Good trading performance
• Revenue up 11%, gross margin maintained at 68%; and adjusted EBITDA up 20%.
– Insurance up 23% led by car, winning share in a growing market rebounding from FCA General
Insurance Pricing regulations.
– Travel continued strong recovery in Insurance and Ice Travel Group.
– Headwinds from interest rates hit loans and mortgage conversion; cost of living impacted
broadband.
• Ready for energy switching return – historically a market leader. No significant return expected in
2023.
• Cost discipline in face of inflation – rise in operating costs kept to 3%.
• Strong cash conversion – £41.1m of operating cashflow during the period.
• Returned to dividend growth – 3% increase to 3.2p, reflecting our strategic progress, confidence in
growth prospects and continued good cash generation.

Continued strategic progress – planning ahead

• Development of data capabilities, common technology and scalable platforms has laid foundation
to start to enhance customer retention and cross-selling:
– Starting roll out of proprietary ‘Dialogue’ platform to improve speed of enquiry across products.
– Trialling a MoneySuperMarket cash rewards and loyalty club: ‘SuperSaveClub’.
– Adding “MSE ChatGPT” and testing personalised notifications on the MoneySavingExpert App.
• Leading platforms for Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimisation and Customer Relationship
Management now installed and delivering value.

Peter Duffy, CEO of Moneysupermarket Group, said:

“Our purpose is to help everyone save money on their household bills, and this has never been more vital as cost-of-living pressures bite. But it has got to be easy to use our site. And that’s where we’ve made good progress. The tech behind our trusted brands has been modernised and made increasingly common across the Group. The more scalable it is, the more efficient our business is and the more we
can invest in new tools and personalised features that help people save on more of their bills.”