Moneysupermarket.com's revenue rises, but affected by no energy switch

Moneysupermarket.com had a softer start to 2017 as a “buoyant” insurance market was offset by a lack of a collective energy switch in the first quarter.

Group revenue for the quarter ended 31 March rose 2% to £85m, compared to last year.

Revenue from the Moneysupermarket.com website included a 23% increase to £44.5m for revenue from the insurance business.

The FTSE 250 company said the key drivers for revenue growth was a due to a “buoyant switching market” and pricing initiatives.

Although the money business of credit cards and loans slipped 2% to 22.3m due to “exceptional current account switching deals available in the comparative period last year”.

No energy collective switch took place in the quarter, which lowering the performance of the home services business and MoneySavingExpert.com.

Home services dropped 45% to £9.3m and MoneySavingExpert.com’s revenue fell 4% to 10.7m, while revenue from TravelSupermarket.com rose 12% to £5.9m.

The company maintained that it is confident of meeting expectations of adjusted operating profit in the range of £112.6m to £117.4m, with the average £114.7m.

Chief executive Mark Lewis said that the company’s next collective energy switch which will be launched in the coming weeks will be a way for people to beat rising fuel costs. The company expects volumes will be smaller than last year.

Broker Numis said the softer start was expected and comparison was tough against the strong double digit growth achieved in the second half of 2016.

Furthermore, in Q1 last year there was an exceptional level of current account deals that were not offered in 2017.