Zoopla, Confused and Uswitch owner slashes loss by almost £600m

The group behind the likes of Zoopla, Confused.com and Uswitch slashed its pre-tax loss by almost £600m in 2023, it has been revealed.

The London-headquartered organisation has reported a pre-tax loss of £134.9m for its latest financial year after posting a loss of £714.6m in 2022.

According to newly-filed accounts with Companies House, the group’s revenue also surged from £391m to £451.5m over the same period.

The group, which is owned by Silver Lake Partners, also includes brands such as Primelocation, Money.co.uk, Tempcover, Hometrack and Alto as well as Calcasa in the Netherlands.

In 2022, the group sold Le Lynx.fr, Rastreator and Preminen – together RVU International) – in a deal which completed in February 2023.

During the year the group’s property division rebranded to Houseful.

Price rises help boost Zoopla owner

A statement signed off by the board said: “The revenue growth is driven by a combination of price rises, new business wins, new product initiatives and optimising core digital marketing.

“The improvement in the operating loss is largely driven by a reduction in impairment of goodwill and other intangibles from £568.4m in 2022 to £11.7m in 2023 as well as a gain on disposal of the RVU International CGU of £59.8m in 2023.

“Cost management initiatives were also undertaken during the year which resulted in additional cost savings and efficiencies.”

The group added: “Despite continued challenges in the macro-economic environment, the group’s performance has been exceptional as demonstrated by the strong revenue growth.

“The group aims to continue its mission of being the platform of choice for consumers and partners engaged in property and household-related decisions.”

The group’s UK sales increased from £376.3m to £436.8m in the year but remained steady at £14.6m in the Netherlands.

During the year the average number of people employed by the group was cut from 1,415 to 1,290.

Separate accounts for Zoopla and Uswitch are due to be filed with Companies House by the end of this month.