REA Group Lifts Dividend, Announces Buyback as 1st Half Profit Rises 9%

By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--Australian real-estate advertiser REA Group lifted its dividend and announced a US$140 million share buyback after first-half profit rose 9%.

The ASX-listed classifieds provider on Friday reported a core-operations net profit for the six months through December of 340.6 million Australian dollars, equivalent to about US$238.4 million.

Revenue rose by 5% to A$915.8 million even as Australian residential buy ad volumes fell 6%. Yield rose 14% on price rises, growth in add-on products, increased depth, and geographical factors.

The profit was lower than the average analyst forecast of A$349.1 million off revenue of A$933.9 million, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha.

News Corp-controlled REA raised its interim dividend to A$1.24 a share from A$1.10 a year ago. It said it would launch an on-market A$200 million share buyback on or after Feb. 23.

"REA Group has an extremely strong balance sheet, and this share buyback reflects the board's confidence in the long-term outlook of the business and our disciplined approach to capital management," REA Chairman Hamish McLennan said.

Including one-off items such as the gain made from the sale of its stake in PropertyGuru in the year-earlier period, statutory net profit fell to A$336.3 million from A$441.3 million.

News Corp is the parent company of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.

Write to Stuart Condie at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-05-26 1700ET