Rightmove : Annual Financial Report 2023

Rightmove is the place consumers turn to first when they think about making their move, and the place they return to most.

STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Revenue

+10%

Revenue of £364.3m up 10% compared to 2022 reflecting growth across all business units (2022: £332.6m).

Cash returned to shareholders

£201.7m

Cash returned to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends totalled £201.7m (2022: £197.7m). Interim dividend of 3.6p and final dividend of 5.7p (2022: 3.3p and 5.2p). Total dividend for 2023 of 9.3p (2022:8.5p)

Underlying operating profit(1)

+8%

Underlying operating profit £264.6m up

8% compared to 2022 (2022: £245.4m)

Operating profit

+7%

Operating profit of £258.0m up 7% compared to 2022 (2022: £241.3m)

Underlying basic earnings per share(2)

+6%

Underlying basic earnings per share of 25.2p up 1.4p on 2022 (2022: 23.8p)

Basic earnings per share

+5%

Basic earnings per share of 24.5p up 1.1p on 2022 (2022: 23.4p)

Operational highlights

Rightmove remains the UK's unrivalled online digital property advertising and information portal, reflected by the number of properties advertised, customer numbers, average spend by our customers and the time spent by consumers on the site.

STRATEGIC REPORT

Customer numbers

18,785

Membership numbers down 1%/229 compared to 2022 (2022: 19,014)

Average Revenue

Per Advertiser(3)

£1,431

Average revenue per advertiser (ARPA) up 9% compared to 2022 (2022: £1,314)

Properties advertised

847,000

An average of 847,000 UK residential properties advertised each month on Rightmove, more than any other UK site (2022: 773,000)

Employee engagement

88%

88% of employee respondents believe that Rightmove is a great place to work (2022: 87%)

Traffic - visits

-4%

Site visits 4% lower than 2022 at

2.2 billion(4) reflecting the uncertain economic and high mortgage rates backdrop during 2023 (2022: 2.3 billion)

Traffic - time on site(4)

15.4 bn

Time spent on the Rightmove site reduced 6% over the year to 15.4 billion minutes (2022: 16.3 billion)

GOVERNANCE

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

It is my pleasure to present Rightmove's results for the year ended 31 December 2023. In a year of ongoing economic challenge, I am delighted that our strong financial results demonstrate the resilience of the Group's business model and the value we have delivered for both our customers and all

our stakeholders.

Economic uncertainty, driven by higher interest rates, continued throughout 2023, with much speculation on the potential for a negative impact on the housing market. In the end, housing transactions remained resilient at 1.0 million (2022: 1.2 million). Home hunters remained active in their desire to move, and our customers continued to use our site and digital products to help them find new properties and sell current ones - developing their own businesses via Rightmove as they did so. Home hunters continued to trust and value Rightmove as the place they turn to first and return to most, as they searched for their next property and for a trusted agent to help with their home-moving journey.

The value that Rightmove's customers and consumers derive from our products is delivered by our talented and adaptable teams, who are committed to exceeding their expectations and ensuring they receive a market-leading experience. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank all our customers for their continued confidence in Rightmove, and our colleagues for their dedication and hard work.

Johan Svanstrom succeeded Peter Brooks-Johnson as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in March in an orderly and seamless transition for which I would like to thank both Peter and Johan. We set out the strategy for the business for the coming five-year period at our Investor Day on

27 November, establishing the size of the opportunities for some of our newer strategic businesses - Commercial Real Estate; Mortgages and Rental Services - as well as the ongoing opportunity for growth in our core business.

We provided clarity on the financial and operational targets we have set and the acceleration of revenue and profit that these represent.

"In a year of continued economic and global change and challenge, Rightmove once again demonstrated the resilience of its business model and the value its products and services provide to its customers."

Andrew Fisher Chair

During 2023, the Board focused on supporting the management team and on establishing our ambition over both the medium and longer terms. We also focused on the potential of AI to help to deliver some of this growth at greater pace and cost efficiency, enabling us to continue to give our customers and consumers the user experience they have come to expect from the UK's number one property portal.

Financial results

The Group's results reflect the strength of the business model and our core value proposition, delivering underlying operating profit(1) of £264.6m (2022: £245.4m) and operating profit of £258.0m (2022: £241.3m) from revenue of £364.3m (2022: £332.6m). Underlying basic earnings per share(2) was 25.2p (2022: 23.8p) and basic earnings per share 24.5p (2022: 23.4p). The cash(3) position at the year-end was £38.9m (2022: £40.1m), having returned all surplus cash

to shareholders.

Returns to shareholders and dividend

In keeping with our policy of returning free cash to our shareholders, £201.7m (2022: £197.7m) was returned in the year: £130.0m through the share buyback programme and £71.7m in dividend payments in and October respectively.

The Board remains confident in our ability to deliver sustainable returns to shareholders and is recommending a final dividend of 5.7p per share for 2023 (2022: 5.2p). The final dividend will be paid, subject to shareholder approval, on 24 May 2024, taking the total dividend for the year to 9.3p (2022: 8.5p).

Board changes

On 6 March 2023, Peter Brooks-Johnson stepped down from his position as CEO and as an Executive Director. I would like to thank Peter for his leadership as CEO and for everything he contributed throughout his 16 years of outstanding service that enabled Rightmove to become the clear market leader.

Johan Svanstrom was appointed to the Board on 20 February 2023, and became CEO on 6 March 2023, bringing an impressive track record of growing established business-to- consumer online marketplace businesses.

Rakhi Goss-Custard stepped down from the Board on 5 May 2023, having served her maximum term as a Non-Executive Director. I would like to thank Rakhi for the significant contribution she made to the Board throughout her tenure and particularly for the deep knowledge of the customer and consumer experiences she brought from a range of other digital product and mobile platforms.

Kriti Sharma was appointed to the Board on 25 July 2023. She brings internationally recognised expertise in AI and a strong record of building and transforming successful technology businesses and products for consumer, B2B and enterprise companies. She is currently Chief Product Officer, LegalTech, for Thomson Reuters and was formerly the VP of Artificial Intelligence at FTSE 100 software company The Sage Group plc.

Board governance

The Corporate Responsibility Committee has continued to guide and oversee progress in the delivery of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy. I am delighted with the launch of our new Go Greener initiative which will help provide a pathway to greener property in the UK, recognising that Rightmove has the opportunity to not only focus on its own operations and emissions but to contribute, through its unique property market data and insights, to helping with the UK's target to become Net Zero by 2050 (see the ESG report, page 30).

The Audit Committee has overseen the selection of a new Head of Internal Audit as we transition, during 2024, from outsourced internal audit to an inhouse function and has continued to monitor the second phase of the implementation of the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system (see the Audit Committee report on page 79 for details).

Looking ahead

Our mission remains to continually innovate, to make property moving easier and simpler by giving everyone the best place to turn to - and return to - for access to the tools, data and expertise to successfully enable their move. Whilst continuing to focus on our core business of the UK domestic property market, our ambitions are to further invest into, and digitise, our existing but smaller business areas. These include enhanced advertising in the commercial real estate market, capturing value from our unique property data, improving the rental journey and offering a range of mortgage-related products.

I am looking forward to continuing to work with our teams on our long-held strategy to deliver greater value for all our stakeholders in 2024.

Andrew Fisher

Chair

29 February 2024

1. Underlying Operating Profit is defined as operating profit before share-based payments charges (including the related National Insurance).
2. Underlying basic EPS is defined as profit for the year before share-based payments charges (including the related National Insurance and appropriate tax adjustments), divided by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue for the period.
3. Cash including money market deposits.

STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Network effect

Our leading brand, platform and the powerful network effect of our consumers and customers underpins the success of our business, and secures our strong and resilient position through all market cycles and industry events. One Rightmove Platform, crucially with many connected nodes.

Powered by data

We obsess about continually innovating to provide exceptional value to customers, and an exceptional experience for consumers, through our superior data and platform, that delivers exceptional value to Rightmove, and our shareholders, so we can further invest in innovation and digitisation. The network effect is compounding for all stakeholders.

STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Our Platform's tools, unique industry data and our consumer reach, through our access to the largest property moving audience in the UK, provide unrivalled data, property insights and marketing channels: granting customers the most significant and effective exposure for their own brands and properties, which helps them maximise returns in their own businesses.

Shareholders

Our ambitions and delivery through innovation generates substantial shareholder value: with operating profit margins over 70%, high cash conversion and a robust balance sheet, we are able to invest to drive future growth through increased product penetration in our core businesses and the development of our strategic growth areas.

Business Partners

We take responsibility in all our business relationships and seek to develop relationships that are mutually beneficial. With suppliers we commit to prompt payment through the prompt payer code, and with policymakers and regulators we take an open and transparent approach to ensuring that we comply with all relevant regulations.

Rightmove is free to consumers and is at their fingertips when they are looking to make their move. It is the only place where they see almost the entire UK property market in one place. They rely on the ease, speed and availability of our platform to provide them with useful data and information

to make their next move.

Employees

Our employees define Rightmove. The culture is open, innovative, supportive and value driven - employees live by our central behaviours of doing the right thing for customers, consumers and each other. Our policies and programmes support and enrich our employees: improving diversity, equity and inclusion whilst aiding workforce well-being, retention and recruitment.

Communities and environment

We are committed to the UK's environmental agenda and leveraging the reach of our platform to help the UK Go Greener. We support communities through charity work and donations and our give back days (paid leave) provide employees with the opportunity to volunteer for national, local and customer charities.