Moneysupermarket.com PLC (LON:MONY) held its dividend in 2020 even though travel restrictions due to COVID-19 took a big chunk out of its revenues over the past twelve months.
The price comparison website said revenue in the year to end-December dropped by 11% to £345mln due to coronavirus disruption, with the fall reduced to 4% stripping out TravelSupermarket and travel insurance.
Profits for the year fell 24% to £87.8mln as a result of the lower revenue and a lower gross margin rate, primarily due to poorer conversion in Money, said the statement.
The company said the outcome for 2021 depends on how quickly the UK economy comes out of lockdown.
Consensus forecasts for underlying earnings are between £96.4mln to £128.8mln and reaching the upper end of the consensus range will require strong and rapid recovery in both Money and travel-related channels, it said.
If dynamics within Money were close to levels in the final quarter of 2020, adjusted EBITDA will likely be towards the lower end of the consensus range, it added.
“Given the likely shape of the trading recovery, as well as the good 2020 first-quarter performance, we expect revenue and profit performance to be firmly weighted to the second half.”
Net cash was £23.6mln at December 31, 2020.