JOBSEEKER WEBSITE PLANS AGGRESSIVE STRATEGY

JOBS website SEEK (ASX: SEK) is plotting an aggressive acquisition strategy after growing its business across all measures to achieve a record full year result. 

The Melbourne company has taken in revenue of close to $1 billion for the period and reported an underlying net profit after tax of $198 million, up 3 per cent.

Reporting to the ASX, SEEK said aggressive reinvestment has significantly expanded its addressable market opportunity and helped lift its revenue to $950 million.

SEEK CEO and co-founder Andrew Bassat says the result is a strong achievement considering relatively flat macros conditions.

"We are reinvesting aggressively within our current businesses and also making strategic acquisitions to position SEEK to play a role in the large human capital management industry," says Bassat.

"We are uniquely positioned to play in this large market given our global scale and breadth and depth of our relationships with over 150 million jobseekers and 700,000 hirers."

Bassat says EBITDA growth in Australia and New Zealand was 15 per cent, while its international business achieved EDITDA growth of 17 per cent against subdued conditions.

International accounts for more than 50 per cent of total SEEK revenue now, with the large markets of Brasil Online, OCC in Mexico and SEEK Asia exceeding expectations.

Through its different products, SEEK is exposed to over four billion people around the world.

"Revenue growth was at its highest level in five years despite subdued macro conditions which reflects the benefits of prior period reinvestment in people, technology and products," he says.

Bassat also suggested SEEK's offering would evolve in line with global rivals, through the launch of several new candidate and hirer products and scaling up existing products like Premium Talent Search and Company Reviews, which Microsoft's LinkedIn is already big on.

SEEK will pay a final dividend of 19c per share on October 14, taking its full year dividend to 40c per share.