Speaking Sensis

Today, Sensis announced a solid first half year result for the 2009/2010 financial year, with EBITDA up 4.8% to $488m on a flat revenue of $974m.

According to Sensis CEO, Bruce Akhurst: “This is a strong result in a challenging market. As we advised previously, we experienced subdued sales conditions in our directories business but were able to outperform the local market and deliver solid market share growth in both print and online.”

“At the same time, the fundamentals of our business – the support we receive from the buyers and sellers who rely on our services – remain very strong. This is a great pointer to the future”.

Sensis delivered 3.5% YoY growth in the potential reach of Yellow Pages® advertisingⁱ by syndicating our advertisers’ content across a wide range of channels and brands. We also saw excellent growth in MediaSmart’s online display network reachⁱⁱ, high double digit growth in mobile usage and an average of over 4 billion page views per month in Chinaⁱⁱⁱ.

At the same time, customer satisfaction results remained high among both buyers and sellers.

Adding to Sensis’ strong business fundamentals was an ongoing investment in our underlying systems together with a wide range of successful new initiatives aimed at making our products simpler and more informative for buyers and more effective for advertisers.

Financial highlights
(Adjusted for Trading Post transfer, Universal Publishers sale and currency movements)
• Adjusted EBITDA up 4.8% to $488 million – strong performance in difficult market conditions
• Flat adjusted revenue down 0.1% to $974 million
• Adjusted expenses pre D&A down 4.5% to $487 million
• EBIT up 14.5% to $445 million

Market highlights
• Yellow Pages® & White Pages® print share of print media up from 19.6% to 21.3%^iv
• Australian online market share grew from 15.4% to more than 17%^v
• Global (China and Australia) online usage up to 4.3 billion page views per month^vi
• Total mobile usage up 76% to 2.5 million visits^vii
• Maintained strong customer satisfaction results - Yellow Pages® Online and White Pages® Online user satisfaction up 10 percentage points (pp) and 16pp since February 2008 and maintained scores of above 8.0 for Yellow Pages® and White Pages® advertiser satisfaction with our consultants

Operational highlights
• New White Pages® Mobile site delivered 600,000 monthly visits in only its sixth month^x
• White Pages® and Yellow Pages® iPhone apps delivered 475,000 visits to Yellow Pages® and White Pages® Mobile in December^xi
• Yellow Pages® in the Car directory sold into 15 new markets after success in Melbourne and Sydney
• Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories certified carbon neutral with carbon emission to be offset through Greenhouse Friendly^TM accredited providers

ⁱRoy Morgan Single Source Australia; average monthly unique users, 12 months to September 2009 vs 2008. Includes all services through which Yellow ⁱⁱPages® advertiser ontent can be searched for. Includes Yellow Pages® print, mobile and online, Whereis.com, 1234 and third party sites including Google Maps (not yet able to measure Bing Maps)
ⁱⁱⁱRoy Morgan Single Source Australia; average monthly unique users of all listed MediaSmart sites, 12 months to September 2009 vs 2008
^ivAustralian data from Omniture Site Catalyst: average monthly visits; Soufun data from Soufun; Sequel data from iResearch. All data relates to average monthly page views, September quarter 2009
^vSensis data and CEASA Main Media Report, Jan – June 2009 and previous. Compares like sales cycles, FY09 vs FY08. YPWP revenue backdated 6 months to allow for six month revenue recognition delay.
^viSensis data and IAB Online Advertising Expenditure Report, September quarter 2009
ⁱAustralian data from Omniture Site Catalyst: average monthly visits; Soufun data from Soufun; Sequel data from iResearch. All data relates to average monthly page views, September quarter 2009
^viiOmniture, SiteCatalyst; Average monthly visits December quarter 2009 vs 2008
^viii2Degrees Research, Yellow Pages® Online User Satisfaction Survey, November 2009. 2Degrees Research, whitepages.com.au User Satisfaction Survey, September 2009
^ixYellow Pages® KPI Report. Average monthly positive score out of 100 for each attribute over the six months to December, 2009 vs 2008. White Pages® KPI Report. Average monthly positive score out of 100 for each attribute over the six months to December, 2009 vs 2008
^xOmniture Site Catalyst, December 2009
^xiOmniture Site Catalyst, monthly unique visits, December 2009