Corporate Summary (April 2008)
Leading the Market
SEEK Limited (ASX code: SEK) is a media company that uses the Internet as its distribution channel.
As the leader in the online employment market in Australia and New Zealand, seek.com.au and seek.co.nz make it quicker and easier for jobseekers to find jobs that match their search criteria. For recruiters and employers, SEEK provides access to the largest audience of job candidates at a fraction of the cost of print advertising and with greater functionality.
SEEK also owns SEEK Learning, an online training and development business in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. SEEK Learning helps people further their career through distance education and classroom training courses.
Also operating in the UK is www.seek.co.uk, an online employment site targeting Australian and New Zealand jobseekers.
SEEK made its debut on the Australian Stock Exchange on 19 April 2005, and in September that year was included in the ASX/S&P 200 Index – an index of the leading 200 shares in Australia.
In the year ending June 2007, the company generated revenues of $157.0m million and EBITDA of $80.3 million, an increase of 47.8% and 63.9% respectively compared to the previous year.
In the six months to December 2007, revenue rose 41% to $100.6 million and EBITDA increased 49% to $51.5 million compared to the six months to December 2006.
SEEK takes its recruitment and employment practices seriously. For the past three years the company has received special commendation awards in the Best Employers to Work for in Australia survey conducted by Hewitt Associates.
SEEK currently employs approximately 400 people.
Market Position
SEEK enjoys a formidable lead over its nearest competitor, with more job ads and jobseekers than any other. In February 2008 seek.com.au attracted nearly 2.8 million unique browsers which is more than twice the number received by its nearest competitor (Nielsen//NetRatings). Of the total time spent by jobseekers on the 3 major Australian employment sites, 75% of that time is spent on seek.com.au.
seek.com.au currently hosts around two thirds of all online job ads, with a site reach of 66 per cent of the online job seeker market in Australia (Nielsen//NetRatings). At any one time, over 200,000 job ads are posted on seek.com.au, which is more than double that of its nearest competitor. In New Zealand over 400,000 unique browsers are drawn to seek.co.nz each month, equivalent to approximately 20% of the New Zealand working population and over 20,000 job ads are posted at any given time.
SEEK's exclusive media partnerships mean that visitors are driven to seek.com.au and seek.co.nz from over 30 partner sites. On top of extensive search engine marketing on both Google and Yahoo, SEEK is currently the exclusive careers content provider on Australia's leading Internet portal, ninemsn as well as other sites such as OptusZoo, ensuring that passive job seekers are also exposed to SEEK.
A little bit of History
SEEK was formed in November 1997 by Paul Bassat, Andrew Bassat and Matthew Rockman, who could see a more efficient way of bringing jobseekers and employers together. They launched seek.com.au in March 1998.
In 1999, SEEK expanded beyond Australia with the launch of seek.co.nz, which soon became the most popular Internet employment site in New Zealand. It consolidated its position at the top of the New Zealand job market by acquiring nzjobs.com.nz in early 2004.
Also in 2004, SEEK moved into the complementary training and development industry, by acquiring online training company, SelfCert, which has since been branded "SEEK Learning".
In August 2005, SEEK announced the acquisition of Dynamic Web Training (DWT) Pty Ltd as part of its expansion in vocational training and education. DWT provides short classroom based training courses for popular software applications.
One year later, in August 2006, SEEK announced the acquisition of IDP Education, establishing a commercial partnership with IDP, which is owned by 38 Australian universities. The acquisition was a further effort to improve the services of SEEK Learning.
In September 2006, SEEK acquired a 25% interest in Zhaopin, one of the three leading online employment sites in China. The Zhaopin investment represents SEEK's first investment in an internet employment site outside Australia and New Zealand.
SEEK went on to acquire a 50% interest in Amadeus Education Pty Ltd in October 2007. Amadeus, a private education group that owns several private tertiary collages, has provided SEEK with an opportunity to leverage the knowledge developed through SEEK Learning.
In March 2008 SEEK Learning launched in the UK, offering IT certification courses across the UK and Ireland.
Outlook for the online employment sector
SEEK believes that the online employment market will continue to win significant market share from print media and that future growth in the employment industry will be captured predominantly by online participants.
The internet continues to be the preferred method to look for a job, with 48.2% of recent Australian survey participants indicating a preference for online. (Source: Newspoll Telephone Omnibus, February 2008).
SEEK is pursuing growth opportunities in the following areas:
- Increasing advertising volumes - in industries where penetration is relatively low, such as healthcare and education, and geographically in capital cities and regional areas where it can replicate the market share of Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland
- Growing advertising yield – by attracting more candidates for advertisers and by continuing to attract more customers from large corporate employers and Small to Medium Enterprises
- Offering new and improved job-related products – which are attractive to both jobseekers and advertisers, such as improved searching and matching technologies
- Further acquisitions in the learning market. Any acquisition must meet both the strategic and financial hurdles required to generate sufficient returns to shareholders
- SEEK believes that the combination of organic growth through these channels and potential growth by acquisition provides an attractive long-term outlook for the company
SEEK's Customer Relationships
- Approximately 15,000 customers per month have a business relationship with SEEK through the listing of over 200,000 job ads at any one time on seek.com.au. These customers include recruitment agencies, large corporate employers, government departments and small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
- SEEK works in partnership with recruitment companies, not in competition with them. The company is continually working with recruiters to help develop new tools to shortlist, test and communicate with candidates.
SEEK's Services
SEEK has created several sub-sites to make job browsing and matching simpler. These are:
- SEEK Executive
- For job seekers who are looking for executive positions with a salary of $100,000 or more
- SEEK IT
- Meeting the unique needs of the IT industry and offering over 25,000 jobs
- SEEK NZ
- Featuring jobs in New Zealand with all the features found on the Australian site
- SEEK UK
- Featuring jobs in England and Ireland with all the usual job search facilities plus direct links to UK recruitment consultants
- SEEK Volunteer
- Bringing volunteers and not-for profit organisations together free of charge
- SEEK Learning
- Assisting with career development by providing distance education and classroom-based courses through partnerships with leading training providers, such as IT vendors and major universities.
- SEEK Commercial
- A market place for business seekers to browse online for businesses and franchises for sale
For further information please contact:
Paul Bassat
Joint Chief Executive Officer
SEEK Limited