Moneysupermarket hurt in the comparison site battle

Shares in the company, whose advertising campaign is based on the slogan ‘You’re So Moneysupermarket’, slumped 15 per cent after rivals launched TV advertising campaigns featuring talking meerkats and a portly opera singer.

It is looking to reverse its fortunes with a new campaign, which it hopes will claw back credit card, savings and mortgage customers who have deserted it after a government stimulus scheme depressed interest rates.

The company said it is confident in its prospects after posting a 71 per cent surge in pre-tax profits to £15.1m in first six months of the year.

The Chester-based group, which makes money by directing people to the websites of banks, insurers, airlines, mobile phone operators and utility giants, saw money revenues fall 13 per cent to £27.9m during its first half. Money transactions fell 14 per cent to 10,484.

It blamed the government’s Funding for Lending Scheme for continued downward pressure on interest rates, which has discouraged people from switching bank accounts, and less demand from lenders for retail deposits. The scheme offers banks and building societies cheap funding in return for boosting lending.

Competition intensified in recent months with the launch of new adverts featuring Go Compare’s opera singer Wynne Evans and Compare the Market’s talking meerkats. That held back Moneysupermarket’s growth in July versus a strong month a year ago when its own campaign launched.

But the company insisted it has maintained its market-leading position and will launch a new campaign next month. It refused to give any details on its advertising fightback.

Earlier this month the group also warned it is losing out in the battle for car and home insurance customers, with visitor numbers and revenues slowing in June after search engine Google changed “natural search algorithms” – pushing its website down the rankings in searches.

The group said it is making progress on re-gaining natural search positions.

Moneysupermarket also revealed finance director Paul Doughty is quitting after nine years, and will leave by June 2014. It has started the search for his replacement.

Group revenues increased 10 per cent to £112.3m during the first half, bolstered by its acquisition of money advice website MoneySavingExpert in September 2012. It paid up to £87m to buy the website from founder Martin Lewis.

MoneySavingExpert generated an extra £8.8m in revenues and £6.2m in underlying earnings for the group during the period.