Property portal Zoopla reports rise in revenue and continues expansion

Zoopla makes acquisition of an analytics firm.

ZPG said sales rose 24 per cent to £244.5m in the year to September 30, while pre-tax profits nudged up 4 per cent to £48.1m as it booked record traffic of 648 million online visits.

Founder and chief executive Alex Chesterman put the results down to a combination of “underlying organic growth and further strategic acquisitions”.

The group’s property arm saw revenue rise 41 per cent to £122.3m, helped by acquisitions, and ZPG’s price comparison unit booked a 10 per cent increase in sales to £122.2m.

ZPG, which owns uSwitch and Money.co.uk, also revealed the takeover of Calcasa, which it describes as a leading provider of residential property market analysis in the Netherlands.

ZPG said the deal will see the creation of the largest residential property valuation database in Europe.

It comes after a failed attempt to take over GoCompare for £460m earlier this month.

Mr Chesterman said: “This is another example of a transaction that fits perfectly with our strategy. Calcasa is a market-leading business that we know well with strong underlying growth and which we believe will be even stronger under our ownership.

“And we are buying the business at a price that is accretive to our shareholders.”