Seek’s 1H revenue lifts 12% to $601m, flags Employment Hero stake sale
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The news: Job search platform Seek has delivered a 12% increase in net revenue year on year to $601 million in the first half of FY26 and increased its fully franked interim dividend by 13% to 27 cents per share.
The Seek growth fund has also announced it has commenced a sale process to divest its stake in Employment Hero to open a liquidity window in the 2026 calendar year.
The numbers: The net revenue figure is below the market consensus estimate of $603.1 million, according to Visible Alpha.
Seek reported a loss of $178 million over the period following the previously announced $356 million impairment of its investment in Chinese job site Zhaopin.
Operational expenditure also lifted 7% to $334 million and capital expenditure lifted 24% to $75 million.
The 27 cents per share interim dividend is higher than the market consensus estimate of 26.1 cents per share, and higher than the 24 cents declared in the previous corresponding period.
The context: The company said it saw high yield growth due to new AI-enabled ad tiers and outcome-based pricing.
The increase in expenses reflected investment in "product, technology and AI teams, growth in IT infrastructure and compute costs to support the ongoing investment in the platform, annual wage growth, an additional discretionary bonus expense, the reacquisition of Sidekicker in May 2025".
The Seek Growth Fund's divestment from Employment Hero will open a liquidity window in 2026. The fund "must use reasonable endeavours to fulfil a liquidity request within 12 to 24 months".
What they said: "This was another half of demonstrable progress across all our strategic priorities. Our placement share lead in Australia grew to 4.9x our nearest competitor; and whilst Asia declined slightly, underlying marketplace metrics are strong and improving across the board," Seek CEO and managing director Ian Narev said.
The source: ASX
