Property Advertiser REA Lifts Dividend as Annual Profit Rises 24%

By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--REA Group raised its dividend and flagged strong demand at the start of its new fiscal year as the Australian real-estate advertiser lifted its annual profit by 24%.

The ASX-listed company on Friday reported a core-operations net profit for the 12 months through June of 460.5 million Australian dollars (US$303.6 million), compared with A$372.2 million a year earlier. Revenue rose by 23%, to A$1.45 billion.

REA raised its final dividend to A$1.02 a share, from A$0.83, for a full-year payout of A$1.89 a share.

Including one-off items including an impairment against its PropertyGuru business, REA's statutory net profit fell to A$302.8 million, from A$356.1 million a year earlier.

REA said that Australian new residential listings were up 12% on year for the first month of its new fiscal year.

REA is 61% owned by News Corp., which owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire and The Wall Street Journal.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 08, 2024 18:48 ET (22:48 GMT)

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