Mony Group, the parent company of Moneysupermarket and Moneysavingexpert, has reported an 8% rise in profit to £73 million in the first half of this year, driven by a surge in revenue from its insurance business. The firm saw a 14% growth in its insurance comparison segment, which brought in £120 million in the six months to June 30. The company attributed this to 'exceptional growth' in insurance switching during 2023, a trend that continued into early 2024, although it expects a slowdown in the latter half of the year.
However, not all divisions performed well. Revenue from its home services division, which includes energy switching and broadband, fell by 10% to £16.7 million. The company cited 'continued weakness in broadband and a softening of mobile switching, driven by lower levels of conversion as providers increased focus on customer retention.' Energy revenues were deemed insignificant due to persistent market uncertainty despite some available switching deals.
The money division also saw a slight decrease of 2% to £50.9 million. While credit card switching performed well, this was offset by a slump in loans, attributed to the high interest rate environment making them less affordable for consumers. The banking sector, including current accounts and savings products, underperformed due to a lack of attractive offers during the period.
Moneysupermarket's membership platform, SuperSaveClub, reached a new milestone with over 500,000 members, up from 300,000 in April. The Moneysavingexpert app, founded by Martin Lewis, has seen 1.4 million downloads. Peter Duffy, chief executive of Mony Group, said: 'We've made good progress in the first half of the year reaching a best-ever (first half) revenue and (adjusted profit). Ours is a business that only makes money if customers save money and in the first half of 2024, we saved customers £1.7 billion.'
