SEEK 2020 Annual Report
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SEEK ANNUAL REPORT We help people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and help organisations succeed 2020 MAKING A POSITIVE IMPACT ON A GLOBAL SCALE A strong international portfolio of employment and education businesses A market leader in online employment marketplaces with 245m+ deep and rich insights into the Candidate relationships future of work A global presence including Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, South-East Asia, Brazil & Mexico Creating world-class products 1m+ through ongoing investment into Hirer relationships AI and technology Employing 1,000+ people in Australia and New Zealand, 10,000+ around the world Creating a culture of innovation, 2.9bn empowerment and collaboration Population exposure Australian listed with headquarters in Melbourne, Victoria 70m+ Students and learners Our unified purpose helps people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and helps organisations succeed. United Kingdom Spain China Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam Brazil Australia New Zealand Geographical coverage represents primary country/countries of operation for SEEK AP&A businesses, Zhaopin, OES and Early Stage Ventures within SEEK’s key investment themes (Online Education, HR SaaS and Contingent Labour) Asia Pacific & Americas SEEK Investments ii SEEK Limited Annual Report 2020 This report covers SEEK Limited as a consolidated entity consisting A description of the nature of the consolidated entity’s operations of SEEK Limited (the Company) and its controlled entities. The and its principal activities is included in the review of operations and Financial Report was authorised for issue by the directors on activities in the Directors’ Report on pages 4 to 39. 29 September 2020. The Company has the power to amend and Through the use of the internet, we have ensured that our corporate reissue the Financial Report. reporting is timely, complete and available globally at minimum cost SEEK Limited is a company limited by shares, incorporated and to the Company. All ASX Announcements, reports, presentations and domiciled in Australia. Its registered principal place of business is: other information are available at our Investor Centre on our website at www.seek.com.au/about/investors/. Level 6 541 St Kilda Road MELBOURNE VIC 3004 Contents iii CONTENTS Message from the Chairman & CEO iv Directors’ Report 4 Letter from Remuneration Committee Chairman 23 Remuneration Report 24 Auditor’s Independence Declaration 40 Sustainability Report 41 Corporate Governance Statement 65 Consolidated Income Statement 74 Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income 75 Consolidated Balance Sheet 76 Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity 77 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 78 Notes to the Financial Statements 79 Directors’ Declaration 134 Independent Auditor’s Report 135 Shareholder Information 142 Five Year Financial Summary 144 Corporate Directory IBC iv SEEK Limited Annual Report 2020 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN & CEO Welcome to the Dear Shareholder, 2020 Annual Report Since the start of calendar year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly across the world and impacted almost every country in an unprecedented way. The pandemic has sadly claimed the lives of many people and the secondary impacts on economies and people’s livelihoods has been profound. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected during these challenging times and we hope that the path to recovery is quicker than many predict. The SEEK Group (‘the Group’) was not immune from the impact of COVID-19 in the 2020 financial year (‘FY2020’). However, whilst the external environment posed numerous challenges, we remained focused on executing our key strategic priorities and making decisions that align with SEEK’s long-term objectives. Our Purpose coupled with these core principles guided us during this period. Message from the Chairman & CEO v Delivering on our Purpose at a large scale Strong progress towards key strategic priorities SEEK’s Purpose of “Helping people live more fulfilling and Our long-term growth strategy and $5 billion aspirational revenue productive working lives and helping organisations succeed” opportunity remain intact, although the timeframe to achieving guides our day to day and long-term strategic thinking. Our this will likely be impacted by weak macro-economic conditions team’s priorities align to our Purpose, and our strong value-based and the rate at which employment activity recovers. culture ensures we remain focused on delivering exceptional Despite the conditions in FY2020, we made tangible progress outcomes for our candidates, hirers and students. against our key strategic priorities including: Our Purpose and geographic footprint provide us with the • AP&A: a new pricing model was launched in SEEK opportunity to have a meaningful impact on a global scale: ANZ and SEEK Asia achieved planned milestones for • SEEK’s Asia Pacific & Americas (‘AP&A’) business has platform unification. relationships with over 45 million candidates and over • SEEK Investments: ongoing investment to improve the core 200,000 hirers. platform in Zhaopin and scaling new and existing partners in • SEEK Investments has relationships with over 200 million OES. Our Early Stage Ventures portfolio performed very well candidates, approximately 820,000 hirers and over 70 million during COVID-19 and achieved “look-through” revenue growth students/ learners. of 35% compared to FY2019. We must continue to invest to increase the value that we SEEK’s response to COVID-19 deliver our candidates, hirers and students, particularly given As COVID-19 spread across our markets we prioritised the we compete against large global competitors. Provided we safety and well-being of our people, putting in place measures keep investing and executing, we will improve our overall value to protect our permanent workforce, culture and engagement. proposition and defensibility for the years ahead. In turn, we are confident this will translate into SEEK being a larger and more We then quickly enacted a series of hirer support measures profitable business. totalling $13 million (across AP&A), reflecting our long-term commitment to our customers. We also built new content Key financial highlights in FY2020 and insights, as well as launching new courses, to help many jobseekers who lost their jobs during this period. Results impacted by weak macro conditions and COVID-19 Given the direct financial impact on billings and an uncertain outlook, we adopted a series of measures to ensure we SEEK delivered sales revenue of $1,577.4m, EBITDA of $414.9m increased funding flexibility by obtaining increased covenant and Reported NPAT excluding significant items of $90.3m. levels from our senior lenders and issuing subordinated debt. Reported NPAT was a loss of $111.7m as a result of significant In addition, we prudently managed discretionary costs and items totalling $202.0m. The significant items related to liquidity to support our capital position. Our capital management impairment charges for Brasil Online, OCC and four Early Stage response allowed us to continue investing in long-term investments totalling $198.0m and approximately $4.0m in competitiveness across areas such as product innovation, funding related costs. technology architecture and data capability, and to preserve Capital management long-term shareholder value. A focus in FY2020 was on managing the Group’s capital Given the short-term impact to our business, we received structure to support our growth strategy. We undertook debt $8.4 million of COVID-19 related government support across restructuring activities which led to SEEK increasing its overall Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia for which we funding flexibility and extending its debt maturity profile. are grateful. Given the uncertain environment created by COVID-19, we made During FY2020, we are extremely proud of the way in which our the decision not to pay a final dividend in FY2020 and to preserve teams adapted to the changing conditions and executed on our capital to fund SEEK’s long-term growth strategy. The dividend key strategic initiatives. decision was not taken lightly but we believe it was the right Whilst the near term will continue to pose challenges, we are trade-off to maximise returns for long-term shareholders. Once confident in our strategy and growth prospects. If we continue to economic conditions improve, we intend to resume payment invest and execute well, when conditions improve, we expect that of dividends. SEEK will emerge a stronger and more resilient business. vi SEEK Limited Annual Report 2020 Asia Pacific & Americas OES performed well and is seeing increased demand for online education solutions As expected, the impact of COVID-19 weighed on job ad volumes across AP&A. Pleasingly, our competitive metrics remained • OES delivered solid revenue growth of 7% and continues to strong and we continued investing and innovating to capture a benefit from structural shifts to online learning. large long-term addressable market opportunity. • During FY2020 OES made good progress in scaling up its new Australian and international partnerships and invested in SEEK ANZ performed well in the context of a weak evolving its product offerings. volume environment • Given the challenging conditions, SEEK ANZ performed well ESV portfolio delivered strong results and we have and has observed signs of early recovery led by small and increased confidence in our Investment themes medium-sized