ONLINE classified group Carsales.com Ltd has posted a seven per cent rise in revenue to $179 million for the first six months of the 2017 financial year, but net profit was hit by a $7.1 million write down of one of its offshore assets.

Its results were also clipped by reduced earnings from its finance business – it has major shareholdings in Stratton Finance and RateSetter – because of volume shortfalls attributed to an unnamed major lender that it said affected bonus incentives.

Its investment in iCar Asia – the online automotive classifed business operating in three Asian countries – was written down to what Carsales.com terms as “market value” and this reduced net profit by eight per cent to $47.2 million compared with the previous corresponding period.

Despite the minor negatives, Carsales.com grew its earnings per share by five per cent to 22.6 cents a share. It will pay a half-year dividend of 18.7 cents per share, up from 17.8 cents per share paid in the first half of the 2016 financial year.

Outgoing CEO Greg Roebuck said the core business of the company was “robust” and continued to return “great results” for customers and shareholders.

“The Carsales.com business has again delivered a strong performance driven by solid domestic and promising international growth,” he said.

“We are expanding the business globally, implementing our world-class technology and know-how to provide market-leading solutions across our traditional classified and complimentary market businesses.”

The company reported that private inventory had continued to grow with the introduction of “free under $3000” advertising and that this had be expanded last month to $5000.

It said its South Korean business, SK Encar, had delivered a 26 per cent increase in revenue and Mr Roebuck said “there is opportunity for further business expansion in the coming period”.

In the reporting period, Carsales.com bought the DeMotores online automotive classified business that operates in Argentina, Colombia and Chile. It also has similar businesses in Brazil and Mexico.

Mr Roebuck said he expected the full financial year to show solid revenue and net profit growth.

“The growth in our domestic business has been extremely satisfying and continues to demonstrate that there are still significant opportunities in the Australian market,” he said.

By Neil Dowling