Frontier Digital Ventures appoints former Carsales.com executive to drive further growth
Frontier Digital Ventures (ASX: FDV) has appointed highly-regarded former CAR Group (ASX: CAR) – the operator of Carsales.com – executive Anthony Saines as an independent non-executive director.
Mr Saines, who will take up his new position on 1 March, was the managing director of commercial at Carsales for 10 years.
In that role, he was in charge of business-to-business commercial operations including leading the OEM (original equipment manufacturer), dealer and media and the data, insights, and product teams.
In a career spanning 17 years in the classified marketplace businesses, Mr Saines also held the role of general manager with Sensis and its platform of classifieds products and digital marketing services.
Key advisory roles
Mr Saines is currently with the Advisory Board Centre, an organisation that supports entrepreneurs through the provision of advisory board services.
In that position, he specialises in the areas of online media and marketplaces, growth, along with digital disruption and transformation.
He is also currently a growth advisor and non-executive director with Fusion SD, the leading provider of customer relationship management software for the automotive industry.
Mr Saines has also previously been on the board of IAB Australia – the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia – as well as Australian off-market real estate marketplace Listing Loop.
Period of strong growth
Mr Saines’ appointment comes at a time of strong growth for Frontier Digital Ventures, which recently reported its fourth consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flows.
The FDV Group achieved operating revenue of $21.7 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $2.1m in the December quarter, the sixth consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow across all geographic regions the group operates in.
FDV’s total group operating revenue of $21.7m in 4Q 2023 included a record $14.4m from its 360 LATAM business.
The Latin American revenue jumped 22% on the previous corresponding period (pcp), with transactions revenue growing 231% on pcp.
Growth is being driven by strong performance in the property vertical, with product initiatives such as bundling and memberships expected to drive classifieds recurring revenues.
Restructure ongoing
Over the past year, FDV has undertaken significant work in the areas of cost base optimisation, operational and product enhancements and rebranding of the regions, designed to strengthen the businesses and enhance the long-term equity value of each region.
The company has identified a number of ongoing product initiatives for the classifieds part of the business including product bundling, memberships and plans to increase recurring revenue streams.
This will include a focus on offline events and new partnerships to provide a foundation to facilitate property transactions in 2024.