Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 2024 AGM for Hipages Group Holdings Limited. My name is Inese Kingsmill, and I'll be chairing today's meeting. It's now 10:00 A.M. in Sydney, and there being a quorum present, I declare the meeting open for business. I also confirm that the meeting has been properly constituted. The business for today's meeting will begin with an address by me, followed by our CEO, Roby Sharon-Zipser. We'll then conduct the formal business of the meeting with a live vote by poll. There'll be an opportunity to ask questions after each item of business, as well as general Q&A before voting closes. I'd now like to take the opportunity to introduce my fellow directors who are in attendance: Roby Sharon-Zipser, CEO, Nicholas Gray, Kate Mills, Adir Shiffman, and Kate Hill.
I also introduce our CFO and COO, Jaco Jonker, and our General Counsel and Company Secretary, Kylie Quinlivan. Mark Valerio, representing our auditors, PwC, is available today to answer any questions on the auditor's report later in the meeting. Before beginning the formal business of the meeting, I'd like to ask Kylie to outline today's procedures and protocols.
Thanks, Inese. The virtual meeting is being held via our share registry link online meeting platform. This platform enables shareholders and proxy holders to participate in this live webcast of the meeting, as well as ask questions and submit votes. To enable you to ask questions and submit votes, you will need your HIN or SRN and postcode. You can click the Get a Voting Card button at the top anytime to obtain your voting card. Questions can be submitted at any time. To ask a question, click on the Ask a Question button at the top of the screen. You can choose a specific resolution or general business that your question relates to by using the drop-down box. Those shareholders joining us by telephone today are required to provide a PIN to ask a question on the telephone.
For those of you that do not have the PIN, please contact Link Market Services on 1800 990 363. Please note that while you can submit questions to the chair, the chair will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Kindly include the agenda item number to which your question relates. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or, if we receive multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated. Due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. All questions should be addressed to the chair. The chair will either deal with the question personally or ask someone who is better placed to respond. We will do our best to answer any relevant question raised.
I ask that you keep your questions short and to the point so that as many shareholders as possible have a chance to ask a question. When we reach the formal business of the meeting, voting on all resolutions will be conducted by poll. For the purposes of the poll, the company appoints Link Market Services, the company's share registry, who has examined and prepared summaries of the proxy forms received to act as returning officer and to conduct the poll. Shareholders in attendance virtually that have already submitted a vote by proxy should note that your votes will already be counted towards the poll. You do not need to lodge another vote unless you wish to change your proxy instruction.
Shareholders in attendance virtually that have not submitted a vote by proxy and wish to vote on the resolutions being put to the meeting today can do so by registering their shareholding with link. Instructions on how to register your holdings were provided in the notice of meetings and can also be seen on screen. If you have any problem registering your shareholding with link, please call the support number shown on screen. To allow shareholders time to log in, the poll is now declared open. Online voting is now open and will remain open until the Chair declares it closed at the end of the formal business. Your votes must be submitted prior to the portal being closed for them to count. I will now hand back to Inese for her Chair's address.
Thanks, Kylie, and good morning again. I'm delighted to be here today alongside our CEO, Roby Sharon-Zipser, as we gather on the 20th anniversary year of Hipages Group. I'm incredibly pleased to report that FY 2024 was an exceptional year for our company. Our results speak for themselves, with record levels of marketplace activity benefiting both tradies and homeowners alike. Group recurring revenue was up 15% to AUD 72.1 million, and total revenue climbed 13% to AUD 75.8 million. EBITDA was also up AUD 4.1 million to AUD 16.4 million, and margins were up another 4 basis points to 22%. In Australia, Hipages set new records by facilitating 2.7 million tradie-homeowner connections, with 86% of jobs connected to at least one tradie, demonstrating the strength and momentum of the platform.
We grew our annual revenue per user, or ARPU, by 11% versus the prior corresponding period, while expanding our subscription tradie base by a further 2%. This growth was underpinned by dynamic lead pricing, artificial intelligence enhancements to our matching engines, the migration of existing customers to higher tiered plans, and new customers joining the platform at higher price points. In New Zealand, our operations represent a small but growing part of our overall business. Revenue was up 28%, with ARPU up 21%, and we're making solid progress towards evolving the New Zealand business from a transaction-based platform to a higher value subscription model in line with our tradie platform in Australia. We not only achieved sustainable financial growth in FY 2024, but also marked a significant milestone in our strategic transformation from marketplace to single tradie platform with the seamless launch of our end-to-end platform, Tradiecore, in April.
Although it's early days, we believe Tradiecore has the potential to be a game changer for tradies and for Hipages Group. The added platform functionalities, with many more to come, allow tradies to manage their operations seamlessly and more efficiently. For Hipages, the expected improvement in customer retention and ability to capture valuable industry data will further support our growth trajectory. Recognizing the increasing sophistication and frequency of cyber threats, the board and executive leadership continue to make cyber resilience a top priority. Hipages continued its focus on strengthening its data privacy processes, consistent with our value proposition and promise of trust to tradies and homeowners. We also continued our proactive approach to cybersecurity through investments in a data discovery platform and enhanced cloud security measures to strengthen our defenses against potential threats.
The evolving threat landscape requires constant vigilance, innovation, and adaptability, and cybersecurity will continue to be a focus of our strategy. The next stage of our evolution will see the development of a homeowner platform, which will provide more relevant products and services to our users. While we're still in early days, we've already created an exciting environment that allows us to deliver solutions that will help homeowners confidently care for and improve their homes. The positive momentum we saw last year continues through the early stage of FY 2025. The group's balance sheet is in an enviable position, well funded with AUD 21.3 million in cash and no debt. This gives us the confidence to boldly execute on our strategic vision and continue to deliver strong results for our shareholders.
Before I wrap, let me take a moment to thank my fellow board members for their invaluable counsel and unwavering support through the year, with a special thank you to Roby, whose vision, passion, and leadership have steered Hipages over the past 20 years. And of course, thanks to all of you, our valued shareholders, for the continued belief in the Hipages Group. I'll now hand over to Roby to talk about our strategic evolution and outlook.
Thank you, Inese, and good morning, shareholders. I'm very pleased to report that this has been another outstanding year for the Hipages Group. We achieved all our strategic, operational, and financial goals despite the broader economic challenges in Australia and New Zealand. We maintained a disciplined approach to the business through the year and focused on maximizing the financial performance of the platform while maintaining tight operating and investment spending controls. This laser-sharp focus and our strong operating leverage saw us hit a critical inflection point in FY 2024, achieving positive free cash flow of AUD 2.1 million. This key milestone underscores the vibrancy of our platform and the growing confidence users have in its value and positions us perfectly to be a consistent generator of growing free cash flow into the future.
As Inese said, we made material progress in our evolution from marketplace to online platform, and the highlight was undoubtedly the successful launch of Tradiecore in April. The Tradiecore launch was seamless and on time, and customers can now complete an entire job from lead claim to job completion and payment within a single application interface. Not only does this simplify the experience for our traders, it is also designed to reduce our exposure to economic fluctuations, improve customer retention, and open new avenues for growth through the development of new products and services for traders and consumers alike. We are incredibly pleased with our results last year and remain focused on driving the business forward as we sign up new customers and progressively transition 100% of our Australian customers onto the Tradiecore app over the year ahead.
Now that we have created and gone live on our single tradie platform, our priorities are clear: maintain marketplace balance by growing our tradie network and capitalize on significant opportunities in pricing, value delivery, and product development. We're enhancing the value exchange through cutting-edge technologies, including machine learning and AI, to drive growth. Additionally, we continue to develop and expand the features available in our job management solutions, expanding on our all-in-one tradie tool. In terms of the homeowner platform, our second pillar, we are committed to driving relevant job leads for our tradies while expanding our homeowner network. We'll also continue to invest in our brand and innovative marketing channels to fuel growth. We believe our homeowners should be using Hipages for even more jobs, and we'll be making their experience exceptional.
We've recently updated our Australian tradie economy data, and I'm pleased to share that the category has grown to AUD 141.8 billion in Australia. We are often asked how changes in the construction sector affect us, so we want to clarify that while we have some exposure to new builds, the majority of the work generated on the Hipages platform comes from the homeowner segment, which is the largest in the category at AUD 54.3 billion. And because Hipages is focused on the homeowner segment, we are less exposed to the cyclicality of the new build subsegment. The homeowner segment primarily includes maintenance, repair, emergency services, and both small and large renovation projects. These residential segments are expected to grow annually by 7%, + 7% per annum over the next three years.
Growth is expected to be driven by industry organic growth, further shifts from traditional media, increased market share from other digital solutions, and expanding software and business service solutions. Our updated research also highlights substantial opportunities to further penetrate our serviceable addressable market. We know there are over 301,000 trade businesses in the total residential segment, with a serviceable market for marketing solutions of 175,000, and our share is approaching 20%. This clearly shows there's a significant room for growth as we continue to innovate and expand our market share with our ever-evolving products. Industry spending on job management technology is also growing rapidly, yet adoption remains low at 14%. Most traders still rely on somewhat unsophisticated tools to manage their operations. 58% use generic software like Microsoft Word, and 28% still use pen and paper.
This trend is even more pronounced among sole traders, who make up two-thirds of our TAM, as only 8% of sole traders are using specialized job management software. We see this as a huge opportunity as we believe that the market is on the cusp of a major shift towards increased technology adoption, fueled by growing competition between tradies and their requirements for productivity improvement. As I mentioned earlier, Hipages Tradiecore, our end-to-end lead and job management solution, was launched in April this year. This launch occurred on time and was seamless. The integration of the Hipages Business App features into Hipages Tradiecore elevates the tradie experience to new heights, bringing to life our vision and purpose. Hipages tradies can now easily manage their Hipages leads and jobs from other sources in one place. Hipages Tradiecore is currently available on iOS and Android.
In FY25, additional functionality such as multi-user capabilities, team management, and desktop user enablement will be available, enabling larger businesses to manage their operations more easily. We now would like to share with you a video showcasing our vision for the future of our tradie and homeowner platforms, bringing our strategic plan to life. I'm sure you'll enjoy the glimpse into the not-too-distant future. We'll now go ahead and play the video. So I have to apologize. That was last year's video. We will ensure that we'll make it available to anyone that might be interested. You can download the video from our ASX release in August, but the video still provides a view of the not-too-distant future. Okay, on that note, last but not least, I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of the incredible Hipages Group team, who are the key drivers of our success.
The team did a great job this year to remain focused on delivering on our strategy while continuing to provide exceptional service to our customers. Our unique culture and diverse workforce are very important to us, and we are delighted to have maintained a high employee engagement this year. I'm also very happy to confirm that our operating momentum remains on track, with job volumes returning to year-over-year growth and tradie homeowner connections achieving another record quarter. While it is still early days since launching Tradiecore and only expect retention benefits starting to realize in H2, we are seeing very early indicators that those who use the job management feature do have a better retention rate. We will be sharing more details about the usage and retention benefit trends of Tradiecore during February when we report on our H1 results.
Our subscription model gives us great visibility over future revenues, and our operating model is highly efficient and scalable, which will continue to deliver enhanced operating leverage and margin expansion over time. For the FY25 year, we are targeting revenue growth in the low teens, consistent with FY24, further expanding our EBITDA margin of 1-2 percentage points and free cash flow of AUD 4-AUD 6 million. Before I hand back to Inese for the formal business of the meeting, I want to say how extremely excited I am about the future of Hipages Group. We are not resting on our laurels and have significant work to do, but I'm very confident that we have the strategy and team to take advantage of the huge opportunity in front of us. I look forward to reporting back on our progress throughout the remainder of the year.
Finally, I'd like to thank the Hipages Group team for their hard work, focus, and passion this year, and to the board for their guidance. Thanks also to you, our fellow shareholders, for your continued interest and support.
Thanks, Roby. We now move to the formal business as set out in the Notice of Annual General Meeting. The meeting will consider the items of business outlined in the Notice of Meeting disclosed to the market on the 9th of October this year. Shareholders received the notice by mail or by accessing online, depending on their election, and the notice is taken as read. Proxies have been inspected, and all those validly lodged have been accepted. Proxies have been received representing 99,350,663 shares, or about 74% of the issued capital of the company.
All undirected proxies or open votes that have nominated the chair as their proxy will be cast in favor of each resolution. We'll now proceed to the resolutions. Item 1, financial statements and reports. The first item of business is to receive the company's annual financial report for the year ended 30 June 2024. The financial report and the reports of the directors and the auditors are now laid before the meeting. There will be no vote on this item. It is a discussion item only. The company's auditor for the 2024 financial year, Mark Valerio of PricewaterhouseCoopers, is present to take questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the independent auditor's report. Are there any questions or comments on the financial report or the reports of the directors and auditors?
No, Inese. No questions.
Are there any questions or comments on the management of the company?
We haven't received any questions.
And are there any questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the auditor's report to be put to the auditor?
No, we haven't received any questions from the auditor.
Great. Thanks, Kylie. We'll now proceed to the resolutions. Item 2 is the adoption of the remuneration report, and resolution 2 is as follows. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, resolution 2, adoption of the remuneration report as an ordinary resolution. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A.
We have not received any questions, Inese.
The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on the screen. I now put the motion. Shareholders can vote via the portal online.
Item 3, the re-election of Kate Mills as Director. Kate joined the board on the 1st of December 2022. She is an independent Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee, and member of the Audit and Risk Committee. Kate brings a depth of experience in commercial transactions, capital markets, and governance. Kate's a commercial lawyer with more than 30 years' experience. Resolution 3 is as follows. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, I beg your pardon, resolution 3, re-election of Kate Mills as Director as an ordinary resolution. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A.
We have not received any questions on this resolution.
Thanks, Kylie. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on the screen. I now put the motion. Shareholders can vote via the online portal.
Item 4 is the approval of 2024 equity incentive to Chief Executive Officer Roby Sharon-Zipser, and resolution 4 is as follows. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, resolution 4, the approval of grant of the deferred equity component of the 2024 short-term incentive to Chief Executive Officer Roby Sharon-Zipser as an ordinary resolution. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A.
We have not received any questions, Inese.
The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on the screen, and I now put the motion. Shareholders can vote via the online portal. Item 5 is the approval of 2025 equity incentive award to Chief Executive Officer Roby Sharon-Zipser. Resolution 5 is as follows.
To consider and, if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, resolution 5, the grant of FY2025 long-term incentive to Chief Executive Officer Roby Sharon-Zipser as an ordinary resolution. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A.
We have no questions on this resolution now.
The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on the screen, and I now put the motion. Shareholders can vote via the online portal. I now open the meeting to any general Q&A. If you have any additional questions, please send them through the Q&A function now. I'll wait just a moment for any final questions. It doesn't appear that there are any final questions coming through. So this concludes the resolutions to be voted on today. As noted, we're conducting a poll on all resolutions, and I note that the poll is already open.
Can all shareholders voting online, please ensure that they've submitted their votes. I'll allow another moment before the poll is closed, and if you have any questions in relation to the submission of online votes, please send them through the ask a question function now.
There are no further questions on the portal, Inese.
Okay, thank you, Kylie. There being no further questions, I declare the poll closed. The staff of link will now process the poll, and the results will be announced to the ASX once they're available. This concludes the formal business of the meeting. I'd like to thank all shareholders for their attendance and declare the meeting closed. As advised earlier, the results of the poll will be announced to the ASX once they're available. Thank you.