Trade Me is owned by Apax Partners. The Guernsey-based private equity firm bought the company in 2019 for $2.56 billion, and delisted it from the NZX.
“Like many businesses across the motu, our Marketplace business is not immune to the current economic headwinds. The persistent cost of living pressures have naturally softened discretionary consumer spending which has had an impact on our Marketplace,” Trade Me chief financial officer Nicola Law told the Herald.
She said classified business performance “remains strong”.
Trade Me, which has roughly 700 employees, has been New Zealand’s reigning e-commerce giant for two decades.
However, cheap Chinese online retailers such as Temu are likely to represent stiff competition and may be shifting New Zealanders’ spending patterns away from second-hand purchases.
Overall, Titan Parent had a heavy net loss of $113m in the year, compared with a $9m profit in 2024.
There were no goodwill write-downs for other key business units: motors, property and jobs.
The accounts note that the goodwill impairment was calculated using a “value in use discounted cashflow model”.
Revenue for the classifieds business overall nudged up to $375m from $370m the previous year.
The goodwill value of the business unit “other” was also written down, from $105m to $99m.
The 2025 fiscal year ran to June 30.
On July 1 this year, the company completed a 50% purchase of Stuff Digital Ltd, the digital arm of online news provider Stuff.
No value for the deal was included in the financials.
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