By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--Australian installment-payment provider Zip more than doubled its first-half cash earnings as U.S. consumers drove a 36% on-year jump in transactions in the world's largest economy.

Zip on Tuesday reported cash earnings before tax, depreciation and amortization of 67.0 million Australian dollars, equivalent to about US$42.5 million. That compares with A$33.2 million from the same period a year earlier.

Zip reported a net profit of A$45.1 million, down 21% on a year earlier. The average analyst forecast was for a net profit of A$41.2 million, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha.

First-half revenue of A$509.2 million was up 20% on-year.

Zip, which had already announced a 1.5% annual rise in users to 6.3 million at Dec. 31, reported that U.S. transaction numbers rose to 22.2 million. Growth in Australia and New Zealand rose by 5.5% to 23.5 million transactions.

The value of transactions across the platform rose 24% to A$6.25 billion, led by a 39% jump in the U.S. to A$4.36 billion. Zip said that rolling out its so-called pay-in-8 offering across all U.S. users had led to the purchase of higher-value items.

Zip said it had acquired new merchants in its target sectors of travel, entertainment and automotive. They include GameStop, Major League Baseball Ticketing and Take 5 Oil Change.

"We are well-positioned for our significant growth opportunity as we scale more flexible payment solutions to meet the needs of everyday Americans and leverage our merchant and channel partnerships to expand into new verticals," CEO Cynthia Scott said.

Zip's net bad debts were at 1.56% of the value of transactions on its platform, down from 1.78% a year earlier.

Co-founder Peter Gray will step down as CEO of Zip's Australia and New Zealand business to take up a newly created role as head of strategic growth. He will be replaced on May 12 by Soraya Alali, a business-lending executive at National Australia Bank.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2025 17:49 ET (22:49 GMT)

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