Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat looks to have succeeded in repelling investors clamouring for short-term returns after his warning that full-year profit would fall, because he was prioritising investment, was embraced by shareholders.

Yarra Capital Management managing director Dion Hershan said prior investment was delivering returns and overall the company was in an attractive bet.

“If you think about the businesses, they didn’t have any obvious economic tailwinds,” he said. “The underlying business has accelerated because they invested pretty significantly in recent years. One of the things we respect is they’re trying to creating long-term capital value rather than short-term profits. It’s a broad portfolio, not everything worked, but on balance, there was underlying strength in their three main businesses.”

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