Packer sells stake in Seek

CASINO mogul James Packer has sold his stake in jobs website Seek after the company made a record profit in the last financial year.

James Packer has reportedly sold his stake in Seek after the company posted a record profit.

James Packer has sold stakes in jobs website Seek Ltd and fund manager Magellan Financial Group Ltd, Business Spectator reports.

The casino boss sold four per cent of Seek at $9.28 per share, as well as eight per cent of Magellan at $10.68 per share in a block trade with UBS.

The sales will net him a $150 million profit, which he will use to reduce the debt at his private company.

It comes after the jobs website made a record profit, but its chief executive warns its business will go backwards unless the economy improves.

A weakening job market is bad news for the company, as the number of job ads declines.

Australia's unemployment rate is 5.7 per cent and is expected to rise.

Seek chief executive Andrew Bassat said the company had so far defied a weakening economy, growing its underlying full year profit by eight per cent to $141.1 million in the 2012/13 financial year. The company's net profit more than doubled to $300 million due to accounting benefits from its acquisition of Chinese jobs website Zhaopin.

Seek shares were up 35 cents, or 3.7 per cent, at $9.72 at 1527 AEST.

But Mr Bassat said there had been a gentle decline in ad volumes in the first six weeks of the current financial year.

But that had been offset by strong growth in Seek's education and overseas job website interests, including Zhaopin, which is also part-owned by Mr Packer.

"Regardless of the economy, we expect the overall group to grow significantly over the course of the year," Mr Bassat told AAP. "If the economy remains as it is in Australia, we'll see education and international grow and employment go moderately backwards.

"If the economy improves all three of them could grow."

The election of a majority government could provide a boost to economic confidence, he said.

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