Profits at Daily Mail and General Trust have fallen – but the slide would have been much greater without the sale of its stake in Zoopla.

DMGT, which had a 30% stake in ZPG, picked up some £640m when the business sold to US venture capital firm Silver Lake for £2.2bn in July.

DMGT has now reported pre-tax profits of £182m in the year to September 30, down from £226m the year previously.

Statutory profits came in at £692m, from a £112m loss the year before.

DMGT also operates a property information business, where revenues declined by 17%.

The organisation blamed challenging markets for its dip in profits.