Earnings: Naukri’s Q1 Net Profit At Rs. 116.41 Million; 99Acres And Jeevansathi Lose $1 Million
By Nikhil Pahwa - Sun 29 Jul 2007 10:21 PM PST
Info Edge (BSE: Naukri) has reported a net profit of Rs. 116.41 million for Q1, ending June 30th 2007, up 123 percent rise from Rs. 52.19 million for Q1 2006-07. However, Rs. 54.57 million of Total Income is Other Income, of which Rs. 33.91 million is dividend income from mutual fund investments, and Rs. 10.54 million profit from sale of mutual fund investments. Total income grew 77 percent at Rs. 520.01 million as compared to Q1 of 2006-07. During the conference call, MD Sanjeev Bikhchandani said that their focus remains on topline, and profit is a derived figure.
Nearly one third of Naukri’s total expenditure is on advertising - Rs. 106.89 million, up from Rs. 59.19 million for Q1, 2006, though Bikhchandani says that they have underspent on advertising as compared to plan. 60 percent of advertising spends are on online. Total expenditure has increased by 69 percent to Rs.346.96 million year-on-year.
Details from the conference call:
Naukri.com: Income from recruitment is up 59 percent. Around 10,700 resumes are being added per day, up from 10,000 a day. Total resumes are at over 10 million, as compared to 9 million on March 31 2007. Number of corporate customers is over 14,000, as compared to 12,000 for Q1 2006-07. Price competition is a major concern, but there’s been no slowdown in sales. Pricing pressure exists at the bottom end of the market, particularly as the company expands into smaller cities. No pricing pressure at top end of the market.
Jeevansathi (JS) and 99Acres: At the EBIDTA level, JS and 99Acres lost $1 million (around Rs. 4 crores) in this quarter, for both business put together. JS is expected to break even by March ‘08 and 99Acres by March ‘09. JS has cumulative profiles at 1.71 million, with average registrations of around 2500 per day, up from 2300 per day for FY 2006-07. Competitors did take up prices, but JS did not because they didn’t want to leave too much of a gap at the bottom of the market. The number of transactions in the quarter went up 25 percent. Average revenue per bill was Rs. 1400, up from Rs. 1000 for Q1 2006-07.
There’s been some slowdown in the market for 99Acres because the government tightened credit in real estate and home loans, but it’s still a small market so there will be growth. Number of listings were 65,000, but bear in mind that they give lots of free trials to brokers.
Areas under consideration: The company will be will be foraying into education space in the next few months. They’re looking to generate leads for education providers, and enabling handshakes. Will be looking at education for working professionals. One lacuna in job sites is that they don’t give you passive candidates: a networking site could plug that gap. They are scanning startups, but no deals closed yet - it’s an expensive market. “Over the next year or two, if one of the VC funded sites builds something we like, we might consider them” says Bikhchandani.
Financials (PDF) | Press Release | Webcast
Disclaimer: I have an inconsequential number of shares of Info Edge
