It was clearly a bad year for hiring last year. Info Edge Ltd, which owns jobs portal Naukri.com and other portals like Jeevansathi.com, recorded sales of Rs 57.7 crore in Q4 2008-09 compared to Rs 64.9 crore during the same quarter the previous year, lower by 11%. The profits also declined to Rs 13.82 crore in Q4 compared to 15.61 crore last year.
However, the company owned Rs 245 crore in 2008-09 compared to Rs 218.93 crore the previous year. The profits for the whole year grew from Rs 59.6 crore from Rs 55.48 crore.
It recorded an EBITDA of Rs.93.86 crore indicating an increase of 11.47% in comparison with FY07-08. While both Jeevansathi.com and 99acres.com continued to be in the investment mode, other non recruitment verticals incurred a loss of Rs.58.02 million in Q4 of FY 2008-09 as compared to Rs.78.72 million for corresponding quarter in FY 2007-08, at the EBITDA level.
The company’s EBITDA for Q4 FY08-09 is Rs 245.16 million compared to Rs.239.91 in the same quarter last year. The total expense, including interest and depreciation, has decreased by Rs 52.25 in Q4 FY08-09 as compared to that in the corresponding quarter in FY 07-08. The decrease in total expense is a result of the cuts in advertisement expenses and bonus for the period apart from other cost savings in administration expenses. Other income is relatively high at Rs.64.56 million by 53.5% in this quarter as a result of profit on sale of investment in mutual funds booked in the quarter. The proceeds have since been parked in bank FD’s.
99acres.com and Jeevansathi.com achieved revenue growth of 53.98% and 31.49% respectively. The company launched two new verticals during FY08-09- Shiksha.com and FirstNaukri.com. According to Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Infoedge Promoter and CEO, “Jeevansathi will break even by the end of the year if it continues to grow at 45% while Shiksha.com would take about 2-3 years to break even.”
The company also undertook cost optimisation measures and managed to reduce its administration costs by Rs 4 million. Bhikchandani also said, “The company has close to zero debt. It currently has Rs 30 lakhs of debt, which is auto loan.” The company’s total cash and cash equivalents are at Rs 330 crore.
