Online classifieds firm Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs Naukri.com, 99acres.com and Jeevansathi.com, among other businesses, reported a net profit of Rs 32.8 crore for the fourth quarter of FY2016-17, marking a 15.6% fall from Rs 38.92 crore in the same quarter last year.
This also marked a 30% decline in net profit from Rs 47.1 crore in the previous quarter ended 31 December 2016.
Net sales stood at Rs 223.8 crore, up 9.6% over the corresponding quarter in FY2015-16 and 20.3% compared with Rs 186 crore in the previous quarter. The company recorded a total income of Rs 249 crore, which is an increase of 10.9% over the year-ago quarter.
“We are pleased with the remarkable increase of 70% in our operating EBITDA in FY2016-17 compared with FY2015-16. There is an improvement in overall growth momentum as reflected by the increase in billing and operational EBITDA in Q4 results,†said Chintan Thakkar, CFO, InfoEdge.
Info Edge’s recruitment solutions business, mostly comprising its flagship job portal Naukri, grew 9.2% year on year, registering Rs 155.49 crore in revenues. This also marked a 10% rise from Rs 140.4 crore in the previous quarter.
The global hiring slowdown doesn’t seem to have affected Naukri much. “We haven’t seen any major slowdown in hiring. It is possible that hiring has slowed down at some companies, but companies are not actively cutting their spending on Naukri,†Hitesh Oberoi, Info Edge’s managing director and chief executive, had observed during a recent interaction with VCCircle.
Oberoi also said the company is on the lookout for the right portfolio firms to power its recruitment business. The firm had acquired AmbitionBox, a discovery platform that assists job seekers with company reviews, in April this year. The deal marked its fifth strategic investment within a year.
99acres, its real estate portal, grew 5.7% to touch Rs 27.49 crore in revenues compared with the year-ago period. In Q3 FY2016-17, the vertical posted revenues worth Rs 26 crore, recording just a marginal year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth.
Revenues from other segments, including Jeevansathi.com, stood at Rs 25.4, up from Rs 19.6 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 22.7 crore in the same quarter last financial year.
Info Edge holds stakes in several technology firms such as food-tech firm Zomato, coupons site mydala, online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, e-learning firm Meritnation and online photography startup Canvera Digital Technologies.