Info Edge runs recruitment services Naukri.com, real estate platform 99acres, education service Shiksha.com and matrimony portal Jeevansaathi.com.- The company saw its net revenue come down by 19% year-on-year for the second quarter of the current financial year.
- For Info Edge, its businesses across verticals continue to suffer because of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, its operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) stood at ₹51.6 crore, down by 48.1% over the corresponding quarter in FY 2019-20.
Its dismal performance in the second quarter also saw its share price taking a hit marginally during morning trade on November 11 –
This, despite, comments from Hitesh Oberoi, CEO, Info Edge trying to highlight the upswing in some segments. Q2 was better than expected, he said. But he also admitted that the billings on Naukri.com was still just 80% of what it was a year ago. In fact, between September and October, the billings fell for the recruitment portal.
Naukri.com, which is one of India’s top jobs listings portal and also Info Edge’s cash cow, has seen a blow to its business as companies froze hirings during the pandemic as a cost saving measure.
During the release of its JobSpeak index in September, the company had said that hiring activity was recovering slowly. “While the hiring is yet to touch last year levels and is down by 23% in Sept’20 versus Sept’19 but this is also a marked recovery from a 35%-60% decline that we have witnessed in the last few months,” Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com had said then. However, in October 2020 the company reported that hirings remained flat as compared to September 2020.
99acres – Enquiries rising
Meanwhile, for its real estate platform 99acres, Info Edge believes that recovery is on the cards in the third quarter of the current financial year. In a recent announcement, the company had said that 99acres.com has witnessed a 70% uptick in daily traffic in the third quarter as compared to the second. The company also said that in September, 99acres app downloads saw over 2000 installs per day.
“The Jul-Sep 2020 quarter set the pace for the recovery of Indian residential real estate market. Post an initial lull in sales and new launches in the previous quarter, the current quarter came as a breather as sales resurged by almost 2.5 times of the pre-COVID levels,” Maneesh Upadhyaya, Chief Business Officer, 99acres.com had said in an earlier statement.
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