Info Edge Q1 revenue up 14% at Rs 120.7Cr but net profit declines 7.5%; writes off investment in Floost

Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs sites such as Naukri.com and 99acres.com, reported 14 per cent rise in revenues, which stood at Rs 120.7 crore for the three months ended June 30, 2013, over the year-ago period. Standalone revenues, which exclude financials of subsidiaries running sites such as Meritnation, PolicyBazaar and Zomato, rose 4 per cent sequentially over the quarter ended March 31, 2013.

The firm saw its share price shoot up over 10 per cent on the BSE in a strong Mumbai market on Thursday even as the firm reported lower net profit which shrank 7.4 per cent to Rs 29.4 crore over the year-ago period. The net profit, however, shot up almost five times sequentially as it had written off  its entire investment of Rs 29.3 crore in fashion and lifestyle e-tailer 99labels in its Q4 FY13 numbers.

The firm saw its EBITDA shrink both sequentially and over Q1 FY13 as higher cost of operations affected margins. Close to half of its profit came from other income. In the previous quarters, the company was getting a bottom line boost through the dividend income from mutual fund investments, etc.

The firm has also made a provision for diminution in carrying the value of its investment in Nogle Technologies that runs the social networking site Floost. Info Edge invested a total of Rs 2.6 crore in the Noida-based firm and made provision for the entire investment as an exceptional item for the quarter.

Answering a query on why the firm wrote off investments in Nogle Technologies, Sanjiv Bikhchandani, CEO, Info Edge (India) Ltd, said, "The team is great but we did not see any traction or much traffic."

In the previous quarter, the firm had written off its investment in the e-commerce venture 99labels.

Standalone results of the company include revenues from its primary recruitment businesses Naukri.com, NaukriGulf.com, Quadrangle, Job Seeker Services and Firstnaukri.com, and also revenues from Jeevansathi.com, 99acres, Shiksha.com and Brijj.com.

However, revenues of its subsidiaries are not part of the standalone results. These include Naukri Internet Services Pvt Ltd and Jeevansathi Internet Services Pvt Ltd (which own Internet domain names of Naukri.com and Jeevansathi.com, respectively, as well as related trademarks, while operations are under the parent company), Allcheckdeals, Applect (Meritnation.com), ETechAces (Policybazaar.com) and Zomato.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)