Naukri parent Info Edge's Q2 profit more than doubles

Info Edge (India) Ltd has reported a more than doubling of net profit for the fiscal second quarter, as earnings from the Naukri.com hiring services business jumped and losses at its 99acres.com real-estate portal shrank.

Standalone net profit for the quarter through September surged to Rs 80.07 crore from Rs 30.81 crore a year earlier, the company said in a stock-exchange filing. Net sales rose 21% to almost Rs 210 crore from Rs 174 crore. A drop in advertising expenses and a tax refund helped boost earnings.

On a sequential basis, net profit was up nearly 80% while net sales increased 6.2%.

Revenue from Naukri.com rose to Rs 155.4 crore during the second quarter from Rs 128.9 crore a year earlier. The segment posted pre-tax profit of Rs 84.8 crore, up from Rs 66.87 crore a year earlier and Rs 70.8 crore in the first quarter.

"We are seeing a slowdown in IT hiring, but non-IT hiring in Mumbai, Delhi, etc is picking up," said Hitesh Oberoi, managing director and CEO at Info Edge. He said that Naukri would not be adding any new services or moving into transactions.

Sales from 99acres.com increased to Rs 30.8 crore from Rs 26.8 crore. The segment's losses narrowed to Rs 15.4 crore from Rs 29.8 crore a year earlier.

"The market continues to be sluggish with that for new homes very weak. We expect to have less cash burn in the next year," said Oberoi.

Info Edge also runs education services portal Shiksha.com and matrimonial website Jeevansathi.com. Oberoi said the company might invest more in Jeevansathi in the coming quarters to gain market share.

For restaurant listings platform Zomato, Info Edge said that the company has brought down cash burn to $1.5 million a month now and that delivery orders now account for a fifth of its revenue.

Info Edge has also made multiple venture-style investments. In July, it invested Rs 5 crore ($740,000) more in Delhi-based Happily Unmarried Marketing Pvt Ltd. In June, it invested in contacts management venture Diro Labs and housekeeping services provider Unnati Helpers.

In January, it invested about $1.1 million (Rs. 7.4 crore) in mobility- and cloud-based software developer Rare Media Company Pvt Ltd.