Infibeam's revenue, net profit rise on robust growth in payments biz

Infibeam Avenues Ltd recorded a 43.3% increase in net profit and a similar rise in revenue growth for the financial year 2018-19.

In a stock-exchange filing, the Ahmedabad-headquartered firm attributed the rise in total revenue to Rs 1,159 crore -- a 38.1% increase over the previous fiscal -- to the expansion of its payments business and platform services.

It plans to continue focusing on these two core services to achieve its revenue goals in the current financial year.

Net profit for 2018-19 jumped to Rs 126.31 crore as compared to Rs 88.14 crore for the year ended March 31, 2018.

Infibeam, which is the parent company of payment gateway CCAvenue, registered 129% growth year-on-year in terms of payments processed. 

The company expanded its payment services to Saudi Arabia in May 2018 through the acquisition of Vavian International, a digital payments processing company in the Middle East.

Infibeam had also announced a partnership with UAE-based AlRowad Information Technology Solutions to expand its web services and payment platform business.

Infibeam also invested Rs 6 crore in Mumbai-based payments platform Instant Global Paytech, which operates GoPayments, for expansion into the offline sub-segment through services including direct money transfer, bill payments, travel bookings, among others.

The company, which manages Government e-Marketplace (GeM) through its SaaS platform, also earns on the value of each transaction on the national public procurement portal. It said that GeM registered a growth of 599% in value terms in the calendar year 2018. The online marketplace had recorded a gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 23,000 crore in 2018-19.

“For the next three years, the company will focus on the core PIP business (Payments, Infrastructure & Platform); with strong emphasis on digital payments, data center-as-a-service infrastructure and (software-as-a-service) platform for enterprise customers and governments. To be specific, digital payments with checkout, infrastructure,” Infibeam managing director Vishal Mehta said in a statement.

The company also said last December that it would sell its online marketplace unit to Suvidhaa Infoserve Pvt. Ltd, starting with the sale of 5% stake for Rs 25 crore. Suvidhaa picked up an additional 1.4% stake in the quarter that ended March 2019.

In September last year, the share price of Infibeam fell more than 70% on account of rumours on messaging app WhatsApp. It has since struggled to recover and its share price stood at Rs 50.65 apiece on the NSE at noon on Friday, significantly lower than its share price of Rs 238 in September 2018.