Info Edge (India) Limited Q4 FY22 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Info Edge (India) Limited (NAUKRI) Q4 FY22 Earnings Concall

Q&A Highlights:

• Vivekanand Subbaraman from Ambit Capital asked about NAUKRI’s watchful stance on US recession. Hitesh Oberoi MD said NAUKRI is not forecasting US recession. NAUKRI is not seeing any slowdown as yet in the market. 4Q22 was the best quarter ever for the company in the last 15 years.

• Vivekanand Subbaraman from Ambit Capital asked about NAUKRI’s best guess of the proportion of IT hiring that happens through Naukri.com, and the trend in the last few years. Hitesh Oberoi MD said it’s different for different companies. Services companies end up doing at least 30-40% of their lateral hiring through NAUKRI. For product companies it may be 25-30%. On average for the industry as a whole it would be 35-40%.

• Pranav Kshatriya from Edelweiss asked about the slowdown in hiring in the startup world. Hitesh Oberoi MD replied that if the slowdown is only in startup hiring, it is a positive for NAUKRI, as it doesn’t make a lot of revenue from startups. However, NAUKRI lose a lot of people to startups and big tech companies. But if the slowdown is in the IT services, product companies, back offices, and tech centers it might hurt NAUKRI.

• Pranav Kshatriya with Edelweiss asked about the philosophy on the investment in the listed space. Chintan Thakkar CFO said that talking about Zomato and Policybazaar, as long as there is enough growth left in the companies, and NAUKRI doesn’t have a competing use for the cash, there may be substantial value to be built by staying on with these companies.

• Vijit Jain of Citi enquired on A&P spend outlook into FY23. Hitesh Oberoi MD replied that NAUKRI looks at advertising and marketing expenses quarter by quarter. For sure, Jeevansathi high ad spend will continue. 99acres also, NAUKRI is likely to spend more money than last year. And in Naukri, the company may spend a little more as it’s growing well.

• Vijit Jain of Citi also asked about any views on NAUKRI’s own hiring for its own team in FY23. Hitesh Oberoi MD said NAUKRI will continue to hire in its newer verticals, which are small, but likely to grow in the long run. In regular verticals, NAUKRI may hire a few people more in functions like sales, operations, customer service, as business grows.

• Geeth Vaz from Lagori asked about Shiksha, the percentage of penetration from free and paid listings. Hitesh Oberoi MD replied penetration levels are very low. Shiksha has around 40,000 or more on its platform of which most of the revenue comes from 700, 800 colleges and universities. A lot of government colleges are also listed, but they are unlikely to pay ever.

• Geeth Vaz from Lagori asked about the breakup between agency hiring and direct hiring on the platform right now from Naukri. Hitesh Oberoi MD said the latest numbers are not in hand, but it used to be around 25% of its revenue.

• Mohit Motwani from Edelweiss enquired about the reason for paid listings in 99acres coming down in the last 2 quarters, while billings significantly increasing. Hitesh Oberoi answered that billings have gone up because NAUKRI has upped its price and cut discounts. And NAUKRI’s response has also gone up over the last few months.

• Mohit Motwani from Edelweiss asked about the future of the matrimony space, if NAUKRI is expecting more paid profiles. Hitesh Oberoi said the company has done badly in the matrimony space for the last few years because it is the number 3 player nationally, with only 15% market share.