Key highlights from Just Dial Ltd (JUSTDIAL) Q4 FY23 Earnings Concall
Management Update:
- [00:01:24] JUSTDIAL said its employee expenses increased 29.2% on a YonY basis due to an increase in headcount, while sequentially employee expenses were controlled at 3%.
Q&A Highlights:
- [00:06:41] Vivekanand Subbaraman from Ambit asked about the split of paid campaigns by top 11 cities vs. the non-top 11 cities and revenue split. Abhishek Bansal CFO said Tier 1 cities contribute 61% of the total revenue and 41% of paid campaigns, with ticket size being more than twice as large compared to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
- [00:06:56] Vivekanand Subbaraman from Ambit queried about JD Mart progress and its update. Abhishek Bansal CFO answered that JD Mart’s B2B segment is expected to be JUSTDIAL’s key growth driver in the next 2-3 years, with a dedicated team of 700-750 working to monetize the segment. B2B segment now contributes over 26% of overall revenues. This should benefit SMEs who need platforms to reach out to customers across India.
- [00:11:35] Nikhil Chaudhary at Nuvama asked about the expected contribution of B2B to overall sales in the next couple of years. Abhishek Bansal CFO replied that this year saw a broad-based recovery, with B2C categories experiencing 50% YonY growth and B2B having higher growth. JUSTDIAL’s expectation is that this growth could reach 33-35% over the next two to three years.
- [00:15:10] Swapnil Potdukhe from JM Financial enquired why the sales headcount decreased recently. Abhishek Bansal CFO answered that fourth quarter typically has less hiring due to campus hires in the first quarter, resulting in a dip of 250-300 employees. This year, however, there was significantly higher increase in manpower which led to the growth. Going forward, hiring will be relatively calibrated.
- [00:20:03] Swapnil Potdukhe from JM Financial asked for any update on JD Xperts. Abhishek Bansal CFO said that user experience for JD Xperts has improved significantly. Cancellation rates have dropped from 35-36% to 20%, 91% of bookings are fulfilled on time and the average user rating is 4.7. JD Xperts aims to scale up its transactions in 1H24.
- [00:21:56] Darshil Jhaveri from Sapphire Capital asked that as the economy rebounds to pre-COVID levels, could JUSTDIAL see a 30-40% growth rate over the next 2-3 years. Abhishek Bansal CFO answered that despite being set back two years due to the COVID pandemic, JUSTDIAL was able to grow its top-line parameters by 45%-50% within one year. JUSTDIAL hopes to have sustainable growth in the coming years, though it is uncertain how much growth it will experience.
- [00:24:58] Darshil Jhaveri of Sapphire Capital queried if the company is facing any seasonality in the topline. Abhishek Bansal CFO answered that 4Q tends to be stronger for the company, while 1Q is slightly softer. However, overall revenue is diversified with some seasonal increases or decreases in specific product categories depending on the time of year.
- [00:26:15] Darshit Vora from RoboCapital asked about the revenue and margin guidance for FY24 and FY25. Abhishek Bansal CFO replied that JUSTGDIAL anticipates healthy revenue growth next year with improved margins and aim to exit the year at pre-COVID level margins. Additional margins may be used towards advertising to grow the user base, which would aid monetization in future years.
- [00:28:39] Vivekanand Subbaraman from Ambit asked about the breakdown of the INR30 crore intangible assets under development spending in FY23 and if the amount is factored into the P&L. Abhishek Bansal CFO said INR30 crores were spent on new initiatives, which are coming to an end in the next or subsequent quarter. When that happens, these platforms will be capitalized and depreciated over their useful life of 2.5-3 years.
- [00:31:25] Ruchi Mukhija with Elara Capital asked if the typical decrease in ad spend during the June quarter is expected to happen this year. Abhishek Bansal CFO clarified that last year, most of the advertising was digital, and INR35-40 crores is being earmarked for digital and related initiatives next year. Seasonality of advertising spend will be assessed at a later point in time.
- [00:32:25] Ruchi Mukhija with Elara Capital enquired if JUSTDIAL’s integration with ONDC overlap with its new initiatives. Abhishek Bansal CFO replied that ONDC is in relatively initial stages and JUSTDIAL’s core strength is service-oriented categories. The company will determine what role it can play either as a seller side app, creating digital catalogs for vendors to sell online through buyer side apps, without conflicting with existing initiatives.
- [00:35:08] Lavanya Tottala of UBS queried about JUSTDIAL’s view on the incremental paid campaign increase for SMEs in FY24 given the challenging macro-environment. Abhishek Bansal CFO said that SMEs have embraced digital initiatives despite challenging macro environment, and JUSTDIAL’s subscription plans have enabled it to grow its campaigns in the last few months. JUSTDIAL is confident of continuing to grow its campaigns and realizations for next year.
- [00:39:26] Abhishek Banerjee at ICICI Securities enquired about details on transactions for JD Mart. Abhishek Bansal CFO said JD Mart is a paid subscription model that focuses on B2B and product-based searches. It is primarily a lead generation model due to the customized requirements of buyers and sellers. It currently has 6.5-7 million businesses listed and 1 million catalogs, contributing 10% of overall traffic in any given quarter.
- [00:48:23] Raghav Behani from Citi asked about the reason for other current liabilities being up INR100 crore in the balance sheet. Abhishek Bansal CFO said that the INR100 crores increase in deferred revenue is the difference between the INR945 crores collected and the INR845 crores consumed.
- [00:49:21] Rupesh Tatiya from Intelsense Capital asked about the number of paying subscribers on JD Mart. Abhishek Bansal CFO answered that the approximate number of paying subscribers on JD Mart should be around 120,000, with about 20-22% belonging to B2B-related categories.
- [00:51:58] Sarang Sanil with RW Investment enquired about the cause of gap between sequential deferred revenue growth of 9% and revenue growth of 5%. Abhishek Bansal CFO said deferred revenue is the increase in collections less the amount consumed and no accounting policy change was involved. The money that comes in sits in deferred revenue and part of it gets recognized as revenue in future quarters.
- [00:56:36] Sarang Sanil with RW Investment asked about any expected campaign additions for next year and if it is possible to reach 20,000 marks per quarter. Abhishek Bansal CFO replied that the total active paid campaigns are 538,000 and 1% of that is 5,300. Revenue growth for FY24 will determine overall collections, revenue growth or not.
- [01:02:59] HSSA asked if it’s reasonable to estimate the employee cost for next year to be around INR720 crores. Abhishek Bansal CFO clarified that 10% to 12% increase on overall employee expenses could be the case.