India's local search engine Just Dial posted a stellar set of June quarter earnings, with over 30 percent growth for the fourth straight quarter. The company will continue to see sequential margin improvement and hopes to get closer to pre-Covid margin levels by end of this year, Chief Financial Officer Abhishek Bansal said while speaking to CNBC-TV18 on Monday.
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"Pre Covid, we used to be above 25 percent plus EBITDA margins, 27-28 percent. So, this quarter we were at about 14.9 percent, but with topline growing further and recent cost control measures that we have taken, we expect these margins to continue seeing sequential uptick and we hope to take them to somewhere closer to pre Covid levels by the end of the year,” Bansal said.
Business-to-Business (B2B) contributed about 25-26 percent to the topline and the company is seeing an improvement in both B2B and B2C (Business-to-Consumers). "B2B contribution was about 25-26 percent for the quarter in terms of topline. The good part is right now we are seeing strong growth or recovery in both the B2C and B2B side of businesses. B2B holds great potential, it can go to 30 percent plus contribution in next couple of years itself. But the good part is that B2C also has seen great recovery, which is 3/4th of our business at this point of time," the CFO said.
Bansal also said the company has about Rs 4,160 crore cash in its books, but there are no specific plans on cash utilisation. "There are no specific plans at this point of time. Part of the cash, as we have maintained in the past, could get used for any organic or inorganic opportunities but no specific plans there. It is a good problem to have in my view and in coming quarters we will see what the best way is to be able to utilise this cash on books,” he noted.
Shares of Just Dial rallied 5.52 percent in Monday's early trade to hit a new 52-week high of Rs 879 apiece, on the back of the company's healthy performance in the June quarter. However, as the trading day progressed, the stock couldn't sustain gains, and by 2:40 pm, it fell 1.90 percent to Rs 817.50.
Just Dial posted a profit of Rs 83.4 crore for the reporting quarter, compared to a loss of Rs 48.4 crore in year-ago period of last year, backed by healthy operating performance and topline. The company's revenue from operations surged by 33.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 247 crore during the quarter, with traffic rising 15.9 percent YoY to 171.4 million users, and mobile traffic increasing 17.5 percent.
Further, Cash and Investments came in at Rs 4,159.2 crore as on June 30, 2023, up 11.2 percent YoY.