Matrimony.Com Ltd
NSE:MATRIMONY

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Matrimony.Com Ltd
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Price: 801 INR -0.12% Market Closed
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2022-Q4

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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Matrimony.com Q4 FY '22 Conference Call hosted by IIFL Securities Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Saurabh Thadani from IIFL Securities Limited. Thank you, and over to you.

S
Saurabh Thadani
analyst

Thank you, Mike. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Apologies for the slight delay in starting. And thanks for joining us today on the Q4 Fiscal '22 Earnings Call of Matrimony.com Limited. On behalf of IIFL Securities, I would like to thank the management of Matrimony.com for giving us the opportunity to host this earnings call.

Today we have with us from the management, Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman, Chairman and Managing Director; and Mr. Sushanth Pai, Chief Financial Officer. With that, I will hand over the call to Mr. Murugavel Sir to take the proceedings forward. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Thank you, Sourav. Good evening, everyone. I hope all of you are continuing to stay safe and healthy. When we started last year, the second wave of the pandemic caused a grim situation to people and business. Apart from the people-centricity, we had a relentless execution of our strategy through our committed leadership and passionate associates. And we are all working towards our core purpose of helping people to find their right life partner. The focus and our purpose helped us to minimize our impact, and we could achieve better outcomes. I'm happy to state that we achieved a 15% revenue growth in FY '22 and 31.4% in ad growth, which we believe are a good outcome in the situation.

If you could exclude the loss of [indiscernible] Wedding Services of INR 9 crores, the profit would have been INR 61 crores at the end of [indiscernible]. I consider our performance and so we believe that -- and the [indiscernible] value of Matrimony.com doesn't reflect the [indiscernible] Matrimony.com. So while we announced the dividend, and we also announcing the buyback, which Sushanth will be sharing.

However, we believe that the growth moment what's in the FY '22, the growth moment will continue, will continue to get better. And in FY '22, we have done lot of significant contribution in terms of business and offerings to our customers and to our stakeholders. Some of the key milestones for the year are as follows. We launched Jodii, a new offering for people targeting [indiscernible] offerings for people who are nondegree holders. Today we are offering the service in 10 vernacular languages and at the affordable price and at a simple user interface. And we launched a unique [indiscernible] match features to help members' profile to be seen and contacted only by the relevant matches, a launch of our video profile feature to help customers who want to go beyond words and picture [indiscernible] for themselves.

The launch of Bangladesh operation and acquisition of ShaadiSaga [indiscernible] Wedding Services, we successfully ShaadiSaga into WeddingBazaar. Today WeddingBazaar is India's largest wedding services market place. And with mandap.com and weddingbazaar.com, we have more than 1 lakh vendors. And we expect that growth momentum in WeddingBazaar to further improve. So the source initiative [indiscernible] what we launched, along [indiscernible] we are looking at helping the girls in Rajasthan to choose education over marriage, that's our social initiatives that we launched in FY '22. Launched our new academic system [indiscernible] execute and scale faster. While this [indiscernible] cost in our OpEx [indiscernible] but however in the long run it help us to execute faster also the depreciation in the coming years comes on, but not in this year, but in the 1 or 2 year down the line.

Let me come to the results in Q4. On a consolidated basis we have achieved INR 115.1 crores in billing, which is a 7.9% year-on-year growth. Our revenue [indiscernible] INR 110.6 crores which is a 9.4% year-on-year growth. And for the full year, we achieved INR 434.4 crores billing, which is a growth of 12.9%. Revenue for the full year was INR 434.5 crores, which is a good 15% growth. The key highlights for the Matchmaking business are as follows. In quarter 4, the billing [indiscernible] INR 130.2 crores, a growth of 6.7% quarter-over-quarter and 6.7% year-on-year.

Revenue of INR 109.1 crore, a growth of 1.8% quarter-over-quarter and 8.4% year-on-year. For the full year, the billings were at INR 430 crores a growth of 4.2%, revenue at INR 430.4 crore, a growth of 14.5%. We added 2.34 [indiscernible] subscriptions during the quarter, which was a growth of 8.8% quarter-over-quarter and 3.1% year-on-year. We are at 8.9 lakh paid subscriptions during the year, which was a growth of 6.8 percentage. ATV for the match-making business increased 3.3% year-on-year, but declined to 2% quarter-over-quarter. For the full year, [indiscernible] 5%. We continue to track the impact [indiscernible] customers. We're happy to state that we have created around 24,000 success stories in quarter 4 by taking a total of 1,04,000 success stories for the year FY '22.

Now coming to the Marriage Services business, revenue was INR 1.5 crores, a growth of 209.5% year-on-year. The losses for the quarter was INR 3.1 crores compared to INR 2.9 crores in the previous quarter. For the full year, revenue was INR 4.1 crores, a growth of 89.6% per day. Losses [indiscernible] FY '21 at INR 9.6 crores. On the billing and revenue outlook for quarter 1, on a consolidated basis, we expect the growth momentum to continue with the billing and revenue expected to grow double-digit growth on a year-on-year basis. The growth amount of Wedding Services will further increase. We expect the Wedding Services grow at triple-digit basis. However, losses will be at a similar level. Before I conclude, I'd like to thank all of our customers, employees, investors, stakeholders and partners, regulators for the continued support. Let me pass on to Sushanth to comment on the key profit [indiscernible]. Sushanth, over to you.

S
Sushanth Pai
executive

Yes. Thanks, Muruga. Our EBITDA margin for the Matchmaking business in Q4 is at 22.7% as compared to 24.5% in Q3 and 23.4% a year ago. For the full year, EBITDA margins for the Matchmaking business was at 26% as compared to 23.9% in FY '21. Marketing expenses are at INR 42.7 crores as compared to INR 41.6 crores in quarter 3. Marketing expenses for the full year was at INR 161 crores as compared to INR 137 crores in FY '21. Excluding marketing expenses, our margins in the Matchmaking business are very robust. It's at 63% in FY '22 as compared to 60% in FY '21. This indicates operational efficiencies that has brought in this improvement and also due to increased revenue.

On a consolidated basis, our EBITDA margins in Q4 are at 18.1% compared to 18.6% in quarter 3 and 17.7% a year ago. For the full year, our EBITDA is at INR 90 crores, which is 20.6% as compared to INR 70.6 crores in FY '21, which is 18.6%. This is a good growth of 27.5%. Tax rate is at 25.8% for the quarter and 25.2% for the full year. PAT, excluding Astro, which is our associate company, is at INR 11.9 crores, an increase of 1.9% quarter-on-quarter and 17.3% year-on-year.

Share of loss from the Astro which is an associate company is INR 16.8 lakhs. PAT for the full year, excluding Astro, is INR 54.4 crores, which is 12.4% PAT margin as compared to INR 41.3 crores, which is 10.9% in FY '21, which is again a good growth of 31.5%. Our free cash generation has been robust at INR 17 crores for the quarter and INR 60 crores for the year, and our cash balance is at INR 334 crores. On the outlook for Q1 margins, given the salary increments in the range of 8% to 9% in Q1, and increase in marketing expenses in newer areas, we expect EBITDA and PAT to decrease slightly from the Q4 levels. However, this profitability will pick up from Q2 onwards.

Other announcements in the quarter are as follows. The Board of Directors at its meeting held on May 12, 2022, which is today, have recommended a final dividend of 100%, which is INR 5 per equity share of par value of INR 5 each. This is subject to the approval of the shareholders. Apart from this, the Board of Directors, again, subject to the approval of the shareholders have recommended the buyback of equity shares not exceeding INR 75 crores at an indicative maximum buyback price not exceeding INR 1,150.

I would like to end with the customary safe harbor statement. Certain statements during this call could be forward-looking statements on our business. These involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update any such forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company, unless it's required by law.

That ends with our opening -- ends our opening remarks. I'd like to pass it on to Sourav and Mike for opening the Q&A.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We have the first question from the line of Prakash Kapadia from Anived Portfolio Managers.

P
Prakash Kapadia
analyst

Congrats, Muruga on taking investors' feedback so positively and announcing buyback and signaling to the market about our valuations and the belief in the business and the ability to create wealth for shareholders. Congratulations for that. Couple of questions from my end. Are promoters going to participate in the current buyback?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. Yes. Prakash, thank you very much, and appreciate your -- the suggestions and the feedback, and we definitely value all the investors and the feedback. And in terms of the participants from the promoter side, no, I'm not participating. In fact, 3 months of [indiscernible] from the open market. So, if you get a change I'll buy more so I truly believe in the long-term potential of Matrimony.com.

P
Prakash Kapadia
analyst

That's really good to know you're giving an opportunity for shareholders other than promoters to benefit even more. That's actually a very good sign. Really appreciate that. Couple of other questions. This quarter, if I look at the billing rate, it is up 8% on a year-on-year basis and on a sequential basis around 7.2%. So just wondering, am I missing something because we keep on reading about record weddings given unlock this summer season, wedding season is very high. So that context is revenue growth slightly lower than expected? Or is there some spillover in Q1, if you could give some sense on the revenue side.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Prakash, thank you. And while we expect a double-digit growth in Q4, yes, we [indiscernible]. See, the weddings are different than the matchmaking because while the wedding are [indiscernible] wedding as a business [indiscernible] smaller base at point of time. On matchmaking side because people, when the people find a life partners and when the people getting married are 2 different things. Normally it takes around 9 months to 1 year for people to find a life partner. That's average [indiscernible] matrimony platform.

So 2 different things. So the wedding seasonality [indiscernible] in a way that when more marriage app and [indiscernible] it will get the people to [indiscernible] to the number of people coming into the marriage -- in the matchmaking platform. But both are 2 independent [indiscernible]. So the marriage taking place, that's not kind of corresponding increase in revenue and other things in the same quarters. [indiscernible] more number of marriage [indiscernible] publicity [indiscernible] definitely increases [indiscernible] platform. But again [indiscernible] 2 independent things.

So that's a point to understand. In terms of the Q1 definitely we expect this year growth will be better than the growth what we had in the last year, where last year growth on the Matchmaking was 12.2. We do expect this year the growth will be better than the previous year in time. So [indiscernible] new opportunities and we definitely see the momentum in the business. So we believe that the growth will be better this year.

P
Prakash Kapadia
analyst

Understood. And lastly from my side, ad spend seems slightly higher. Is it due to the slightly lower revenue growth we've seen? Or is it competitive intensity, which is where it was or maybe some increase? How do we look at that headline number?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Marketing-wise, we continue to invest on the marketing. In terms of our operational costs, I'd say we move to AWS. But AWS kind of has pushed our operational cost because earlier we [indiscernible] kind of service provider that wish to buy servers, so that is more on the CapEx side. Move to AWS, the benefits of moving to AWS, this in the longer run we know to buy servers so we'll get this in our cost going down on the depreciation [indiscernible] AWS there will be some increase in the operational cost.

And so, yes, there is an increase in operational. However, the benefits are that we could be able to execute faster, able to move [indiscernible] and drive things faster because rather than waiting for buying servers and putting a recurring process. While in my view that we could have done this earlier, 1 or 2 years before. We are little late. Now we are finally moved to the cloud platform. [indiscernible] flexibility in terms of how you can able to execute things and that [indiscernible]. But yes, in the short [indiscernible] some increase in the cost, which already started seeing from Q4. But [indiscernible] in a couple of years down the line, the benefits of [indiscernible].

Operator

We have the next question from the line of Nilesh Shah from Envision Capital.

N
Nilesh Shah
analyst

Thank you so much for announcing the buyback, taking of feedback. I think it just reflects your confidence in being able to grow this business in the most capital-efficient manner. And if I've heard you correctly, that the promoters are not going to be participating in this buyback, which again reflects your respect for minority shareholders. So I'm taking this opportunity to convey my thanks for the wonderful decision taken and best wishes for the future as well.

In terms of the business, can you just kind of give, Murugavel, some more light in terms of the Wedding Services business? I mean I think now the acquisition and the integration is probably more than now almost a year or probably a bit more than a year. Can you give some more light in terms of how is that business shaping up in terms of some more qualitative detail? Any milestones achieved or that we are likely to cross in the near future? And how is that business shaping up, please?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes, Nilesh, good evening. Thank you very much. Appreciate your views. And in terms of Wedding Services, we bought the company [indiscernible] September. The integration just got over. So it has happened in the month of April. We successfully integrated ShaadiSaga into wedding WeddingBazaar. So today WeddingBazaar has become the India's largest wedding [indiscernible] marketplace. So we definitely see the good momentum in this business because definitely ShaadiSaga has brought in a lot of capabilities in terms of product, value delivery and some of the interesting [indiscernible] product side as well as on the service side.

So with this, that we are now all set for Wedding Services business to grow to achieve our goal to become a INR 100 crore company 3 years which means that growth momentum has been picking up. We see that the business is growing on a quarter-on-quarter basis, year-on-year basis, year-on-year basis definitely growth at a triple-digit basis. In Q4 [indiscernible] close to INR 2 crore and the business is continues to grow [indiscernible].

In terms of the integration just got over. Put together listing-wise we have more than 100,000 listing. That makes us India's largest wedding services marketplace. And yes, just integration has got over, the business was bought only in the month of September. It took 6 months for us to integrate things to become a single entity. So ShaadiSaga [indiscernible] now it's become -- we integrated both the business. We are now going to operate only one name on Wedding Services, it's going to be weddingbazaar.com. So -- but then you have mandap.com [indiscernible].

N
Nilesh Shah
analyst

Just a follow-on question on that, that we've been kind of incurring a net loss of about INR 3 crores every quarter on this business. Do you think that's still a number which will kind of hold for a few more quarters? Or you think that's like kind of peaked and is probably likely [indiscernible] trending downwards?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. I think we'll continue to operate at this level for the next couple of quarters. However, when the business grows and I believe it's going to grow, and as I told you, the plan is to be a INR 100 crore company in next 3 years. And we see that the growth is happening. Yes, in the next couple of quarters [indiscernible] single level. But as the business improves, the losses also come down. So probably hopefully maybe in a couple of years, a year down the line [indiscernible] but again, I don't want to be sure of that one. But we see that traction and growth. So yes, in the short term [indiscernible].

N
Nilesh Shah
analyst

I'm sure your hands are full now with both the Matchmaking and the Wedding Services business, but any other adjacencies that we are beginning to explore or evaluate or that we have any plans in the near term? Or are we kind of -- currently, we are occupied with both these 2 segments for now?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

We'll continue to explore opportunities in the core matchmaking and the big services area. So as an organization you need to keep evaluating opportunities, keep exploring new avenues to drive growth. They continue to happen.

Operator

We have the next question from the line of Pranav Kshatriya from Edelweiss.

P
Pranav Kshatriya
analyst

I have a couple of questions. Firstly, can you comment a bit about how should we see the cost going forward, specifically the employee cost and advertising cost. So the employee cost for most of the Internet companies have seen a fair bit of escalation. For matrimony, the escalation is much lesser. So should we see a bigger increase in employee cost in FY '23? And also on advertising cost, how do you see FY '23 advertisement panning out considering current competitive intensity? And any comment on the competitive intensity?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. In terms of employee costs, probably maybe grow by 8% to 9%. So we run a very efficient organization. And that way we [indiscernible] appraisal and some additions. We feel that we could be able to manage this kind of cost. In terms of the marketing costs, marketing costs continue to increase, but because [indiscernible] new opportunities and new avenues to drive growth. However, probably last year has been INR 160 crores, yes, [indiscernible] increase in marketing. But we do expect that we are invited to begin the growth.

And as I said, the growth will this year be better. And so that's [indiscernible] about the marketing [indiscernible] increase. And in terms of [indiscernible] if that reduces, definitely our marketing costs also reduce. In fact, if not for that increased competitor marketing spend, our profit would have been probably maybe 100 crores last year [indiscernible] because last year we spent INR 160 crore on marketing [indiscernible] on marketing. However, yes, we expect this to continue. But however, we are kind of -- as an organization, we have continued to grow, continue to widen the gap between us and the competitors. And maybe in the future that the competition to reduce probably those benefits come into our EBITDA. So we continue to reinvest and run our efficient operations and it's good, better. So yes. So that's outlook we have [indiscernible].

P
Pranav Kshatriya
analyst

Sir, I mean, if I have to summarize, you are saying that the competitive intensity has been largely stable and INR 160-odd crore what you spend on marketing will grow in line with the revenue, assuming the competitive intensity remains. Is that a fair assessment?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

That is an increase in marketing. It depends on how the overall scenario, how we see the outlook for some of our initiatives, how the competitors are going to conduct themselves. It depends on various things. But we do see increase in marketing. However, we do see that our growth will be better than the previous year.

P
Pranav Kshatriya
analyst

Can you comment a bit on the growth? I mean, is it the market expansion or realization improvement or market share gains, which of the levers you think is going to drive growth for this year?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

It's a combination. We'll continue to [indiscernible] and continue to gain market share and continue to expand and working on new avenues [indiscernible] growth so -- and with global expansion and our growth in our [indiscernible] service, online services. So the combination of various factors are driving the growth. We expect that all the things continue to kind of get better, and we see that in our outlook. So yes, we're definitely gaining share from our competitors, and we are growing and -- yes.

P
Pranav Kshatriya
analyst

Can you highlight any -- is the growth higher in certain geographies or, let's say, north market or west market or anything like that?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

No, South and East are very dominant markets of Matrimony.com. However, we are actually a leading player or #1 player in west. And North is the only market where we are fighting with other players. There also we're seeing that the growth in one term. So growth is across the market and not limited to any particular geography. And however, we see the north where we see the competition. [indiscernible] our business. So we continue with our strong dominance in the regions where you are [indiscernible] strong reach and strong dominance that's continuing. And we're definitely gaining share in other areas as well. And so yes, the growth is not limited to any particular region. It's across the regions.

Operator

We have the next question from the line of Sonal Minhas from Prescient Capital.

U
Unknown

This is Sonal. Sir, just reconciling from the last few analyst calls we've been participating in. And we've been basically trying to inch towards like a quarterly revenue run rate of close to INR 120 crores to INR 125-odd crores, which basically means like a revenue top line of INR 500 crores on a run rate basis. And currently we are at 110, as we speak, in this particular quarter. So I just wanted to understand, like, is there a time line we have in our mind for that? And are we in our own expectations at par with that time line? Or there are some challenges in the market which make us maybe a step behind our own internal benchmark on that particular number? And if you could highlight the challenges if there are any, that will be great to understand.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Thank you. So in terms of the billing, we look at the billing, billing for the quarter was INR 115 crores. So just another INR 10 crores we get you into INR 500 crores run rate. We definitely sometime this quarter -- sorry, sometime this year, probably maybe a second quarter or possibly in -- possibly, I don't know, may get into that kind of run rate. So if not quarter 2, maybe quarter 3, but we are almost there. It's a matter of time we'll be getting into INR 500 crore run rate. Post that the goal is to be, one we got INR 500 crore run rate we know that the next big milestone for us to become a INR 1,000 crore company. So hopefully, we've been able to get there probably in 3 to 4 years.

U
Unknown

Understand. And sir, from a competitive intensity perspective, like I just want to understand given how the liquidity is getting out of the market, are you seeing like signs of marketing tapering by our competition in the last 2 months? Or anything subjective around there that makes you believe that the marketing intensities should taper or should stagnate at these levels?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

We are not seeing any significant reduction in the marketing because the info is on other players. They are [indiscernible] they can invest as much as long as they want. And the other players they also continue to invest. So we are this point of time, we are not seeing any slowdown, but we have to wait and see whether there are any, if at all anything. However, we are well-placed. And so if the competition intensity reduces, that means we can delay some spending on marketing. So we'll not be spending the similar on marketing. However, as I said, we have the growth ideas, growth initiatives, and we continue [indiscernible] within this initiative [indiscernible] increases and revenue increases, which is [indiscernible] EBITDA margin also continue going to increase. The company [indiscernible] the EBITDA margins are going down. I don't know whether it's going happen this year or next year, but that's something very difficult to see at this point of time.

U
Unknown

Understand. Sir, if I may sneak another question, which is related -- can I?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes, please go ahead. Sonal, you can.

U
Unknown

Sure. Sir, on the top line growth, I just want to understand if you could give a ballpark of, or split the numbers between your new geographies and your existing geographies with the South Indian market where you're dominant, like what are the growth rates you're seeing in new geographies versus the South Indian market. If you could just maybe highlight some subjective or numerical data on that, that will help understand the split, how are you doing in the existing and the new geographies.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

South and East we are dominant players and we are #1 [indiscernible] market where you are sort of fighting the other players in that context. So for competitive reasons, we are not going to break up. However, as I said, we have been growing across the markets, not limited to any particular geography. So [indiscernible] we don't want to give the breakup of region-wise growth [indiscernible].

U
Unknown

Okay. But you are happy with the growth in your existing markets where you're dominant player? That's more what I wanted.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes, yes, definitely. We are kind of -- that's a very, very strong market for us and a strong network of a strong reach, so.

Operator

We have the next question from the line of Vivekanand Subbaraman from AMBIT Capital.

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
analyst

I have a couple of questions. So one is on the billing growth in the matchmaking services business, we have seen that through the year there has been a moderation of growth of billing and we have managed to deliver a good billing growth for the full fiscal year, around 12.2%. But as we close the year, this billing growth was lower. So Muruga, how should we think about the growth for billing? And why is the industry billing not growing despite, as you yourself admitted, the INR 160 crores of advertising could have very well delivered this growth with INR 100 crores of advertising. You're spending INR 60 crores more, right, for -- as an investment for growth.

So why is the segment on the whole not growing as fast as some of the other tech business? That's question one. The second question is on Jodii, which is the across Indian languages you have launched this app. How is the sign up rate here and the experience? And by when do you think this will start contributing meaningfully to your overall revenue or at least in terms of the paid transaction. And Sushanth, just to understand the transaction, paid transactions better, does this also include contribution from Jodii in the matchmaking segment? Those are my questions.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Thank you, Vivekanand. So in terms of the growth, I said, we expect outlook for matchmaking this year, definitely the growth of matchmaking this year is better than [indiscernible] FY '22, okay. So we continue to take steps that [indiscernible] expansion, new initiates [indiscernible] matchmaking business [indiscernible] growing at a better rate. So we definitely see that this year the growth will be better. In terms of the Jodii, yes, Jodii is our new, it's a very new [indiscernible] 6 months. We're definitely seeing kind of some traction.

Again, it's very, very early stages. So we could comment or give any breakup of Jodii [indiscernible] 6 months old, it's still in the early stages. And so you see some traction. But again, still early to comment in Jodii. [indiscernible] everything, volume everything includes the Jodii as well [indiscernible] Jodii is a very new initiative that even other language [indiscernible] it was coming for almost 4, 5 months. We rolled out other languages in the last couple of months. So we also sort of [indiscernible]. Again, it's too early to kind of give any [indiscernible].

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
analyst

Okay. If we delve a little bit deeper into the outlook that you mentioned, are you suggesting that the outlook for growth should be better than the full year fiscal '22? Or are you suggesting that the billing growth should be better than what we saw in Q1? I'm not very clear on this. Sorry to...

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

No, no. Basically, what I meant was, the growth for FY '23, what you see on Matchmaking will be better than the FY '22 growth, which is FY '22 growth on matchmaking was [indiscernible] on billing. We expect the growth for this year Matchmaking be better than the FY '22 for the full year. So that's...

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
analyst

Okay. So the question that I have here is that considering that the last few quarters we have been growing Matchmaking billing at 6.1% and 6.7% now. What gives you the confidence that this billing growth can accelerate beyond 12%, which is the number that you aspire to achieve?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

[indiscernible] one thing that we almost like just included the migration to AWS [indiscernible] in the month of April. So we are sort of last 1 year we are kind of pretty much a technology or focused on the actual migration. So we are in a way that we are constrained by our ability to execute some on the technology product side. After this migration happens, we could be able to execute some of the initiatives. We already started doing it. We see some traction there. But also the steps you are taking in terms of geography expansion, business expansion, other steps you have taken, some of the things what we have done in the last year.

All those things started yielding the internal customers [indiscernible] traction. So the combination of the steps what we have taken and the steps what we are taking. And all the things give that confidence out what are, again, I'm just [indiscernible] mid-May and the growth what you are seeing up to today, which is kind of we are on a normative growth. So all the things will see that is clearly that the growth will be better at all. It's a combination of things what we have taken. And as I told you [indiscernible] mentioned in terms of [indiscernible] in terms of consumer [indiscernible] platform, so [indiscernible].

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
analyst

Okay. The last question from my side is on the cash balance that we want to be comfortable with because what -- we have announced a very large buyback and till last year we were not returning as much cash as we are planning to do with this buyback. So I'm just trying to understand, is this something that you have done purely because you believe that the business is very, very undervalued? Or is this a buyback that you would want to do practically every year as a discipline to return a certain amount of cash to investors.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

So thank you, Vivekanand [indiscernible] very much undervalued, okay? So even at the price what is offering, I do believe it's very much undervalued because as a leader in this space with a 60% market share, it's a very cash-efficient business and the cash [indiscernible] business and other stability and growing consistently no matter all the underlying economy or the -- no matter whatever the situation of the -- I mean, situation, [indiscernible] it has been a very stable entity to grow.

However, the growth would have been better, but however we are taking steps, and we expect the growth momentum to get better and [indiscernible] pickup from here onwards. So definitely is very much undervalued. So that's one thing. In terms of whether it's going to be on an annual basis, kind of -- that the board will be a time to time. Again I don't think it only basis. I'm sorry, if you want to comment on that.

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
analyst

Understood.

S
Sushanth Pai
executive

So Vivek, just to add on this. As you know, we are a cash-generating company, right? We bringing in most of EBITDA into cash. And if you see last year or even this quarter, we have generated INR 17 crores of cash, and last year about INR 60 crores. So much of it will come back within the year itself. And so therefore, obviously, one which Muruga said is signaling.

Second, we are also comfortable with what we have declared. It's not that we were under any pressure to declare any sort of buyback or anything like that. We believe it's a comfortable thing. It's a good way to give back to shareholders. And as you know, there are only very few matters to give in terms of the dividend or it could [indiscernible] we've also increased the dividend slightly from 70% to about 100%. And payout ratio is approximately [indiscernible]. I think a combination of all this. And what we want to do next year obviously depends on how the plan goes, how our performance goes. And accordingly, the Board will decide what is the industry.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Also there are multiple ways to deploy shares. We continue to look at the various ways to kind of deploy [indiscernible] the Board has declared the dividend plus buyback, and maybe we'll do something else also that depends on the opportunity, it depends on how do you want to deploy the cash? There are multiple ways to deploy the cash. But [indiscernible] and to increase the shareholder's value and...

V
Vivekanand Subbaraman
analyst

Okay. And Sushanth, just one bookkeeping question that I forgot to ask. What is the cash and cash equivalents balance that you have as on 31st March?

S
Sushanth Pai
executive

INR 334 crores.

Operator

We have the next question from the line of Sameer Pardikar from ICICIdirect.

S
Sameer Pardikar
analyst

I think that we have informed you [indiscernible] about the intention of our selling of our Chennai land. So what is the progress on the sale? And how much value do you expect to realize from this [indiscernible] what are your plans to use this proceeds for?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. So what is the first question you had?

S
Sameer Pardikar
analyst

What is the progress on the sale of land in Chennai [indiscernible].

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

What is the?

S
Sameer Pardikar
analyst

Progress of the sales of a land in Chennai?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Progress on the land. So we just -- the shareholders' special resolution has just been passed. So the Board has taken on record such a resolution. What we intend to do is we want to follow a very professional process for this whole thing. So few things we will do. One, the Board will form a small committee to overlook this whole process. One second, we will also do a fair value of the land by an independent registered valuer. The Board has also decided that it will not sell the land below the cost price, whatever the cost price is. So it will be basically higher of the cost price or the fair value, whichever is higher is what the Board will decide to do.

S
Sameer Pardikar
analyst

And what are the clients [indiscernible].

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. And the fourth thing is that we will sell to parties who are not related parties in nature.

S
Sameer Pardikar
analyst

Okay. And what are we planning to utilize these proceeds for? Marketing expense [indiscernible].

Operator

Mr. Pardikar, this is the operator here, would request to kindly come a little closer to the mic as your voice is not very clear.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. Do you want me to repeat it?

S
Sameer Pardikar
analyst

I said what are our plans to utilize this proceeds for once we realize the value from the land?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. So whatever value we will get it from the land will be used for advertising expenses.

Operator

We have the next question from the line of [ Nagesh Rajan ] from NR Family Office.

U
Unknown Analyst

Yes, and thanks for the opportunity. And I have been a staunch believer of your business for a very, very long time, and I'm very happy the way the business has been progressing consistently. I have a couple of requests before I ask a question. To begin with, I have a request that if you could also start sharing a quarterly presentation with the business updates and also the future outlook, I think that should help investors like me and probably more -- that's a suggestion and a request.

Coming back to my question, I think there's been a lot of discussion around the growth. And I clearly see the concern amongst everyone. And it's true for me as well. So is there a way you could actually share a slightly broader picture for the next 3 to 5 years in terms of what's your vision? Okay, what are the kind of strategic initiatives, whether your growth drivers, which one has been exploring. Is it possible for you to share a broader larger picture of the business?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

On the presentation, we do a quarterly presentation on the highlights of the results and what we think about the business as long as the -- also, along with the background of the company and everything, it is uploaded on our website after every quarter. So you can also refer to that as well. Is that what you are meaning?

U
Unknown Analyst

Well, I don't see the same on the BSE or on any other sites, so probably I've been missing it out.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Sure. We'll check about that. In terms of growth on the matchmaking, so Matchmaking has the 3 levers, so I think it's all very fundamental to the net of the business. One is that getting more number to sign up. That is the top of the finance. And converting some number of free members into paid numbers at what is the transaction value. We continue to figure out [indiscernible] working on ways to drive all the 3 things, so increasing the number to sign up on the services and continue to work on the conversion percentage and continue to drive the average transaction value for the right customer at the right price. That has been a broad strategy for us. And again, there's a broad set, there's been a broad strategy, and there are so many underlying strategies around these broad strategies.

So what are the steps that we are taking to get more numbers to sign up, and so it has been one of the things. And again, in terms of conversion, it's a combination of product and the sales and various other strategies that's happened on a regular basis to get more number to go from pre to paid membership. And it would average and on the combination of people taking on in [indiscernible] partner services and all -- so -- and get the number to pay the right product -- to the right product at the right services. So in terms of I want to thank kind of you being a strong believer of matrimony service. Definitely we are thankful of that. Definitely good business, one of the business [indiscernible] very limited cash and there's immense potential.

So we continue to work on our various strategies and on our ways to get all the 3 areas to get better. So whether it be geographic expansion, whether it be [indiscernible] Bangladesh, whether the new business, whether it be Jodii [indiscernible] some of the initiatives like new offerings also launched. So continue to look at various ways to expand our offerings and various ways to drive the conversion. So again, there's a big and broad strategy, there are sub-strategies. We don't want to get into detail on those things. But this probably sort of kind of sums it up in terms of how we are looking at the growth and what are the levers to tell the growth.

U
Unknown Analyst

Yes. I appreciate that. Somewhere you also mentioned about INR 1,000 crore ambition. Is there a kind of a vision statement, I mean, when do you see ourselves striking that INR 1,000 crore plus kind of a revenue? Is there a kind of a road map for the business?

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes, yes, definitely. We definitely this year will cross INR 500 crore billing. And we hope to reach that run rate probably sometime maybe in the coming quarters. But definitely this year the company will cross INR 500-plus crores in billing. And in terms of INR 1,000 crores, yes, probably, you know, maybe next -- maybe around 4 years or so, possibly 4 to 5 years possibly. So maybe depends on how when you're able to drive things, good things.

So yes, the INR 1,000 crore plan is pretty much one of the things that we are striving. And out of that, we expect the Wedding Service to contribute on the growth. So at the enterprise level, you want to be a INR 1,000 crore company. And Matchmaking contributing INR 900 crore and Wedding Services contributing INR 100 crores. [indiscernible] today, Matchmaking is INR 430 crore. So hopefully next 4 years something like that, we expect matchmaking to probably become a sort of INR 900 crore [indiscernible] we have ambitious [indiscernible] maybe 4 years or 5 years. But definitely, once you touch INR 500 crores, next big milestone is how to become a INR 1,000 crore company, yes.

U
Unknown Analyst

Yes. I think the current business model in itself should take us to close to INR 750 crores by FY '25 organically, even if one has to look at a CAGR of 15% plus. And if you have plans of bringing in another inorganic around INR 200 crores to INR 250 crores, that should be good to take us to INR 1,000 crore plus.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

[indiscernible] we are looking at organically driving the growth, okay? We are not [indiscernible] organically, so not even talking any inorganic growth, yes. Basically, we want to drive it aggressively that. We want to accelerate our growth momentum. But I think -- we believe that we are getting that.

U
Unknown Analyst

Yes, please do. I think we are a new-age company, and I think it's very important for us to be at least 2x to 3x of GDP growth year-on-year.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes, I agree with you. Yes, yes.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

There are no more questions, maybe we can close, Mike.

Operator

Yes, sir, we don't have any further questions. I would now like to hand it over to the management for closing comments.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

So thank you very much, and appreciate your interest in Matrimony.com, and thank you for your continued support. And we look forward to stay in touch. If you have any specific questions or anything, we'll be happy to take it [indiscernible] individually. Thanks so much.

S
Sushanth Pai
executive

Yes. Thank you, everyone. We look forward to speaking with you in the coming days. If you have any questions, please feel free to write to us. And thank you, Sourav as well.

M
Murugavel Janakiraman
executive

Yes. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, everyone. On behalf of IIFL Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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