Matrimony.Com Limited (MATRIMONY) Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Matrimony Q1 FY27, Arning's Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on its ASTRIAN phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now hand the conference over to Mr. Jairam Chetty from ICSA Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good evening, everyone. On behalf of IPSA technology,

I would like to welcome you all to Q1-F5-21, Ernest of North Carolina.

In the company, we have Mr. Mulderwein and Kidana, MGM CEO. The call will begin with the brief management remarks, followed by Q&A session. I would like to hand over the call, Mr. Janke Raman, sir, for his opening.

Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Deeram Sethi. Good evening, everyone. During our last interaction, we indicated that profit for the quarter would be more than double of the last year. I am pleased to report that we have delivered on the guidance, with fact increasing by 127 percentage year on year. In Q1, on a consolidated basis, we actually are building off rupees 136.0 growth, a growth of 7.8 percentage quarter over quarter, and 7.8 percentage year on year. Revenies at 130.5 crores, a growth of 11.7% quarter over quarter and 13.2% year-on-year. Key relate for the matchmaking business in quarter one are as follows. Building at Rs. 135.3 crores, a growth of 7.9% quarter over quarter and 8.0% year-on-year. Revenies at Rs. 109.5 crores, a growth of 11.7% quarter over quarter and 13.6% year-on-year. Matchmaking EBITDA reached Rs. 34.9 crores, which is 26.9%. Actually, there is a difference between the billing and GAAP revenue of around 5.3 crores. If the billing be the same as the revenue, the EBITDA were around 3.140 crores. So, I think matchmaking reached a certain level of threshold in terms of EBITDA margin. So, anyway, the increase in billing will benefit in the subsequent quarters. We added 2.72 lakhs paid subscription during the quarter, a growth of 15.9% quarter over quarter and 3.1% year-on-year. 18% for the marketing business dropped at 6.7% on a quarter-on-quarter and grew by 4.2% year-on-year. We facilitated over 25,300 such stories during the quarter. Now, coming to the other business of marriage services business and other businesses, building where Rupees 74 lakhs, a growth of 0.5% quarter over quarter and decline of 13.8% year on year. Revenue wants to be 96 lakhs, a growth of 13.1% quarter over quarter, decline of 24.3% year on year. EBITDA level losses for a quarter was 3.8 crores as compared to the loss of 5.7 crores in the last quarter. How would we expect the new other initiative at least that we said the growth momentum will kick off this quarter and the scale of the coming quarter? So definitely see the growth momentum happening there as well. On the billing and the revenue outlook for quarter two, matchmaking, billing, and revenue will have a double-digit growth year-on-year basis in quarter two, and the profit also will be triple-digit in quarter two as well. And Marissa is building an expert to be higher than quarter one. And we're also doing a lot with AI. So we are using AI in many areas, using AI in automation, service improvement, product improvement. And driving efficiency. So, there's a lot of work happening on the AI side as well, which is helping us to drive efficiency and also improving the experience which we're providing to the customers. So, let me hand over to Susandra Swain of VP Finance to comment on the key profitability for the quarter and the next coming quarter as well.

Susandra, over to you. Thanks, Muruga. Our EBITDA margin for the math-making business in Q1 is at 26.9% as compared to 22% in Q4 and 17.6% a year ago. Marketing expenses for the math-making business in Q1 were 46.5 crores compared to 43.5 crores in Q4 and 46.7 crores a year ago. Excluding marketing expenses, margins for marketing business is at 63%. And compared to in Q4, 59% and a year earlier. On a consultative basis, EBITDA margin in Q1 is at 23.1%, compared to 12.4% in Q4, and 11% a year ago. Tax rate for the quarter, 23.8%. Path is at 19.1 crore, a growth of 96.2% quarter-on-quarter, and 127.5% year-on-year. Share of loss from Astrovision, our associate company, is 9 lakhs. Cash balance at the end of Q1, 342 crores. Return on capital employed is 36.4%. On the outlook for Q2 margins, we expect to achieve a triple digit year-on-year growth impact. Profit may be similar level of Q1 or slightly better than current quarter. I would like to end this customary safe hardware statement. Certain statements during this call could be forward-looking on the R&R business, which involves a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to defer 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 is required by law. Thank you.

Thank you, Susanne. Yeah, we can take questions now.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask question may press star and 1 on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Aghinav M. from Agvitas Investments. Please go ahead.

Hi. Firstly, congratulations for a great result. My first question was regarding the revenue recognition mechanism. How do we recognize revenue, whether it is over the period or by the end of the plan?

And second was, how much is the difference between the billing growth and the revenue growth?

Abhinav, thanks so much. The revenue is recognized based on the subscription period. So, we have the membership ranging from three months to one year also. So, for the duration of membership period, the revenue is getting recognized. So, that's the way it is. And if you look at the quarter one, the billing was 136 crore. Overall, a matchmaking was 135.3 crore, whereas the revenue recognition was 130.5. That's almost a 5 crore difference. So, because of, you know, the last year also, there's a longer-term package, one-year package was introduced. So, sometimes the revenue gap on account of the increase in the billing and on account of different packages. So, let's get recognized what we have done. So, it's on quarter, maybe 98% or 97%. It depends.

Okay. So, we just expected to streamline going forward the revenue and billing gap.

The thing is about building growth continues because today, see, if we look at the year before, our package is only a three-month package, by and large, and some six-month package. So last year, we also introduced a one-year package. So there will be some difference. The building continues growth. There will be some difference of year-end growth. So it depends on the quarters. Suppose the building growth, you know, sometimes the catch-up may happen also. So there's a building growth, Q2 and Q3, there'll be some bit of slight slowdown can happen in terms of compared to the previous quarter, but revenue can be better also. It depends. So net-net. Last year was the first year introduced, so this year some catch-up is happening. Maybe between 97 to 99 depends on the quarter.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, the next question is, do we have a cash on our balance sheet? What is the use which we are anticipating? Are we planning any acquisition or something?

Definitely, we continue to evaluate opportunities to reward our shareholders, also to grow the business. So, we look at opportunity to acquire companies, opportunity to invest, and opportunity to reward companies also. That continues to happen.

I have a new venture where there's a lot of cash bond continuing and we've just continued on for a couple of operations. What is the new outlook on the new venture business and would we see any goodwill impairment or something on those lines?

So, in terms of the newer opportunity, definitely we see the opportunity to grow the wedding services, other initiatives. We definitely see the momentum happening probably in the coming quarter. So, we are definitely a bit about it. We changed the model, which we communicated, you know, some time back. We moved from the subscription business model to a commission-led model. We believe that's a way forward on the wedding services. We're seeing some traction. We are working on things, and so we are quite optimistic about the growth opportunity in the wedding services space and also other initiatives. So we'll see that happening in the coming quarter, which we are confident of it. And in terms of the goodwill, and we did get some impairment in quarter four, so it depends, you know, on how the business performs and all that. So we continue to evaluate and take dishes at the appropriate stage and all that. But in terms of NetNet, yes, we definitely are upbeat about the opportunity in the non-matchmaking revenue side, which we hope to... Show the growth in the coming quarter.

What is the character of the total matchmaking services?

So for the competitive extent, we prefer not to give the breakup. So we are talking on the contracted basis.

Okay. And if you could just send me with a regional breakup, then you'll split like which part of India will be phenomenal. I think it will be south, right? If you could give me a broad breakup.

Sorry, I think your voice is a little sort of, I think maybe I'm going to be a speaker or something, but it's not clearly possible. Yeah, better, yeah.

Yeah, so my question was in terms of geographic split. I understand we are more heavily dominant in the realm, but could you help me with a good mix of geographic?

Again, for a competitive reason, while you are right that, you know, some of the market, we are a very strong player, but again, for a competitive reason, we prefer not to share the geography break at the moment.

Okay, got it.

And any particular reason why legal fees are so high?

Any particular? What was the question? Sorry?

Legal fees.

Sorry, again, not so clear. I recall you.

Legal fees.

Legal fees, okay. Why the legal fees in all this? Shazam, do you want to extend that?

You see, we are now registering all the trademarks. We have a lot of trademarks that we are registering, that trademarks, so that other people should not misuse our trademarks, that all the registration expenses are now doing for all our trademarks.

Okay. Good. Any ASP increase you are taking in the plans across any of your platforms? Ticket trials?

No, I think we deploy various pricing strategies and I think in particular.

What is the currency since the last year's strategy was to move from shorter plans to longer plans? Are we discontinuing a shorter plan or how are things like and basically, can you explain that and basically if all the contracts are moved to one year one, right? When will the billing catch up with the revenue?

See, again, it's user's choice which package the user wants to. So, that's a choice of users while there's a benefit of people to go for one-year package. Again, it's individual choice. Some people prefer to get married in a shorter span of time. Again, it's one more package. It's not that, you know, today the one-year package is a big contribution for us. However, we introduced this package to ensure that there's some kind of continuity for the users who are serious about matchmaking to our, you know, continuity in the service without being too worried about, you know. Thank you. So, I think nothing like incentivizing or dissentivating. I think it's a more like individual choice of which package somebody wants to go for. Obviously, one-year package is not a multiple of three-month package. Obviously, there's a price where there's a benefit of going for one-year package.

Okay. Got it. Thank you so much. I'll get back and do some further questions.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vasudevan from FinVest. Please go ahead.

Hello, gentlemen. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Vasudevan. The thing is, excellent performance, 100% we have given an increase. Is it because of the lower base than the lower base last year? Whether it is sustainable in future also, because for the last few quarters, your revenue, this one has been very flat. Because of the lower base, it is 100% jump short. But is it sustainable? It is my one question. And the second question is, when Bharat A Coat investment you have made last year, I understand. What is the financial impact you got from that? Please be categorical whether it is beneficial, yes, or no. If it is yes, how much, and if it is no, why?

So, in terms of whether the profit, tributary profit this year, yeah, this year, definitely, because last year, it only introduced a one-year package, somehow revenue got deferred, and the combination of not only that, again, the continuous growth momentum. As I said in my opening speech, you know, we expected WDG building growth, solar revenue growth. It's a combination of a continued growth momentum plus because of the deferral revenue. So both are happening at the same time. So definitely this year, we see that, you know, triple-digit growth happening in the quarter. So, that we are talking about the Sushantra Swain memes and the Q2 profit may be at a similar level or even slightly better than the Q1 level. So, we have a double-digit building growth, double-digit revenue growth, profit at a similar level or slightly better also. That means we are talking about sort of triple-digit profit growth for Q2. So, we expect for this year, the numbers are off. Again, we are talking about in the current quarter, which is again, which is pretty much that. So, that's on the matchmaking. When it comes to Bharat Ekos, it's more of the investment he made in one of the startups. He invested around 4 crore. It's a long-term investment. So, it's an investment in one of the startups. It's more like a lot happening on AA's side, you know, the company doing AA astrology. So, it's an investment opportunity for us because we see that AA has been evolving, astrology has been, domain has been picking up. So, we saw an opportunity we invested in that company. Sir, you want one more?

One more question, gentlemen. I think I am talking to Vice President Shachant, I understand, is it? Yeah. Yeah.

He's a Murugay Vale.

Our managing director. Oh, yeah. He's a Murugay Vale. Okay. Last time, I think there was one gentleman. CFO is not in the conference call today. Yeah, he is not in the conference call today. Yeah.

Is he not feeling well? No, actually, he's on vacation, actually. Incident, anyway, he's kind of moving out as well, but again, he's on vacation, so he has a few days of working day left, but he's on vacation now, actually.

Okay, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Srinivas from Value Capital. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

You said this year you have introduced an AI.

What are the AI use cases which you are implementing in your business to stay again? This is question one. Second, yeah. Can I continue the question or one by one? No, no, you can continue the question, so I can respond to that. Yeah, you please. Second, second question is, what is the plan of the company to increase the top line? This quarter, there is an increase in the top line, like resulted in the net profit. So, I want to know, just on the plan of your company, this is... And third point is, the investor presentations in the website is all research and data are all showing as on 2016. Why not provide it updated? A data using 2026 or current one? These three questions.

Thank you, Mr. Vasudevan. So, let me go one at a time. Regarding AI, EIA used a lot of automation, you know, what being done by people, we are trying to do it through EIA. The things like EIA used to have people to do the profile validations and the photo validations, we used to employ people because the one thing, the matrimony, we want to be a company where it's known for trust and credibility. Everything is validated before it gets to the platform. Today, obviously, these kind of things can pretty much can be done through EIA. So that's one area, automation, things like that. And the customer experience, we have an AIA chatbot instead of, you know, to the humans answering questions, it can be done by AIA chatbot. There's some other work. Obviously, a lot is happening. We're also using AIA on the product side, how to ensure that the customer has a good experience. So AIA is on multiple areas in the organizations. In terms of the plans to grow the business, again, we already mentioned that, you know, we expect WDG building growth and revenue growth. The growth is a combination of multiple. One is that continue to work on the profile acquisition, conversion strategies, and so these are things we continue to work on, and the product improvement. So the combination of all the things continue to happen is not that. So again, matchmaking is about the... Profits and conversions are selling the right package. So this continued work-country strategy. We launched a new offering. We launched love.com. We also went regional on love.com. We launched malayalilove.com because Malayalam is one market, whereas normally the uptake is good. So we're also going regional on love.com. So the expansion, there are the business-related expansion, marketing. We also continue to invest in marketing. A lot of conversion strategies are also being worked out. So communist order things are helping us to grow the business. In terms of your presentation, thank you for the valuable input. We definitely look within and get this.

Thank you.

From the line of Pralimal Quota, an individual who needs to go ahead.

Yeah, Janikram, congratulations. After a long time, we doubled this program. Hello. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Please, sir. Entire year, net profit is the same, what you give in the same way. And another one, last, last con call I requested, any employer, promoter, buying and selling, they have to inform, explain within three, four days, what more, what price they bought it or sell it. That is a few questions from my end.

See, so, sorry, the first question was not so clear, and the second question, can you please repeat, sir?

Yeah, so, what you've given us, current quarter net drop, can we expect entire full year, say, in mind with that?

Yeah, we are only talking about quarter two, because we don't want to talk about the entire year. But again, you based on the last year, you know, the defer revenue, you know, Q1, there's a growth, Q2, expecting both billing and revenue and WDG growth. So, we expect a moment to continue. I don't want to get into a specific quarter beyond the Q2, but our essentially called Q2, the double-digit building and revenue that what is forcing, the profit you already mentioned, is better than possibly even the Q1 slightly or maybe similar level. Yeah, so again, last year, the growth is continuing. We're running an efficient operation. So all the things contributed to the increase in that as well. Again, we're also investing in the growth as well. So that's continuing to happen. So that's the thing in terms of the promoter buying back and all the things. Our company's security will do the needful. So thank you so much.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mani, an individual in the club. Please go ahead.

Hello.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, hi. Congrats for the good set of results. I wanted you to specifically speak about Love.com and the efforts that you have taken in terms of some kind of initial feedback in terms of how it is shaping up, because we see AIL as part of G1 RCC's disclosure is shaping up pretty well. So I wanted to understand so that we are not, since it is liquidity-based platform and we need to be a first mover, I just wanted to know how we are progressing on that.

Thank you so much for asking the question. So, see, there is an opportunity, you know, because India being a large market, I mean, Antimon is a large market. Again, there are opportunities in the series of matchmaking as well. That's the reason we got to love.com. Again, compared to IL you are talking about in SpaceX, it's probably… Almost two decades old, and around 40 crore revenue last year, and so we definitely see that there's an opportunity. That's the reason we bought the domain name lao.com. We also realized that, you know, the strength of matrimony has been in a regional, and Aisle, again, is not a single brand. There are multiple brands as well, so we also think that going regional on lao.com may be a good strategy. We just rolled out Malayali Love. We intend to go to regionallove.com as well. Again, we are talking about somebody branding at almost two decades. We just launched just recently. So, we are definitely going to invest. We are going to improve on our product offering and also be one of the best players in this segment as a serious matchmaking space. So, we have a, the product-wise is good. We are 100% verified and we have some USPs. It's about marketing and getting more profiles because all this matchmaking or matrimony, profile accuracy is important. We will invest, you know, while we launch Malyali Love, we may launch other regions as well. So, we may invest some money between this love.com and grow the business. Yes, definitely, it's one of the things you want to invest in Kuru.

Thank you so much, Antonia.

I remind you to all the participants, you must start and have to ask a question.

The next question is from the line of Rene Shah from Canon Capital. Please go.

Hi, thank you for taking my question. So, I have two questions. Firstly, we have seen our ATV size of the matchmaking. So, just wanted to know, as we've taken this bundling step for the content, which has led to this decline in ATV since we have moved to the new model, which is basically an ATV accretive, rather than a decline. So, what are the reasons for such a decline?

No, sorry, just kind of, again, apologies. It's not so clear. Would you please repeat your question again? Yeah, sir.

My question is basically on the ATV price, which is for the quarter decline.

Yeah, so since we transition in the new

model, so I think, what is the reason for such a decline in the UK?

Okay. So, ATV, again, we should not read too much into ATV. So the pricing is, you know, one of the, you know, the levers, whether it's, you know, it's not that much, the two things. There are different packages and different price points. So, I think the objective is to grow the business. So, again, offering the right packet to the right customers. So, some customers offer the lower price or some customers higher price, discounts. It's all being employed based on the data analytics knowledge. So, it's not something, you know, the ATV continue going to increase. It's a combination of various strategies, you know, segmentation pricing knowledge. So, interview should not read too much into the ATV. It's a mode of, you have to look into the work side. Again, we are talking about including some one-year package. Again, it's included last year, only for a, now that, you know, majority people go for one, it's a small person of people thought for it now. So that way, so we employ various statistics as a growth. Price is one of the levers. Again, price, some quarter move up, some quarter reduce. Depends on what package or, again, uptaking some other package or air impact. There's multiple factors come into force and all this. So I wouldn't be too much in the ATV because they're not operating at a steady state. So, it's a multiple customer segment. Also, more importantly, you have a multiple product. We have the Jody, which is like a very low cost price product. Now, we also launched Love.com at very low cost price. So, it's again, I mean, it's a multiple thing. So, my impression is, yeah. So, that's one of the information, but we should not give too much into that one.

The second question is on the revenue recognition. Basically, sir, if I look at report revenue and collection, so can you help me understand that what percentage of report revenue will be booked in the current quarter and what percentage of the billing is booked in the revenue?

No, the thing is about what the revenue gets booked in the current quarter, so... See, again, we said you can pretty much around very 97% to 99% happens, depends on the quarter. So, sometime, you know, the billing slows down, the revenue may move on. If you look at how much of exact revenue gets captured and all those things, so I don't have the number on top of them, but it's more like you can assume on a trend basis, you can assume between probably 96 to 99% and you can assume not.

Okay, that. Okay, understood. And, sir, third question is on merit services and others. We've seen that there's a loss being narrowed down in the current quarter. So, should we read more into it? Like, how should we look at the trajectory going forward and what are the steps which are taken which are led to this narrowing of losses in the current quarter?

So, with more than the losses, I would probably look into the growth. We definitely see that there's some momentum, and we change the model, and we also have some new initiatives getting worked out. We believe that the growth will get better in the coming quarter, and in terms of, and the momentum will have said, you know, as you progress. Last quarter, we've taken some impairment as well. That's the reason the losses were slightly higher. Other than that, yeah, it's around less than a four-core per quarter. That's how we ordered it. Yeah. So, yeah, last year.

Okay. That's the one of, so, apart from the trajectory has been maintained, it has not improved. That's what you made, you said, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Correct. Yeah.

Okay. And, sir, any update on many jobs, how it is

progressing, and what is the timeline will be seeing to roll out on national level like before? What are the metrics we'll be tracking for rolling out?

So, we have a good number of companies are using it. Again, since it's a very early days, it's a combination of the paid model and some customer trials are given, and we have more than 1.5 million job seekers. So, it may take some time until you achieve a certain run rate or close to a break-even. You may not expand to other markets, so you want to stay limited to stay focused only in terminal order. So, at this point, maybe next year, maybe coming next year or so, probably May. Focus only on terminal order. Sometime next year we may decide when to want to go to terminal order.

Okay. All right. Thank you. That's what my question is.

Thank you. A reminder to all the questions seem a bit stunned. It's time to ask questions. Next question is from the line of Ankur Jain from Pryas, Tavriya.

Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. Yes, we should. Continuing the response about the wedding services business, it was not very clear to me. Could you shed some more light with the change in the business model? That we have taken, you know, what is the time period that we look for the business of marriage services to break even and then become profitable? That is question one. And the second question is about advertisement expenses. Have you seen any, you know, reduction in the overall competitive intensity? And as we go forward, do you see these ad expenses to moderate from the current levels? Thank you.

The business model of editing services, we moved from sort of while we operate some extra subscription, but what we want to focus on the commission-based model. So that was what currently being piloted. We believe that's sort of thing we want to focus on. And so, in terms of when do you think it can achieve a profit, it's more of you want to, we believe there's an opportunity, you want to grow the wedding services and take it to probably a run rate, then you can, you know, at the level, it can contribute to the profit also. So, because weddings are a large opportunity. For us, it's not just achieving a break-even, it's more of achieving the growth and reaching the run date is very important for us. And if you believe you can do it, that's a point number one. And when you think, again, we're just trying this model, we believe it's the right way to look into that opportunity. For some time, maybe one year down the line, probably have a better clarity on this one. And while you believe that, you are in the right, right. I would say that we think that the approach is right, and again, probably we have some clarity in the coming quarters. In terms of advertisement, while some bit of softening, but again, we are also wanting to begin our newer opportunities. So, investing is big and some of the existing product as well. So, while there's a bit of softening, we don't expect to reduce on marketing or probably even invest slightly more on marketing without, you know, while the property will be there, the growth will be there. So, even, maybe it's required, you know, even slightly step up on marketing as well to drive the growth. So, yeah, we don't see any reduction in marketing. While there is some market, the competition is there, there are some market is often, but NetNet is not fully slowed, it's slowed down across India. So, but having said that, we also want to invest in some of the newer opportunities. So, we may even slightly step up marketing as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Reminded all the questions you've just done.

We'd like to ask a question. Participants will restart and want to ask questions. If there are no further questions, we can end the conference.

Okay, sir. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management from the opening conference. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, shareholders and investors, and thank you for your patience. So last year, we did take some steps for the long-term interest organization, and thank you for your patience. So as you committed, the profit started showing up. We expect the momentum to continue. Look forward to your continuous support. Thank you so much.

Thank you. On behalf of ICIC Security, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you will now submit your questions. Thank you.