Just Dial Q1 revenues up 29%, but profit almost flat; expands search+ services to 20

Local search engine site Just Dial posted flat bottomline for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, with net profit at Rs 28.11 crore as against Rs 28.03 crore in the year-ago period even as the firm saw 29 per cent rise in operating revenues.

The firm said its bottomline was affected for the quarter ended June 30, impacted by one-off spend of around Rs 10 crore on advertising and data/content acquisition during the quarter. The firm also saw sharp rise in its employee benefit expense for the quarter which rose 38.2 per cent during the quarter.

The company has indicated it is cutting back on its marketing & ad expenses going forward.

The total income from operations rose 29 per cent to Rs 135.03 crore in the quarter.

V.S.S. Mani, MD & CEO, Just Dial Ltd said: "We had yet another strong quarter; our sales trends are looking quite healthy and our geographic expansion plans are on track. Our search plus services are gaining good traction among the user community."

The firm had launched its search plus services last year which introduces transactions for products or services sold by its vendors to the customers. In this Just Dial acts as a platform enabling the transaction.

During the quarter it added three new search plus service to take the total number to 20.

As of June 30, 2014, it was conducting approximately 277,950 campaigns for its paid advertisers as compared to 221,500 campaigns as of June 30, 2013, representing a Y-o-Y growth of 26 per cent and sequential growth of 6 per cent compared to the three months ended March 31, 2014.

The firm said it employs 9,975 employees and its database consisted of approximately 14.1 million listings as of June 30, 2014, as compared to 9.5 million listings as of June 30, 2013, representing a Y-o-Y growth of 48 per cent and 19.5 per cent rise sequentially.

Just Dial said it has decided to consider expansion of its services in the global markets, especially in emerging markets, where the potential for such kind of services is high. It did not share more details on this proposed expansion.

Notably the group has overseas presence in the US through Just Dial Global Pvt Ltd (Just Dial Global). Just Dial Global, which was previously part of Just Dial, is engaged in the business of providing local search services on various businesses, products and services in Canada and USA through its wholly owned subsidiary Just Dial Inc. Just Dial Global is majority owned by Just Dial promoters.

Just Dial Global has a license agreement with Just Dial to operate in the US & Canada using the mother brand.  The company has disclosed that Just Dial Global has expressed its inability to pursue operations in USA and Canada and the firm is considering termination of the license agreement.

It is also simultaneously looking at acquiring the existing operations of Just Dial Global, in effect its subsidiary Just Dial Inc, which would allow it to directly operate in all geographies.