Matrimony.com (NSE:MATRIMONY) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:01 Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Matrimony q one FY twenty seven earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participants will be in a 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 now by pressing star then 0 on attached phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now hand the conference over to mister from ICIC Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of ICICI strategy, I would like to welcome you all one of participants earnings call.

0:48 From the company, we have Mr. Mudaval and Kedan, Indian Steelers. Call will begin with the brief management remarks followed by Q and A session. I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Janki Ramansar for his first meeting. Over to you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Dheeraam Sethi. Good evening, everyone. During our last interaction, we indicated that profit for the quarter will be more than double of that last year. I'm pleased to report that we have delivered on the guidance with PAT increasing by 127 year on year. In Q1, on a consolidated basis, we achieved a building of INR136.0 crores, a growth of 1.8 percentage quarter over quarter and 7.8% year on year.

1:43 Revenues at crores, a growth of 11.7 percentage quarter over quarter and 13.2% year on year. Key highlights for the Matchmaking business in quarter one are as follows: billing at INR135.3 crores, a growth of 1.9% quarter over quarter and 8.0% year on year Revenue at INR109.5 crores, a growth of 11.1 quarter over quarter and 13.6% year on year. Matchmaker EBITDA reached INR34.9 crores, which is 26.9%. Actually, is a difference between the billing and GAAP revenue of around INR500 crores. If the billing be the same as revenue, the EBITDA around INR30140 crores. So, I think matchmaking reached a certain level of threshold in terms of EBITDA margin.

2:38 So, the increase in billings benefit in the subsequent quarters. We added 2.72 paid subscription during the quarter, a growth of 15.9% quarter over quarter and 3.1% year on year. 'eighteen for the Nativity business dropped at 6.7% quarter on quarter and grew by 4.2% year on year. We generated over 25,500 secondtor stories during the quarter. Now coming to the other business, our Managed Services business and other businesses, billings were Rs. 74 lakhs, a growth of 0.5% quarter over quarter and decline of 13.8% year on year. Revenue was INR 96 lakhs, a growth of 13.1% quarter over quarter, a decline of 24.3% year on year. EBITDA level losses for the quarter were INR 3.8 crore as compared to the loss of INR 5.7 crore in the last quarter.

3:27 However, we expect the new other initiative, I think that we said the growth momentum will pick up this quarter and the scale up in the coming quarters. 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 did triple digit in quarter two as well. And Maritime Billing is expected to be higher than quarter one. And we're also doing a lot with AI. So, are using AI in many areas using AI automation, service improvement, product improvements and driving efficiency.

4:12 So, there's lot of work happening on the AE side as well, so which is helping us to drive efficiency and also improve the experience which we are providing to the customers. So, let me hand over to Sushant Raswain, our VP Finance to comment on the key profit Elliot for the quarter and the next coming quarter as well. So, Sanjay, over to you. Thanks, Muruga. Our EBITDA margin for the mass making business in Q1 is at 26.9% as compared to 22% in Q4 and 17.6% a year ago. Marketing expenses for the mass business in Q1 were INR46.5 crores compared to INR43.5 crores in Q4 and INR46.7 crores a year ago. Excluding marketing expenses, margins for mass making business is at 63% and compared to in Q4 59% and year earlier.

5:03 On a consolidated basis, EBITDA margin in Q1 is at 20.1% compared to 12.4% in Q4 and 11% a year ago. Tax rate for the quarter 23.8%, PAT is at INR19.1 crore, a growth of 96.2% quarter on quarter and 127.5% year on year. Share of loss from Astro Vision, our associate company is 9 lakhs. Cash balance at the end of Q1, INR $3.42 crores. Return on capital employed is 36.4 percentage. On the outlook for Q2 margins, we expect to achieve a triple digit year on year growth in past. Profit may be similar level of Q1 or slightly better than current quarter. I would like to end this customary Safe Harbor statement.

5:55 Certain statements during this call could be forward looking on the RR business, which involves a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from such forward looking statements. We do not undertake to update any such forward looking statements that may make from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. Thank you. And out to me. Yes. Thank you, Sushant. Yes. So 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 one on the touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question queue, you may press star and 2.

6:45 Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Agwinaf M. From Equitas Investments. Please go ahead. 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 billing growth and the revenue growth? Abhinav, thanks so much.

7:36 So revenue 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 getting recognized. So, that's the way it is done. If you look at the quarter one, the billing was INR136 crore overall and maximum Q at INR135.3 crore, where the revenue recognition was INR130.5 crore, almost a INR5 crore difference. So, because of last year also there's a longer term new 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 in some quarter, maybe 98% or 97%, it depends.

8:23 Okay. So, do you expect it to streamline going forward, the revenue and billing, yes? The thing is about the billing growth continues because as of today, see, if you look at the year before, our package are only three months package by and large and some six months package. So, lastly, we also included one year package. So, there'll be some difference, the revenue the building continues growth, but there'll be some difference of year end R see, crore. So, it depends on the quarters. Suppose the building growth, sometimes the capture may happen also, 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 may can be better also. It depends. So, net net, last year was the first year we introduced, so this year some catch up is happening.

9:17 Maybe between seven ninety seven to 99 depends on the quarter. Okay. Thank you. Hello. Yes. The next question is, which is we have cash on our balance sheet, what is the use which we are anticipating? Are we planning any acquisition or something? The fact that we continue to evaluate opportunities to reward our shareholders also to grow the business. So we look at opportunity to acquire companies, opportunity inverse and opportunity to work with companies also. That continues to happen. Got it. And then you mentioned there's a lot of cash bond continuing and you discontinued also a couple of operations. What is the new outlook on the newer vendor business? And would we see any good deal in bandwidth or something along those lines?

10:11 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 quarters. So, we are definitely a bit about it. We changed the model which we communicated some time back. We moved from the subscription business model to a commission led model. We believe that's a way forward on the within services. We see 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 quarters, which we are confident of it. And in terms of the goodwill, we did get some impairment in quarter four.

11:02 So, it depends on how the business performs and all. So, we continue to evaluate and take the sales at the appropriate stage and all that. But in terms of net debt, yes, we definitely are upbeat about opportunity in the non mass making revenue side, so which we hope to show the growth in the coming quarters. So for the competitive reasons, we prefer not to do the breakup. So we are talking in a consolidated basis. Okay. And could you just send me with a regional breakup? And then you split, like, which part of India would be predominant? I think it will be South. Right? If you could just give me a broad breakup.

11:54 Sorry. I think your wife is little sort of... I think maybe I'm on a speaker or something that's not Yeah. I know. Yeah. Better. Yeah. Yeah. My question was in terms of job description split. I understand we are more heavily dominant in the surroundings, but could you help me with the good mix of geographies? Again, for competitive reasons, while you are right that some other markets we are a very strong player, but again for competitive reasons, we prefer not to share the geography break at all. Okay. Got it. And any particular reason why our legal fees are so high? What was the question, sorry? Legal fees. Sorry, again, not so clear. Sorry.

12:44 Legal fees. Legal fees, okay. Why the legal fees in order? Suzan, you want to explain that? See, we are now registering all the trademark. We have a lot of trademarks. We are registering the trademark so that other people should not misuse our trademark that all the registration expenses all that we are now doing for all our trademark. Got it. Any ASP increase you are taking in the plans across any of your platforms, ticket price? It's in the market. We we have the the various pricing strategy, nothing in particular. So what is the currency since that last year, your strategy was to move from shorter plans to longer plans? Are we discontinuing a shorter plan on how are things like...

13:32 And, basically, can you explain that? And basically, if all the contracts are moved to one year contract, when will the billing catch up with the revenue? See, it's, again, it's a user's choice of which package the user want to, opt for. 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 short span of time. Again, it's one more package. It's not that today, the one year package, it's 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 continuity in the service without being worried about the subscription on every three months. Again, it's the individual preference and choice. It's not a big part of our business. It's a 10% customer offer it. Our employees this option to the customer, so that people can have the continuity.

14:33 So, in terms of it's again, it's individual choice. I wouldn't say that anything particular, only percent of customer, nothing like that. So, I'd say nothing like incentivizing or disintegrating, it's more like individual choice of which package somebody wants to go for. Our one year package is not the multiple of three months package. Obviously, there's a price where there's a benefit of going for one year package. Got it. Thank you so much. I'll get back in queue for further questions. Sure. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vasu Devan from Finvest. Please go ahead. Hello, gentlemen. Good evening. Good evening, mister. The thing is excellent performance, 100%. We have given a increase.

15:24 Is it because of the lower base than the lower base last year, that is sustainable in future also because for the last few... For the last few quarters, your revenue on your left, this one has been very flat. Because of the lower base, it is 100%. But is it sustainable? It is one... My my one question. And the second question is, when Bharat, a code investment you have made last year, I understand. Is it... 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 attributable profit this year, yes, this year, definitely because last year we told you to increase the one year package, some of our revenue got deferred. And the combination, not only that, again, continuous growth momentum, as I said in my opening speech, we expect a double digit billing growth, revenue growth. It's a combination of continued growth momentum plus because of the deferred revenue. So, are happening at the same time. So, definitely this year, we see that triple digit growth happening in the quarter.

16:43 Let me talk about the Sushantaswain mentioned, the Q2 profit may be at a similar level or even slightly better than the Q1 level. So, we had a level of the billing 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 that number sort of again talking we about in current quarter, which is again which is pretty much there. So, that's on the matchmaking. When it comes to Bharat ACOS, it's more of the investment we made in one of the start up. We invested around INR4 crore, okay? It's a long term investment. So, it's an investment in one of the start up. It's more like lot happening on the AA side, the company doing AA astrology.

17:29 So, it's an investment opportunity for us because we see then AA has been awarding, astrology has been domain has been picking up. So, it's a we saw an opportunity we invested in that company now. Sir, you want to add? One more question, gentlemen. Think, am I talking to Vice President, Shatant, I understand, is it? I'm talking our Managing Director. Yes. He's Murali I'm the Managing Director. Yes. Last time, I think there was one gentleman, CFO is not in the conference call today. Yes, he is not in the conference call today, yes. Is he not feeling well? No, actually he is on vacation actually. Incident anyway, is kind of moving out as well, but again he is on vacation. So he has a few days of working day left, but he is on vacation.

18:19 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. You said this year you are introducing AI. What are the AI use AI use cases which you are implementing in your business to stay ahead? This is question one. Secondly, yes, you will continue the question or one by one? No, no, you can continue the question, so I can respond it. Yes, you please. Second question is, what is the plan of the company to increase the top line?

19:04 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 the search and data are all showing as on 02/2016. Why not provided updated? Data using 2026 or current one? These three questions. Thank you, Vasudevan. So let me go one at a time. Regarding AI, AI used a lot of automation. What's being done by people, we are trying to do it through AI.

19:49 So, things like the earlier we used our people to do the profile validations and the photo validations, which we employ people because the one thing the Matrimony wanted 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 be pretty much can be done through EAI. So, that's one area, automation thing like that. And the customer experience, we have AI chat botting stuff to the humans answering questions, it can be done by AI chat bot. There is some other work. Obviously, a lot is happening. We're also using AI on the product side, routing and so that customer has a good experience. So, AI is on multiple areas in the organization. In terms of the plans to grow the business, again, we already mentioned that we expect double digit billing growth and revenue growth. The growth is a combination of MATRIMONY. One is that continue to work on the profile acquisition, conversion strategies, And so, 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, last week it's about the profit and conversions and selling the right package. So, this continued work on this strategy.

20:57 We launched a new offering. We launched lau.com. We also went regional lau.com. We launched malayalilau.com because Malayalam is one market, whereas normally the uptake is good. So, we are also going regional on lau.com. So, the expansion, there are the business related expansion, marketing, we also continue to invest in marketing, lot of conversion strategy also being worked out. So, combination of all the things are helping us to grow the business. In terms of investor presentation, yes, thank you for that valuable input. We definitely look within the data set. Yes. Okay. Yes. You can move on to the next question, please. Hello?

21:45 Hello? Thank you. Yes. The next question is from the line of Praenimal Kota, an individual investor. Go ahead. Janikram. Congratulations after long term double growth. Hello. Yes. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Please go ahead. Yes. Entire year, the net profit is the same, you know, what we did in the same way. And another one, last last call, I requested any employer, promoter buying and selling, they have to inform, exchange within three, four days what more, what price they bought it or sell it. That is a few questions from my See, sorry, the first question was not so clear.

22:40 And the second question, can you please repeat, sir? Yes. So what you've given current quarter net profit, can we expect entire full year, say, in line with that net profit? 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, the deferred revenue, Q1 there's a growth. Q2 we're expecting both billing and revenue and double digit growth. So, we expect the momentum to continue. I don't want to get into a specific quarter beyond that Q2, but our sense is about Q2 double digit billing and revenue that was 14 profit you already mentioned is better than possibly even the Q1 slightly or maybe similar level.

23:27 Yes, so again, the last year the growth is continuing. We are running efficient operations. All the things contributed to the increase in PAT as well. Again, we are also investing in the growth as well. That's continue going to happen. So, that's the thing in terms of the promoter buying back The thing, our company said that you will do the needful. So thanks so much for that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Hello? Yes, sir. Yeah. Hi. Hi. Congrats for the good set of results. I wanted you to specifically speak about love.com and the efforts that you're taking in terms of some kind of initial feedback and then how it is shaping up because we see Eil as part of Jeevan Sathi's disclosure is shaping up pretty well. So, I wanted to understand so that we are not sensitive liquidity based platform and we need the first mover. I just wanted to know how we are progressing on that.

24:38 Thanks so much for asking the question. So, see, there is an opportunity, because India being a large market, obviously, Matrimony is a large market. I guess, there are opportunities in the series matchmaking as well. That's the reason, with autoloud.com, again, compared to IL, you are talking about in specific, it's probably almost two decades old and around INR40 crore revenue last year. And so, we definitely see that there's an opportunity. That's the reason we bought the domain name love.com. We also realized that the strength of Matrimony has been in a regional and not a single brand, they are multiple brands as well. So, we also think that going regional on lau.com may be the good strategy. We just rolled out Malayali Lau, so we intend to go the regional lao.com as well.

25:25 Again, we are talking about somebody branding almost two decades, which is just launched just recently. So, we're definitely going to invest. We're to improve on our product offering and also be one of the best players in this segment at the series matchmaking space. So, definitely the product price is good. We are 100% verified and we are some USPs. It's about marketing and getting more profile because all this matchmaking or matrimony, profile accuracy is important. We will invest while we launch Malayali Loud. We may launch other regions as well. So, may invest some money begin with cloud.com and grow the business.

26:11 Yes, we definitely want to invest in growth. Thank you, sir. That's all I have. The next question is from the line of Pranesh Shah from. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Sir, I have two questions. Firstly, we have seen our rating side of the match netting line by 7% q one q. So just wanted to know is... Have we taken this bundling step for this campaign, which is, like, good design in the ATV since we have moved to the new model, which is basically an ATV accretive, present a decline. So what are the reasons for the subsidy?

27:09 Sorry, I'm just kind of again, apologies. It's not so clear. Would you please repeat your question again? Yes. My question is basically on the ATV prices for the quarter declined by Yes. 10% on since we transitioned into a new model, so I think what is the reason for such a decline in utility? So, the ATV, again, we should not read too much into ATV. So, the pricing is one of the levers, whether to it's not that there are multiple things. There are different packages and different price points. So, I think the objective is to grow the business.

27:55 So, again, offering the right package to the right customers. So, some customer offers lower price or some higher price discounts. It's all being employed based on the data analytics and all that. So, it's not something the ATV continue going to increase. It's a combination of various strategies, pricing and all that. So, in that view, it's not read too much into the ATV. It's more of we have to look into the growth side. Again, we're talking about Infinixa one year target. Again, it's included last year only for a small percentage of it is not for it. So that way, so we imply when we are starting to size the growth. Price is one of the lever, again, price some quarter move up, some quarter, it just depends on the what package or again, uptaking some other package, the rare and package. There's multiple factors come into force and all this. So I wouldn't beat too much with the ATV because they're not operating in the steady So state, steady it's a multiple customer segment. And also, more importantly, we had a multiple product. We have the Jodi, which we like kind of a very low cost price product. Now we also launched love.com at very low cost. So it's again, I mean, it's a multiple thing.

29:05 My insight is yes. So that's one of the information, but it should not give too much into that one. And the second question is on the revenue recognition. Basically, sir, if I look at deferred revenue and collections, so can you help me understand that what percentage of deferred revenue would be booked in the current quarter? And what percentage of the billings is booked in the revenue? No. The thing is about what does the revenue get booked in the current quarter. So, see, it's again, we say that you can pretty much around 97 to 99 depends on the quarter. So, sometime the billing slows down, the revenue may move up and out. If you look at how much of exact revenue get captured and all those things.

29:57 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 as you can assume now. Okay. 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 quarter... Current quarter. So should we read more into it? Like, how should we look at the trajectory work for and what are the steps which are taken, which are led to this on narrowing of losses in the current quarter? So it's more than the last sales. I would probably look into the growth. We definitely see that this is the momentum and we changed the model and we have some new initiative getting worked out.

30:43 We believe that the growth will get better in the coming quarter. And terms of and momentum will accelerate as you progress. Last quarter, had taken some impairment as well. That's the reason the losses were slightly higher. Other than that, yes, it's around less than a four core per quarter. That's the one Correct. Per quarter. So yes, last yes. Year That's the one of so apart from the strategy has been maintained, it is not improved. That's that's what you want to make sure. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Okay. And, sir, any update on many jobs, how it is progressing, and what is the timeline we'll be seeing to roll out on national level, like, before?

31:28 What are the metrics we'll be tracking for rolling out? So we have a good number of company are using it. Again, since it's very early days, it's a combination of the paid model and some some customer drivers are given and we have more than 1,500,000 job seekers. So, it may take some time till we achieve a certain run rate or close to a breakeven, you may not expand other markets. So, you want to limit stay limited to stay focused only in term and order. So, at this point in time, maybe next year or maybe coming next year also probably may focus only in term and order. Probably, sometime next year, we may decide when do you want to go national or not. Okay. Alright, Thank you. That's what my question is. Thanks, sir.

32:15 Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ankur Jain from PRC. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. Yes, Nishan. Yeah. Continuing the response about the grading 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 in, what is the time period that you look for the business of managed services to breakeven and then become profitable?

33:10 That is question one. And the second question is about advertisement expenses. Have you seen any reduction in the overall competitive intensity? And as we go forward, have you seen these ad expenses to moderate from the current levels? Thank you. The business model, we did services, we moved from sort of by OpEx, some extent subscription, but what we want to focus on the commission based model. So, that was what's 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 profitable order, it's more or less we want to we believe there's an opportunity, we want to grow the wedding services and take it to a probably INR 100 crore run rate, then we can at that level, it can contribute into the profit also. So, for me, because we think there is a large opportunity.

34:13 For us, it's not that achieving a breakeven, it's more of achieving the growth and reaching that the run date is very important for us. And which we believe we can do it, that's the point number one. When we think, again, we're just trying this model, we believe it's the right way to look into that opportunity. Probably sometime maybe one year down the line, probably have a better clarity on this one. And while we believe that we are in the right I would say that think that the approach is right and again probably have some clarity in the coming quarters. In terms of advertisement, while some because softening, but again, there are we are also wanting invest again to our newer opportunities.

35:02 So, our industry did begin some of the existing product as well. So, while the semiconductor softening, we don't expect to reduce our marketing, probably even invest slightly more on marketing without while the property would be there, the growth will be there. So, even you are maybe recording even slightly step up on marketing as well to drive the growth. So, yes, we don't see any reduction in the marketing. While there is some market, there are competition fees there, there are some market that's offline. But net net is not fully slowed, because it's slowed down across India. So, but having said that, we also want emails within some other newer opportunities. So we may even slightly step up marketing as well. Okay.

35:49 Thank you. Thank you. Reminded all the participants. You press star. You'd like to ask question. Participants, have they started to ask questions? If there are no further questions, yeah, we can end the conference call. Okay, sir. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

36:57 Thank you, shareholders and investors, and thanks for your patience. So, last year, we did take some step for the long term impact of the organization, and thanks for your patience. So, as we committed, the profit started showing up. We expect the momentum to continue. Look forward to your continuous support. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of ICIC Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.