Easy Trip Planners Ltd
NSE:EASEMYTRIP
Earnings Call Analysis
Q3-2024 Analysis
Easy Trip Planners Ltd
The company's earnings call revealed a robust year-on-year (Y-o-Y) revenue growth of 18% with operations revenue reaching INR 161 crores. EBITDA improved by 18% Y-o-Y to INR 171 crores, and the Profit After Tax (PAT) climbed 15% to INR 119 crores. This growth underscores the company's pursuit of profitability alongside revenue expansion.
The travel sector, particularly air travel bookings, serves as the company's core segment, recording substantial volume with 83.7 lakh bookings over 9 months. Significantly, hotel bookings soared by 49% Y-o-Y to 3.7 lakh, speaking to the strengths and growth potential within the company's diverse offerings.
In line with enhancing its service portfolio, the company introduced 'Explore Bharat', aimed at showcasing India to overseas travelers, and launched an invite-based subscription program for high-net-worth individuals to elevate their travel experiences.
Despite reductions in promotional discounts, leading to a lower volume of quarter-on-quarter bookings, the company has maintained a strategic focus on profitability over market share. This conservative yet calculated approach aims to secure sustainable and profitable growth in the long term.
Recent acquisitions contributed to increased employee costs, other expenses, and one-time acquisition-related expenses, explaining the slight dip in profitability despite revenue growth. Advertisement expenses as a percentage of Gross Booking Revenue (GBR) also saw a rise due to strategic marketing initiatives.
Maintaining GBR while trimming discounts has been a victory for the company, reflecting its resilient business model and commitment to long-term strategic goals, like introducing convenience fees. The company forecasted a Profit Before Tax (PBT) guidance adjustment from INR 250 crores to approximately INR 220 crores for the year, preparing for impactful shifts in the upcoming quarters.
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Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Easy Trip Planners Limited Q3 FY '24 Earnings Conference Call.
From the management, we have with us Mr. Nishant Pitti, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Prashant Pitti, Managing Director; Mr. Ashish Bansal, Chief Financial Officer.
[Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nishant Pitti from Easy Trip Planners. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to quarter 3 and 9 months of FY '24 Earnings Call of EaseMyTrip. I would like to thank you all for joining us today. Our earnings presentation and press release has already been uploaded on our website and stock exchanges. I hope you all had a chance to review it. To start with, I would like to begin by highlighting the remarkable performance of EaseMyTrip for quarter 3 and 9 months of FY '24, and would be happy to take questions afterwards.
I'm glad to announce that our company has had sustainable growth during the quarter, continuing the strong momentum in our operations, and we are continuing to enhance our focus on profitability. During quarter 3, the gross booking revenue was of INR 2,026 crores. Our revenue from operations grew by 18% year-on-year to INR 161 crores. EBITDA has grown by 10.9% as compared to quarter 3 of previous fiscal year and was INR 65 crores. And the PAT year-on-year grew by 9.6% to INR 45.6 crores for this quarter.
During 9 months, the GBR grew by 8.7% to [ INR 6,427 crores ]. The EBITDA has grown by 18% year-on-year to INR 171 crores. The profitability after tax was INR 119 crores, an increase of 15% year-on-year. During this quarter 3 and 9 months of FY '24, we have put strong focus on maximizing profitability.
Coming to our operational performances. During quarter 3, our core segment, Air Travel booking, recorded 22.6 lakh bookings. Hotel segments recorded 92,000 bookings. And bookings in other segments grew by 82.5% to 2.7 lakhs. For the period of 9 months, there were 83.7 lakh Air segment bookings. Hotel line bookings increased by 49% year-on-year to 3.7 lakh. And other segments had a significant increase of 72% to 7.6 lakh.
We have executed several key initiatives during quarter 3 of fiscal year to drive the growth.
I'm happy to announce that during the quarter, we have acquired 13% stake in ECO Hotels and Resorts, reflecting our commitment towards sustainable and responsible business practices. By fostering environmentally conscious initiatives, we aim to shape up the future of travel and hospitality industry positively.
At the Global Investor Summit held in London, we officially entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with government of Uttarakhand. This partnership is aimed to enhance Uttarakhand's global appeal as a tourist destination, utilizing EaseMyTrip's expansive global network. The goal is to fortify and expand Uttarakhand's tourism sector.
We have also introduced EasyDarshan, providing curated pilgrimage packages across India. These packages offer hassle-free journey, including transportation, accommodation, guided tour, special pujas, prioritizing safety and convenience.
Additionally, we have also launched Explore Bharat, Discover the Soul of India, to showcase nation's rich heritage, culture, landscape, and targeting overseas travelers.
These initiatives underscore our continuous expansion in services catering to niche customer segments. Moreover, we have also announced an invite-based subscription program for high net worth individuals. Through this program, we are excited to offer a range of benefits and plans designed to enhance these travel experiences, offering substantial savings, exclusive privileges, and dedicated support that they truly will enjoy in their journey.
Our partnership with Vi is aimed to bring more convenience and best offers to Vi users, and ensuring travel bookings become easy and seamless for them through Vi application.
EaseMyTrip has also been awarded the Best Online Travel Marketplace of the Year in B2C category by ET Travel Awards. We have always been dedicated to offering a wide range of travel services. As travelers' needs evolve, we continuously expand our offerings to meet the demand.
Going forward, we are focusing on growing our air ticketing businesses globally and expanding our presence into areas -- other areas like hotels, holidays, and other travel services. We are also expanding our footprints domestically and exploring ways to grow organic and inorganically. These moves, aligned with our commitment to continuous growth, providing comprehensive travel solutions and ensuring smooth experiences for our customers.
In conclusion, EaseMyTrip delivered a strong performance in quarter 3 and 9 months of FY '24. We remain to focus on our strategy of striking balance between profits and top line. We are confident that our strong foundation and unwavering commitment will continue to drive our success.
Thank you now. And I would like to open the question -- and floor. Over to you, moderator.
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Manik Taneja from Axis Capital.
Prashant just wanted to understand a few things around this -- around the quarterly performance. If you could, first of all, talk about the fact that why our volumes across both Air and the Hotel side were down on a sequential basis despite Q3 being a seasonally strong quarter? That's question number one. The second question was with regards to...
Please go ahead. Ask the second question. I'll answer both.
The second question was with regards to some of the implied arithmetics given by -- as per the breakup that you've provided on the GBR breakup between Airlines, Hotels and Other segments. So on that front, if I look at the ARR for the Hotel side, that appears to be about 17,000 odd per my calculation, if -- it will be great to understand how is this significantly higher than what we see typically for competition?
The third question was with regards to the number of equity shares that we have, since some of the acquisitions that we made were essentially stock involved -- fresh issue? Is there a reason why the total number of equity shares has not gone up?
And the fourth question was with regards to our cash flow, in terms of the negative working capital that we continue to see through FY '23 as well as first half of FY '24.
Okay. Manik, thanks for all the questions. I'll try to answer them in the order you asked. Question number one, related to the volumes, the reason why it decreases, Manik. As you would see that our discounts have also gone down dramatically. We have reduced the discounts from about 4% to 2%, in this particular quarter, if you compare quarter on -- few quarters compared yearly -- on the yearly basis. So the discount, as we have mentioned, that the company has continued to focus on profitability, we have reduced the discounts quite considerably for this particular quarter, which is why you would see the volumes go down.
Related to your second question, can you please repeat? That is why I was asking that if you could just wait and let me answer...
Second question was with regards to the split-up of the GBR that is provided between Airlines, Hotels and other segments.
Yes. So this time, we have -- for the first time, we have provided the GBR split as it was requested last time. And you could see in terms of GBR, our flight versus non-air is about [ 95% ]. And in terms of revenue, it is somewhere around 78% and 22%, Manik.
I understand that. I was just trying to compute the average hotel booking rate. And that comes out to close to about 17,000 given the volumes that you've provided.
It doesn't just have Hotels, Manik, it has packages as well included. So hence, it's a blended number of transactions we would probably receive -- we're dividing GBR by number of transactions. But Hotels is not a stand-alone hotel, it has packages as well. That is why the number might have come out little bit larger.
Okay. The third one was with regards to the equity -- number of total number of equity shares that we see in your [ BSE ] release. When we made a few acquisitions at the start of this year, that involved an issue of fresh shares, but our total number of equity shares in the BSE release seems to be unchanged through second quarter as well as third quarter. So what explains that?
Ashish Ji, would you know this?
Yes. I'll pick up the question. The shares were issued in quarter 2 itself. So there is no change in quarter 2 and quarter 3 shareholders.
Okay. I understand that. But the number of shares, even from a year-on-year perspective, there is no change.
Yes.
Okay. No, I get it. I get it. And last one was with regards to the cash flow that we see -- cash -- we generated negative cash flow both in FY '23 as well as in first half of FY '24. What explains the negative cash...
In this particular quarter, I don't think so there's a cash flow information. But yes, compared to last 2 years, the cash flow has been negative, primarily because we have been depositing slightly more money with the Airlines significantly because the business has increased dramatically compared to the last few years.
Okay. And if you could call out the contribution of the increase in take rates that we are seeing at an overall level because of the GSA agreement at SpiceJet, and also call out to provide some details on the sales and marketing agreement that we signed up with the customer at the start of this year, which is contributing significantly or significant improvement in terms of take rate because of the INR 10 crore or revenue recognition that you're doing on a quarterly basis?
Sure. We will consider that.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Bala Murali Krishna from Oman Investment Advisors.
My question is regarding the last three acquisitions which you have done in the month of September. What is the contribution of those three acquisitions in the fourth quarter? And what could be the margins from those businesses?
So I think that the acquisition which we did in last quarter, some of the numbers have added up in this particular quarter. And because of which, you might even be seeing that our cost -- employee cost has increased. And that is primarily because of the newer acquisition which has happened.
In terms of contribution, Ashish Ji, are we mentioning contribution separately? Or is it 2 types of files which you are doing right now, stand-alone and consolidated?
It is consolidated in the [ consolidated ] numbers. It's not separately mentioned.
So it's not separately mentioned at the moment. But yes, in this particular quarter, the effects of the three acquisitions have come. Because of the three acquisitions, our other expenses -- onetime other expenses have also increased in this quarter, which is why profitability came slightly lower than what it should have. But those are onetime expenses related to acquisition, which has become part of our other expenses.
As you would see that our other expenses in this particular quarter jumped to about INR 30 crores from what it was in the last quarter at about INR 20 crores. So a certain portion of that also went into the three acquisitions, which is why our profitability came slightly lower than what we were anticipating.
Yes, I see that 2.1% of other expenses. So can [indiscernible] 1% of other expense in the next quarter?
We do expect something similar numbers, yes.
And regarding -- just follow-up on these three acquisitions only. So the EBITDA, which we are getting from these acquisitions is positive or still it's under breakeven?
That would be not -- I would not be able to share because we have not given specific numbers related to these three acquisitions for this particular quarter.
It's fine, as of now we don't have, but because we are focusing on the Holiday Packages section, so the investors would like to know how this acquisition...
I understand. But I may not be able to share because we have not shared [indiscernible] at this moment.
Okay, fine. And regarding the discounts in this quarter where it came to 2.2% from last quarter of 4%. Going forward, how it will stand out, percentage of the revenue on [ GBR ]?
So of course, we have reduced -- the idea was to reduce the discount, but not let GBR fall, and which is why you can see from 4%, the discount went to 2.2%, yet the GBR remained flattish between the 2 quarters, or it didn't decrease much. The last quarter was INR 2,025 crores, and this quarter is INR 2,026 crores. So that's a significant improvement. The company is able to optimize reducing discounts without reducing the GBR, and which is -- which are the healthy signs which you should look in the company where the company is able to grow, not on the -- primarily on the basis of the discounts which they are offering.
The next question is from the line of Santosh from [indiscernible] Wealth.
Sir, I have a question regarding your acquisition in this quarter about ECO Hotels. It looks like this is a hotel in Maharashtra. Can you explain like what is the rationale behind the acquisition? It doesn't seem like it takes in BSE, but it doesn't have any revenue as such as per what they have published. Somewhat...
It's a chain in the U.K. And yes, they have -- they are starting up the operations in India. It's basically an ecological -- we have already acquired Spree Hotel chain, as you must be aware of. ECO Hotels chain basically will allow us to foray into sustainability and providing customers a sustainable way to travel.
There has been strong momentum towards that side where customers are looking for ecological and sustainable ways to travel. And this is why we have taken a minority stake of 13% in this company.
And what would be the revenue of this hotel chain, sir, globally?
I may not be sure about their numbers correctly, but it's a minority stake that we have built in the company. Given that their chances to grow in India are quite considerably higher, then we can promote them, we can cross-promote them in our platforms. We have taken minority stake in the company.
And this minority stake is only in like India's entity or it's all over the...
In India entity.
Okay. Got it. And regarding your EasyDarshan, it looks like you have [ major ] plans to promote tourism in India which is great. Do you have a strategy for newly opened up Ayodhya temple we see lot of -- for -- tourism is going to be generated there. So any specific plan for that?
Of course, no, that's a good question. We really believe that Ayodhya can become the next Vatican City for the world. There are not just people from within India but even from outside India can come and travel. And at EaseMyTrip, we have very strong plans to grow along with -- as the number of hotels in Ayodhya increases.
A case in point, which we have seen first time is actually Varanasi. Varanasi about 10 years ago, we used to see about 25,000 to 30,000 tourists on daily basis. And nowadays, Banaras is seeing anywhere between 4 lakh to 5 lakh tourists on daily basis. So religious tourism is actually a very big category in India, which is why we have started a separate services altogether related to it because it needs to be dealt differently.
We have realized most of the time these packages are booked by the sons and the daughters for their elderly parents. And hence, the requirements, the needs, everything is very different. And we are looking forward to grow in this segment. There are special plans which we have related to Ayodhya. But we will grow as the capacity of Ayodhya continues to increase.
Got it. Okay. So coming back to this hotel acquisition. So do you have any further plans that will be going to acquire further hotels in India in the future?
That would be difficult for me to say at this particular moment. But yes, if there is a company like EaseMyTrip which is asset light, which is receptive in nature, which is profitable in nature, and if it is adding value to both the companies, we will not shy away. But at this moment it will be difficult for me to say whether we will or we will not.
Okay. Last one -- one last question regarding your service costs and employee-benefit expense. Service cost looks like, 9-month period, it is like threefold, and employee expenses have almost doubled. So can you explain the reasoning behind it? Like it feels like you have operating costs or for...
No. I mean, I did explain just now, I mean related to it, the employee cost specifically in this particular quarter increased, specifically because we have added three more subsidiaries. And with those three subsidiaries, their employees also got added into this cost structure, at the moment.
The next question is from the line of Bala Murali Krishna from Oman Investment Advisors.
Regarding the guidance, you have a guidance of EBITDA of INR 250 crores for the year, FY '24, earlier. So are we on track or do you expect any uptick on the guidance also?
So we would be trying our level best to reach that number, but it looks like we might fall short by about INR 25 crores, INR 30 crores. That's specifically because I said that in these 3 acquisitions for this particular quarter, the other expenses have increased from the amount which we were not expecting. And some of the other expenses may even come in the next quarter. Because of which, I think we may have to change our guidance to about INR 220-odd crores -- probably for that.
Yes. And one more thing, recently, we have seen a surge in the app downloads of EaseMyTrip. So do we see any bookings from the new users recently in the last 1 month or 1.5 months. Is there any surge because of those app downloads by new users?
That is correct. We took a nationalistic stand in this particular quarter. And on the basis of that, we got a lot of people who basically stood by with our decision. And on the basis of that the number of app downloads, the number of website visits did increase. I may not be able to share all the numbers at this particular moment. But yes, overall visibility of the company has increased many folds in this particular quarter.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Madhuchanda Dey from MC Pro.
First is a housekeeping question. There is a sharp spike in the depreciation and amortization expense this quarter. If you could explain that?
Ashish Ji? Ashish Ji, are you on the line?
Yes, I'm on the line. Am I audible?
Yes, go ahead.
Basically, this quarter, we did two acquisitions. And because of this acquisition, we recorded intangible in our balance sheet. And now we are amortizing the same over the period of useful life. So that's why it has been increased.
So we can expect this run rate to continue for -- because I was also thinking that it could be goodwill amortization. But of the INR 3.7 crores, what would be the recurring rate of this goodwill amortization?
It will be recurring now. Now it will be recurring because it's -- every quarter, it will be amortized.
Okay. And you expect to amortize this over the period of?
5 years -- of useful life of the asset.
Useful life of the asset. Okay. Now I have a question, which is a little more general question. Like last quarter, the company shifted its focus on profitability. I mean, of course, it was a profitable company all along. But there was -- in between, there was this thing that you kind of resorted to increasing advertising expenses and you wanted to grab market share. But last quarter, the rationale was we want to be more profitable. We were guiding to INR 250 crores PBT, and growing GBR was not the focus.
And we have seen this in this quarter, although it's a seasonally strong quarter, GBR has been flat sequentially, there's a Y-o-Y decline. But given these acquisitions and other pressures, and in fact, ad expense also as a percentage of GBR is up, maybe because of this, up force Lakshadweep thing, we saw you guys advertising in a big way.
So basically, the margin has contracted despite this change in strategy where you are not chasing market share. So the result is you have lost market share, and albeit the loss of market share, the profitability has not improved. Whereas if I see your largest competitor, their GBR has improved Y-o-Y, sequentially, they have been able to maintain margin as well. So I mean if you could explain how do you plan to tackle this going forward?
No, Madhu, good question, Madhu. So Madhu, I would like to -- I wouldn't want you and others to see company in more holistic way that is in quarter-on-quarter basis. Yes, some quarters, GBR increases, some quarters GBR don't increase. For us, the bigger win in this particular quarter was how do we maintain our GBR while reducing the discounts. And we did reduce the discounts quite considerably sharply in this particular quarter, and yet we were able to maintain the number of the GMV in the same way.
So hence, we are taking one win at a time. And you also have to understand the DNA of the founders of this company. The company was built bootstrapped. We are very high on perseverance and grit. And hence, one quarter here and there does not really bother us as much as -- whether it is aligned with our long-term strategy or not.
And then long-term strategy, as we have mentioned earlier, we have started experimenting with charging convenience fees. We have -- we are reducing the discounts by -- the idea is to continuously maintain or grow our GBR. But some quarters, yes, you're right, we may not be able to maintain our GBR, specifically because we have taken a call of reducing the discounts.
Next quarter onwards, I think you should see things changed dramatically, especially in this particular quarter, as you have mentioned. The company did gain a lot of eyeballs and there was a lot of public all across India which was on our side, with very limited amount of marketing, we were able to gain a lot of people's attention. Though I would like to say that, that was not the intent. The intent was very clear that we were very sure of what should be done, whether irrespective it financially makes sense or not.
Good thing is that for the company, it did make sense financially, but the call was very nationalistic in approach and just to do the right thing. But going forward, I think you should be able to see strong numbers coming.
No, I didn't understand, what has changed? I mean I understand that post that, Lakshadweep, Modi's controversy, you did get a lot of limelight because of a particular stance that you took. But is that the reason why you expect this trend to reverse, the stagnating GBR in Q4? Or is there something that I'm missing?
GBR went down specifically because as I said that we've reduced the discounts dramatically. The profit did not grow up because, other expenses grew by about INR 10 crores. And yes, in this -- and then otherwise as well, in terms of acquisitions when you're acquiring multiple companies, there are certain things which you expect and which may not come on the way as you were expecting. So because of this, some expenses in terms of other expenses increased in this particular quarter. Otherwise, we should -- we were expecting to see INR 5 crore, INR 6 crores more of profit in this particular quarter.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Manik Taneja from Axis Capital.
Prashant, just trying to pick your thoughts around the previous question itself. When we went for an IPO 2 years back, you were very clear that we wanted to continue to gain market share and solidify or reduce the lead of the #1 player. And here in terms of GBR, you have been the #2 OTA in the industry.
With the way our -- the change in strategy that we are seeing this year, it appears that we will essentially lose the #2 spot in terms of being the second largest OTA in India. Would you be okay to essentially do that? That's question number one.
The second question was just clarification on the other expenses. Historically, this also included some part of expenses that we would incur around our B2B business. And whenever that business will do well, this number would increase. So is there some element of that contribution as well in addition to some -- to the acquisition impact? And how should we be thinking about this expense on a go-forward basis?
Related to your first question, Manik, we would like to maintain our second position spot. And we are working towards it in this particular quarter. You should see that number do its work. And I don't think so there is any threatening towards us [ gaining ] that position. You're right, in this particular year, we have taken a little bit more conservative approach. Rather than growing the business, we wanted to maintain our profitability and grow with profitability. That may not be the case going forward. But for this particular year, we did take that call, and that's the management's call, as a Board, we decided it together.
I'm forgetting what was your second question again?
So my second question was with regards to other expenses, which you also remarked that's become about INR 31-odd crores versus INR 21 crores last quarter. And typically, that also includes some part of the B2B or the cost that you incurred to the ramp-up of the B2B business. So how much of this increase essentially is acquisition-related and how much of it is B2B business related? And how should we be thinking about this cost item on a go-forward basis?
So half of it is coming from -- related to acquisitions and half of it is coming from B2B. You're absolutely right. And B2B business as long as it is done basically in advance, the company is quite happy to continue to grow that business. And hence, that number may increase in the future. But that number also brings profitability and revenue alongside.
So that number is something which we are not worried about. It's just that the other expenses, which basically turn out to be an expense -- expense, cause this company a little bit of a hard buy. But otherwise, B2B business is something which we are excited about and we would like to continue to grow that business.
And the last one, if you could clarify on -- with regards to the outlook that we had. So at the start of the year, we were talking about a significant growth from a GBR standpoint. Subsequently, we shifted focus to profit, and you've talked about a certain amount of increase in terms of PAT for FY '24 last quarter. If you could update us on the revised outlook on that front?
So as I said that our last quarter where we said that we are focusing on -- we are focusing PBT of about INR 250 crores, I believe that we will have to change that strategy to about INR 220-odd crores, on this particular year.
Thank you very much. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Prashant Pitti for closing comments.
Sure. Well, thank you all for joining us today. The quarter concluded positively, and we maintain optimism regarding the robust growth trajectory for our wide range of services. We are excited about the opportunities ahead of us as we have a solid value proposition for entire sustainable performances.
We look forward to meeting you in next quarter. Please stay safe, healthy, and feel free to reach us for any -- remaining questions and answers. Thank you once again.
On behalf of Easy Trip Planners Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.