Info Edge (India) Ltd

Before we begin, we would like to draw your aƩenƟon to the detailed disclaimer included in the presentaƟon for good order sake. Please note that this conference call is being recorded. All parƟcipant lines will be in listen- only mode, and there will be an opportunity for quesƟons and answers aŌer the presentaƟon concludes. Now, I'd like to hand over the call to Mr. Hitesh Oberoi for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, Hitesh.

For the standalone business in Q3 of FY25, billings will Rs.688 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 16% and revenue was Rs.672 crores, a YoY growth of 13%. Billings and revenue including Zwayam and DoSelect were Rs.690 crores and Rs.694 crores respecƟvely, a YoY growth of 16% and 13%. OperaƟng profits at the standalone level grew by 20% YoY to Rs.263 crores and the operaƟng margin expanded by 249 basis points to 39%. The standalone business generated cash from operaƟons of Rs.346 crores in Q3FY25 a YoY growth of 27%. In Q3FY25, the cash generaƟon from the recruitment business was Rs.333 crores, a YoY growth of 20%. The non-recruitment businesses at an aggregate level were also cash posiƟve and generated cash of Rs.13 crores in Q3FY25 vs. the cash loss of Rs.3 crores in the same quarter of the previous year.

The Board of Directors has approved entering into a contribuƟon agreement to commit up to Rs.1,000 crores from Infoedge or through wholly owned subsidiaries to “IE Venture Investment Fund III”. This fund will primarily focus on invesƟng in early stage tech driven startups in India. Key investment areas include consumer internet plaƞorms, soŌware products, SaaS businesses, and AI-led and AI-enabled plaƞorms and products, amongst others.

The Board of Directors has also approved the split of exisƟng equity shares. Each equity share with a face value of Rs.10 will be subdivided into 5 equity shares, with a revised face value of Rs.2 The primary objecƟve of this share split is to enhance liquidity in the market and to encourage greater retail investor parƟcipaƟon. Both these proposals are, of course, subject to the approval of the company's shareholders

Moving on to segment price performance. We'll start with the recruitment business. In Q3FY25, billings grew by 15% to Rs.494 crores, and revenue grew by 12% to Rs.505 crores. The operaƟng profit improved by 15% YoY to Rs.298 crores and the operaƟng profit margin was 59%. Cash generated from recruitment operaƟons was Rs.333 crores, a YoY growth of 20%. In the first nine months of FY25, Recruitment billings grew by 13% to Rs.1417 crores and revenue grew by 9% to Rs.1471 crores. The operaƟng profit improved by 6% a YoY to Rs.838

crores and the operaƟng profit margin was 57%. Cash generated from the recruitment operaƟon in the first nine months of FY25 was Rs.812 crores.

The key operaƟonal highlights of the business are as follows. The billings growth rate of 15% in Q3 was broad- based across all segments, with the IT segment growing by 16%, non-IT by 17%, and the recruitment consultant segment by 9%. Key non-IT sectors like BFSI, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Infrastructure grew at a double- digit growth rate. The GCC segment has also grown well and now contributes to about 12 to 13% of all Naukri billings. The Jobspeak index on a YoY basis has also consistently improved over the last four quarters, progressing from -10% to -4%, then to plus 5% and reaching 7% in the most recent quarter. This trend reflects a gradually improving hiring environment. Along with a beƩer macro environment as reflected in the Jobspeak index, our niche and adjacent businesses have also conƟnued to perform well. Our niche and adjacent businesses such as iimjobs, Naukri Gulf and Naukri Fast Forward have all shown good growth in Q3FY25 as well, with Y-o-Y billings growth of 29%, 21%, and 21% respecƟvely. Zwayam and DoSelect combined also registered a billings growth of 18% on a YoY basis. AmbiƟon Box and JobHai, which began moneƟzaƟon in Q4FY24, conƟnued to grow and showed improved performance in this quarter as well. Although sƟll small, these businesses hold great potenƟal and could grow substanƟally over the next 4 to 5 years. Our employer branding soluƟons offered across plaƞorms like Naukri, iimjobs, Hirist and AmbiƟonBox have been well received by our clients. We are working on strengthening these offerings further and expanding our market penetraƟon. On the jobseeker side, our Naukri plaƞorm now hosts around 104 million resumes and has added an average of 19,500 resumes per day in Q3FY25. On the recruiter side, metrics like searches, CV views, and Nvites also conƟnue to grow. In summary, our recruitment business conƟnues to grow across all customer segments, complemented by strong performance in our niche and adjacent businesses. We remain opƟmisƟc that this posiƟve momentum will carry forward into the upcoming quarters provided the economy stays buoyant.

Moving over to the real estate segment. In Q3FY25, billings growth improved by 16% to Rs.103 crores, and revenue grew by 17% to Rs.104 crores. OperaƟng losses were reduced by 67% to Rs.5 crores vs. Rs.15 crores in Q3FY24. This improvement was driven by revenue growth and controlled operaƟng expense increases, resulƟng in enhanced operaƟng leverage for the business. Cash losses from the operaƟon were Rs.3 crores vs. Rs.7 crores in Q3FY24.

In the first nine months of this year, in the real estate business, billings growth improved by 15% to Rs.291 crores and revenue grew by 18% to Rs.305 crores. OperaƟng losses reduced by 39% to Rs.33 crores vs. Rs.54 crores. In the first nine months of last year, cash losses from operaƟons were Rs. 24 crores versus Rs. 43 crores.

The key operaƟonal highlights of the 99Acres business are as follows. For 99Acres, billings growth in Q3 was driven by growth in both the number of billed customers and average billings per customer. Broker billings grew faster than developer billings. Live new project lisƟngs grew 9% in Q3, and live resale plus rental lisƟngs from brokers grew 20% YoY in Q3. In the upcoming quarters, 99Acres will conƟnue to focus investments on growing its user and client base, and in delivering a superior plaƞorm experience to help the users make the right real estate buying decisions.

Moving over to the matrimony business. In Q3FY25, the billings growth momentum conƟnued. Billings grew 36% to Rs.28 crores and revenue grew by 24% to Rs.27 crores. Last year in Q3FY24, the business introduced shorter duraƟon products, leading to more revenue being recognized in the same quarter and less carried forward to future quarters. As a result, the revenue growth rate in Q3FY25 was lower than the YoY billing growth rate. MarkeƟng investments increased slightly in Q3 ahead of the post-Diwali wedding season in North India, and were supported by social and content markeƟng to enhance brand recall. While YoY markeƟng expenses remained flat, spending rose by Rs.5 crores sequenƟally. The operaƟng losses on a YoY basis reduced by 51% to Rs.7 crores. The business generated cash from operaƟons of Rs. 80 lakhs in Q3FY25 vs. the cash loss of Rs.11 crores in Q3FY24.

In the first nine months of this year, matrimony billings grew by 34% to Rs.79 crores and revenue grew by 30% to Rs. 80crores. OperaƟng losses were reduced by 81% year on year to Rs.10 crores in the first nine months of

FY25 versus Rs.49 crores in the first nine months of FY24. Cash loss for the first nine months was Rs.5 crores, a YoY improvement of 89%.

Key operaƟng highlights for the business. In Q3, the business team conƟnued to build on its moneƟzaƟon efforts to grow billings. The new paid plans introduced in the previous quarters conƟnue to enhance value realizaƟon and drive sales conversions. AddiƟonally, more pay walls are being tested to improve moneƟzaƟon while maintaining customer engagement. The team is acƟvely working on developing new strategies to enhance plaƞorm moneƟzaƟon, while increasing efforts to drive traffic in core North Indian markets. Providing a high quality matching matchmaking experience on Jeevansathi remains a top priority we plan to make further investments in enhancing our matchmaking algorithms to deliver beƩer outcomes for users. Key metrics such as acceptances and two way chats on the plaƞorm conƟnue to grow and demonstrated a strong performance.

Moving on to the educaƟon business. In Q3FY25, billings were Rs.44 crores, a YoY growth of 12% and revenue grew by 3% to Rs.35 crores. OperaƟng loss from the business was Rs.1 crore. The business generated cash from operaƟons of Rs.15 crores in Q3FY25.

In the first nine months of FY25, billings were Rs.111 crores, a YoY growth of 13% and revenue grew by 11% to Rs.111 crores. The business achieved breakeven at the operaƟng profit level in the first nine months and generated Rs.10 crores in cash from operaƟons. Within the Shiksha business, in the first nine months of FY25, the domesƟc business grew by 26% YoY, and the study abroad business declined by 16% YoY, leading to an overall business growth of 13%.

DomesƟc private universiƟes and colleges conƟnue to expand their course offerings beyond engineering, with more choices available to students. The emergence of new private universiƟes in India presents an opportunity for Shiksha to further expand its footprint. We are invesƟng in creaƟng more comprehensive, student friendly content and building deep domain experƟse in this segment. Stricter restricƟons for study abroad students in Australia and Canada, higher visa rejecƟon rates for those aspiring to study in the US, and a decline in job prospects for students abroad have reduced student interest in going overseas.

On the AI front, our current focus is on three key AI prioriƟes, one, enhancing exisƟng products using AI, two, -using AI to develop new AI-powered features in exisƟng products, and three, building future-ready products.

In line with this, we conƟnue to upgrade our database product with AI and machine learning, resulƟng in an 8 to 10% increase in recruiter producƟvity. Similarly, new AI models for job search and recommendaƟons have driven a 10 to 20% year-on-year improvement in the job seeker in job seeker engagement. As shared on the previous call, AI-powered features like Mock Interview and Resume Maker conƟnue to get tracƟon with monthly acƟve usage of 11 lakhs and 12 lakh users respecƟvely. Our AI iniƟaƟves are increasingly becoming the foundaƟon of our business, driving growth across all verƟcals, whether in recruitment, 99Acres, Jeevansathi and Shiksha. In summary, our sustained investment in AI-based innovaƟon is strengthening our compeƟƟve edge while delivering greater value to our users and customers.

Moving on to the consolidated financial highlights. At the consolidated level, the net sales for the company stood at Rs.722 crores in Q3FY25 vs. Rs.627 crores in Q3 of last year. The total comprehensive income was at Rs.3182 crores in Q3FY25, compared to Rs.2624 crores in Q3FY24. Profit before tax without excepƟonal items in Q3 was at Rs.417 crores compared to Rs.185 crores in Q3FY24.

To summarize and reiterate our mid to long term outlook, we are enthusiasƟc about the growth opportuniƟes across all our verƟcals. Following several quarters of subdued demand, our recruitment business is now showing sustained growth with growth across all segments, IT and non-IT and consultants. To diversify and expand our client base, we are strengthening our go-to-market offerings and acquiring new clients and focusing on the GCC segment, non-IT sectors, and by increasing our presence in Ɵer two and Ɵer three ciƟes. Our niche and adjacent businesses, iimjobs, Naukri fast forward, Zwayam, DoSelect, AmbiƟonBox are performing well and unlocking new growth opportuniƟes. In 99Acres, we are focused on expanding our user base, enhancing the plaƞorm and providing valuable content to support informed real estate decisions. We are also developing new offerings aimed at strengthening our secondary business while enhancing our posiƟon in the primary new

home segment. Jeevansathi shiŌ to a freemium model has been successful, driving topline growth and moving the business closer to breakeven. Shiksha's domesƟc business remains on a steady growth trajectory and is already profitable. Across all the businesses we are advancing the deployment of AI and machine learning to enhance search and recommendaƟon experience and for the development of new features and products.

These efforts have improved user engagement, boosted producƟvity, and increased operaƟonal efficiency. Our robust cash generaƟon and healthy cash reserves remain a significant strength, enabling us to navigate market cycles effecƟvely. We conƟnue to evaluate the best strategies to deploy this cash to maximize shareholder returns. We are confident that these efforts posiƟon us well for sustained growth and success in the coming years.

Thank you and we are now ready to take any quesƟons that you may have.

Vijit Jain, CiƟ: So, generally, Hitesh, do you think, you know, the direcƟon for the recruitment firm side, is up, or the direcƟon for the IT side is down from here?

I have no idea. I have said in the past that what had happened aŌer Covid was that there was a wave of digiƟzaƟon that led to massive growth in IT hiring, and then things slowed down suddenly. And a lot of companies, including ours, were caught napping. We had all overhired, and we had built a bench, and then over Ɵme, people got rid of their benches. They did not replace the people who were leaving. Now, at least all of us are at a point where if people leave, as long as we want to maintain the headcount we will need to replace them. So at least replacement hiring has started in all companies. In most companies, campus hiring is also picking up everywhere. Now, there are a lot of unknowns. There is a lot that will depend on how much business picks up for IT companies going forward. I don't know how this will play out. What we have seen over the last few quarters is that our Jobspeak index and our business has improved quarter on quarter. We were perhaps flat four quarters ago, and from there, we are now at plus 15 percent levels. Recruitment firms were negaƟve perhaps four quarters back. Now, they’re growing at least 9%. So if this momentum conƟnues, then things will look up from here on.

Vijit Jain, CiƟ: My second quesƟon is, just looking at the customer base, there's a double digit growth there for the first Ɵme again in a while. Is that partly benefiƟng from all those new ciƟes you went into, new office openings? Is that playing a role into it? If you can talk a liƩle bit about some of these newer customers that you've onboarded? If there's anything different about these?

The economy is growing and there are more companies doing business than earlier. We conƟnue to reach as many companies as we can. We've opened new offices, like you said. That's also helping.

We are geƫng more inquiries online than earlier so we have a have a whole setup to convert all these inquiries into customers over Ɵme. So, in a growing market, in a growing economy, normally customer acquisiƟon also grows, pricing also gets beƩer, and exisƟng customer customers also hire more. The market we are in right now is perhaps a moderate market. It's neither hot nor cold. It's a business as usual in most sectors.

Vijit Jain, CiƟ: Thank you so much. Those are my quesƟons. Thank you Hitesh. Thank you everyone.

Sachin Salgaonkar, BoFA: Congrats on a great set of numbers. My first quesƟon is on a 99Acres. Hitesh we consistently seen margin improvement out here. Looks like, compeƟƟve intensity is also not as intense the way it was in the past. Looking at the current trends and some of the new products that you're looking to launch.

Is it fair to assume that going ahead this margin should be in a consistent posiƟve territory? And again? Any general thoughts on what could be the steady state margin in this business?

Sachin Salgaonkar, BoFA: Any general thoughts on steady state margin, looking at your peers in other countries?

Sachin Salgaonkar, BoFA: Thank you Sanjeev. PreƩy clear out there. Moving on to my second quesƟon. This is about AI and, thanks for highlighƟng some of the ways you guys are looking to use AI. QuesƟon out here is, let's say from the next 12 to 18 months perspecƟve, should we see more benefits on the revenue part with new products being launched or more benefits on the cost side with a bit more efficiency being uƟlized?

the Naukri plaƞorm is a lot beƩer than earlier. The matching is a lot beƩer now. All these things help in the long run. In the end, what happens as a result of all this is that more people get hired or more people find matches, through your plaƞorm and somewhere this is correlated to revenue. So one can't say, this is having a direct impact on revenue because we don't charge on this basis and it's not a new offering. It's not a new product. But as your plaƞorms become smarter, it becomes more efficient as more people get hired through you, or more houses get bought through you, or more people get married through you.

Somewhere, it does reflect in revenue. So this is something which we have been doing for a while now and we've been very successful at. Now, of course we are also trying to develop new features and new products using AI and data. For example, someƟme back we launched, talent pulse offering in Naukri. Since then, we've expanded the suite of data products. We do get revenue some revenue from this suite of products we took to market a couple of years ago and we are working on building new products as well. But on new products, it's very hard to predict whether they will be successful or not when we take them to market. So efforts are on.

But the other piece, which is, using AI to become more efficient, using AI to become faster, using AI to enhance exisƟng offerings, that agenda will conƟnue.

Sachin Salgaonkar, BoFA: Okay. So your standalone margins should conƟnue to move up because of the AI led iniƟaƟves going ahead.

Standalone margins in exisƟng offerings? Yes, as long as we're able to get revenue growth it is also a funcƟon of the market, compeƟƟon and many other things. Are we geƫng more efficient at delivering the same stuff? Yes.

Sachin Salgaonkar, BoFA: My last quesƟon is on GCCs. On the ground checks do indicate that in last 6 to 9 months, we are seeing some good hiring happening around GCCs. By the looks of it, the trend does indicate that the hiring out here is picking up. DirecƟonally, I know this was a relaƟvely a smaller opportunity as compared to some of the IT services and others. But has this a potenƟal of becoming much bigger than what it was in the past from opportunity perspecƟve?

Yes, I'll tell you why. It will depend on how fast GCCs grow and how big they become. GCCs when they start, they start small. They don't use us. So when they set up shop in the country for the first couple of years most GCS start small. They may start with 50-100 people and then over Ɵme scale up to 200- 300. Till then, they don't really depend on us for hiring. It's when they start scaling up is when they start using plaƞorms like Naukri a lot more. In the beginning, it's most of the hiring is done through headhunƟng firms and the likes.

Now the biggest GCCs in the country maybe employ 50,000 people. And then there are a bunch of small GCCs in the country which have maybe 50, 100, 200, 300, 500 people. Now, if the market conƟnues to grow rapidly and more importantly the exisƟng GCS start to grow rapidly. The ones who are at 100, if they want to go to 1000, the ones who are at 2000 decide to go to 10,000. Then that will really benefit our business. So the point I was making is not so much the number of GCCs. It's how much the exisƟng GCCs are likely to scale going forward, which maƩers more in the short term for us. Secondly, what we have seen is and I did talk about this a liƩle bit. We have revamped and relaunched our branding offerings, and, we are seeing good tracƟon in the market. There are lots of companies who are seƫng up shop and they're not known in the Indian market. So give or take, a couple of hundred companies. I don't think people know what the other companies out there do. So, we believe that the new GCCs will want to invest in brand building. They will want to invest in creaƟng awareness about who they are, what they do to aƩract good talent going forward. So, that is another opportunity which we see emerging in the medium term

Sachin Salgaonkar, BoFA: Thank you, All the best.

Vivekanand, Ambit: Hitesh, first quesƟon is on AI. I know you spoke about the good side of AI, but is there any tension that you get from AI or LLMs being disrupƟve to recruitment? Because your current model is on Rs. per resume moneƟzaƟon. It is soluƟons oriented. But there is sƟll an element of card rate and you give discounts and people searching through the database. Now, what if the way technology evolves and doesn't require the number of searches that are currently needed, the number of CV views?

So far, we haven't seen anything. We worry more about the impact of AI on jobs, which could impact our business. But that again is a debatable topic. Some people think AI will result in more jobs geƫng created.

Some people feel AI will result in jobs going away. So I don't have an answer to that quesƟon. But on the technology side, AI can be disrupƟve. We are invesƟng aggressively to see how we can leverage it for our benefit. Business models could evolve over Ɵme.

Vivekanand, Ambit: Sanjeev, just on another thousand crore investment that is being planned in the AIFs. How much of your total Rs.3400 crore investment commiƩed by the Aifs has been deployed? How many startups have been incubated across the three AIFs and is there any thought around recycling capital from your prior successful investments or even the AIFs themselves some of which are quite mature?

So I would say non-strategic investments total would be ever done from 2007 onwards, whether through AIF or balance sheet or subsidiaries would be in the region of 120 plus approximately. Do we look at recycling?

Yes, we do. But the point is that it's as and when exits happen and early stage invesƟng and we'd like to be first cheques in the companies. Early stage invesƟng oŌen takes 8-20-12 years to mature and give you a possibility of an exit. At the same Ɵme, we like to hold on as long as possible. As long as there's enough growth and momentum in the company, as is the case in Zomato and Policybazaar. Because, what we also believe fundamentally is that if you have an investment in a company, you possibly have a future if you exit and take out cash, you've only got cash, and cash has no future other than 6%. At the same Ɵme, you could lose money if you make the wrong investments. We are cognizant of that. We are aware. We are conscious. We conƟnue to invest. The operaƟng business generates money. Some of that goes into investments and much of it does not.

Typically, when we do an AIF, roughly about 40 to 50% of the investable capital, is earmarked for first cheques into companies. The remaining 50 or 60% is for follow-on investments in the same companies. When we run out of first cheque money, which is within 3 to 4 years of launching an AIF. That is when we launch a new AIF.

So it's not as if the older funds don't have money. They have money, but that's earmarked for follow-ons in the old porƞolio.

Vivekanand, Ambit: Did I get the Ɵming right? The first cheques are typically deployed in 2 to 3 years of the AIF being launched and then subsequent funding happens as capital calls.

Maybe three years, someƟmes four years, but within three years, typically.

Vivekanand, Ambit: That's helpful. Last quesƟon, Hitesh on the non-IT recruitment revenue opportunity from your vantage point. How big a revenue pool is there for you in the non-IT recruitment segment? I know you have menƟoned in the past that there are discounts that you give which are perhaps necessary for you to penetrate that market and acquire more users. You also menƟoned that there's a lot of self-serve acƟvity happening that people are logging on to your portal and becoming customers of Naukri directly. So can you walk us through how big can non-IT recruitment be in dollar terms or in terms of size of revenue pool, five years, ten years from now on?

Non-IT is more indexed to the domesƟc economy as opposed to IT which is more indexed to what happens globally. So that's what we've seen in the past. If the domesƟc economy conƟnues to grow at 6- 6.5% per annum, unless we get new compeƟƟon, unless something changes, historically we've seen that business is able to grow at 20% plus. Partly like I said it's because of new customer addiƟons and partly it is because we are able to get price increases in a hot market, and partly it is because from exisƟng customers there's more volume. So that's what we've seen in the past. Now, this assumes that nothing much changes in the world outside and compeƟƟve situaƟon remains the same and we don't launch new products and so on and so forth.

So you can do the math. Five years from now, if the Indian economy conƟnues to grow at 6-7% per annum, then this is what is likely to happen. Of course, with AI, we're trying to launch new features, new products.

We're trying to make the plaƞorm more efficient. In the past, I've always said that our plaƞorm is not as efficient for non-IT hiring as it is for IT. There's an opportunity there if you can fix some of those things and we conƟnue to work on those pieces.

Vivekanand, Ambit: Just one last doubt that I had on the Jobspeak disclosures. The Jobspeak data now captures the indexed searches as well by recruiters. And typically searches translate into resume views which then straight away is accounted for in the database revenue that you have. So ideally the disclosures now the jobspeak that we get now should correlate more to recruitment billing right? But what we see is that the recruitment billing tends to grow much faster or maybe is much less volaƟle than jobspeak. Why is that so?

And what are the other variables here that Jobspeak isn't yet capturing?

You're right, a lot of the recruitment acƟvity on the core plaƞorm is geƫng captured in job speak a lot beƩer than earlier. In addiƟon to this, like I menƟoned in the call, we have all these new products and services, adjacent businesses which have nothing to do with job speak. If we are growing in the Gulf or if the Hirist plaƞorm grows faster in a parƟcular quarter or if iimjobs does beƩer or if the candidate services business grows faster or if our branding soluƟons for example even on the core plaƞorm are growing faster than the main business and that will not get reflected in job speak. In a hot market, it's easy to take pricing up.

On the other hand, the opposite can happen in a slow market so if job speak starts to move up and climb rapidly, then theoreƟcally it should be possible for us to take price increases as well. The reverse may happen on the way down. I'm sure there is some correlaƟon, but there are many other factors as well which impact billing in a parƟcular quarter.

Vivekanand, Ambit: Understood, Thanks a lot for elaborate answers to my quesƟons and all the very best.

Ankur Rudra, JPM: The first quesƟon is IT billings growth number of 16%. How much of this came from the GCCs versus the IT companies this Ɵme? Was there a parƟcular trend on one side versus the other?

Ankur Rudra, JPM: I know but from a flavor perspecƟve is one stronger than the other are you seeing one segment

Anecdotally, what I can tell you is that GCCs are perhaps growing faster for us but we haven't looked at the numbers.

Ankur Rudra, JPM: Are these larger GCCs that have begun to hire now in a big way, or are these newer GCCs?

Yes, a lot of the large GCCs had frozen hiring. Some of them have started hiring again.

Ankur Rudra, JPM: Thank you. If the growth momentum conƟnues the way it is we haven't really had meaningful amount of price increases for the last couple of years. Is there a chance we might take a meaningful price increase in calendar 25?

Only if we have a hot market for hiring. We are focused on customer acquisiƟon in the core Naukri business and in growing our adjacent businesses faster and higher penetraƟon for those products. If the job market becomes hoƩer than it is today and talent becomes hard to get, then that makes it easier for us to take price increases.

Ankur Rudra, JPM: Last quesƟon is on the new fund. Is there any change in the mandated focus versus the previous funds?

Ankur Rudra, JPM: Okay. No change in terms of what you'll go aŌer with an early stage tech also?

Within early stage tech, will depend on the market is like. The way we do it is we don't do it top down. We do it boƩom up. We meet a few hundred companies. We look at a few hundred companies a quarter and then decide to invest in 2 or 3. So we'll see what's bubbling up from underneath and then we'll take a call. But in general, a few trends are emerging. I think it's preƩy clear that AI is going everywhere. So no maƩer which sector, which company you invest in there will be an element of AI in there.

Ankur Rudra, JPM: Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Nikhil Chaudhary, Nuvama: Hitesh, first one on the recruitment side. We have seen some data point especially on JobSpeak, some slowdown, especially on the hiring data. Last two-three months had been quite muted compared to the acceleraƟon we were seeing in earlier months. And second, on the non-IT side, while most of the companies are calling out some slowdown due to macro and other stuff, we have seen our non-IT remain very resilient. So just color on overall demand outlook, especially for Q4, which is one of the most important quarter for us. We had a favorable base for first nine months. While Q4 won't be the same, we saw acceleraƟon in Q4 of the last year. So do you think demand conƟnue to improve and we would be able to deliver, let's say, mid-teen double digit growth or even higher in coming quarters?

know. I mean, it's a liƩle unpredictable on the whole. It seems like the market is stable. It's not neither moving up nor moving nor going down from where it was three months back.

Nikhil Chaudhary, Nuvama: Second One, bit on medium term. We have seen IT companies for the first Ɵme this quarter talking about their efficiency is finally coming and they expect finally they will have disconnect between hiring and revenue growth, while for the last decade, it was broadly the same. For the first Ɵme, there is a comment. This will lead to change in the business model with revenue per employee going up compared to employee addiƟons. Do you think we also need to reinvent or might need to change our business model, especially in light with AI efficiency coming in one of the biggest market for us?

We have been invesƟng in AI for a while now. And, the earlier it was classical machine learning and now it is more AI as well. We are also looking at AgenƟc AI to see what we can do with it. So one is, of course, we are trying to make our processes more efficient. In some areas we are managing with fewer people.

In other areas, we are trying to get people to deliver faster. What used to take six months, can it be done in two months or three months? In other areas, we are seeing opportunity and we are hiring people to benefit from those opportuniƟes which AI has made possible which were perhaps not possible earlier. So, where will we end up as a result of all this? I don't know. I guess where Indian IT companies will also end up will be a funcƟon of where they see opportunity. How much they want to invest in those opportuniƟes and there will be some areas where they will become more efficient as well.

Nikhil Chaudhary, Nuvama: Just last point in terms of while I agree what Sanjeev said that it's difficult to predict the margin of business like 99Acres. Thus want to understand, you as a management would like to keep margin of non-recruitment businesses at a breakeven level or internally you would like to focus on making it further more profitable?

The way we operate is we look at where we can invest. We look for ideas, we look for opportuniƟes, and then we try and make those ideas happen. For example, we are invesƟng aggressively behind our blue collar business. We are invesƟng more and more with every passing year. We started moneƟzing it a few months back. And we are losing a lot of money right now. But we see an opportunity, so we are likely to increase our investment going forward in the blue collar business knowing very well that it will not generate a lot of revenue in the short term. Similarly, in 99Acres, there are areas where we see opportunity.

We are going to invest a lot more than we were earlier invesƟng earlier. We will not be irraƟonal. It's more idea driven. It's more insight driven. And the margin that we will end up with is going to be a funcƟon of what revenue growth is going to be like aŌer making these investments, which is harder to predict. So that's how we operate. Now whether we want to make money in the business. Of course you would want to make money.

Would we want to make it and get higher margins? Of course you want to get higher margins, but not, if we think it is going to hurt the business in the long run.

Nikhil Chaudhary, Nuvama: Thanks a lot and good luck for the coming period.

Abhisek Banerjee, ICICI: Thanks for improving the quality of disclosures every single quarter. The new presentaƟon is really helpful. Most of my quesƟons have been answered. Just to add a couple of bookkeeping type quesƟons. One is, if you, see the nine months of FY 25, what would you see the average realizaƟon improvement from per client? How much has come of addiƟon of new clients, in terms of recruitment revenues?

Abhisek Banerjee, ICICI: Understood. But I was trying to understand last Ɵme he had actually called out that despite not taking price increases per se, there was a realizaƟon improvement which happened because companies were hiring more senior people. So is that trend sƟll conƟnuing? That is what I was actually trying to get to.

Abhisek Banerjee, ICICI: Understood and one more point is that we saw excepƟonal loss of about 60 crores which was menƟoned on account of something moving from being a subsidiary to lisƟng an investment instrument. So, why the loss was recognized. I mean, is there a down round which happened? If you just could explain that part beƩer.

Abhisek Banerjee, ICICI: Got it. Thanks and in terms of the demand outlook in the recruitment business. If you look at the total number of headcounts in the top it firms, about the top ten IT firms in FY 24. Probably that number has gone down about 4%. Right and there was a lot of stuff wriƩen there and in terms of improvements from AI. People have oŌen quoted a number of about 20% improvement in efficiency. So do you really see there is more room for jobs to be cut?

There are many big tech companies that may be cuƫng headcount in some areas. They're hiring in other areas.

So that's also happening. Our revenue is a funcƟon of gross hiring not net hiring. So if aƩriƟon rates move up for some reason, that also benefits us. Even though the company stays at the same headcount, but the aƩriƟon rate starts to climb, for some reason, it could be that GCCs start hiring from IT services companies and IT

services companies are forced to replace the people who are leaving. That also helps us because it's a funcƟon of gross hiring and not net hiring.

Abhisek Banerjee, ICICI: This is very helpful. Thank you so much.

Amit Chandra, HDFC: My quesƟon is on the recruitment segment. You menƟoned that you're invesƟng in the plaƞorm which is a blue collar hiring plaƞorm with JobHai. As of now, in terms of the revenue contribuƟon, what is the contribuƟon of JobHai and AmbiƟonBox in terms of overall revenue and billings? Also we are seeing that the billings growth for the iimjobs, NaukriGulf and Naukri Fast forward is much higher than what we are having at the consolidated level in the recruitment segment so if you can elaborate more in terms of what are the opportuniƟes that we see in the medium term here? You menƟoned about lot of AI being offered so in terms of the pricing impact. How we are seeing AI impacƟng from the pricing perspecƟve? The increase in the realizaƟon that we're seeing is mostly AI?

Some of these verƟcals have been growing faster than the core business because the core business was very slow for the first few quarters. And in some of these verƟcals not in all of them, for example, the fast forward business is more job seeker oriented. There is a penetraƟon game also which is sƟll playing out. So it's not as if we are alike the naukri business where penetraƟon levels are very high. Here in some of these verƟcals penetraƟon levels are low. So we are trying to get more and more customers onto our plaƞorm as well. We will aspire to and want to grow these adjacent verƟcals at a faster clip than the core Naukri business. As far as AI concerned, it is mostly being deployed on the core plaƞorm. If you do a good job then what should happen as a result of that deployment is that our plaƞorm should become more efficient and more effecƟve. If companies were hiring maybe 40 out of 100 people through our plaƞorm earlier, we should be able to take this number from 40 to 45 or 50, number one. Number two, we should be able to help them save Ɵme as well and get them to hire people faster because they should be able to find the right candidates faster. Now, this is a journey. It's not as if we change the algorithm and things start to work. We have to keep iteraƟng, keep tesƟng, keep deploying new stuff, see what's working and what's not working. We get feedback, we change things, etc. But we have been invesƟng and we've seen some good results. So as pricing is concerned, we are not charging extra for AI. Right now we are offering it to everybody. And what I have said earlier, it's not easy.

We've seen at least over Ɵme is that it's not easy to take prices up in a in a regular market. We can get a 3 or 4% increase. It's hard to get more than that in a regular market or in a slow market. Of course, you end up discounƟng less once the market starts to improve, then it's possible to take higher increases.

Amit Chandra, HDFC: My last quesƟon on the 99Acres plaƞorm. We are seeing improvement in terms of billing and profitability there. We are seeing the best phase of the real estate market. Despite that we have not been able to moneƟze on that. Billings from the new project lisƟng is not up there as we would have intended to be, so what's not working out there?

Let me break this up at a very high level. There is a new home market and there is a secondary market. Within secondary, I'm including the rental market. So the resale and rental market conƟnues to do well for us and our business has been growing at a reasonably healthy rate. And, we are perhaps gaining share in that segment as well. But it's less than half our business. The new home market has been hot. Within the new home market, there is a new launch market, which is perhaps what you're referring to and then there is

a regular sale of under-construcƟon homes market (projects which were launched maybe a year ago, two years ago, three years ago). We don't really have a very big play in the new launch space. So that market is actually currently not with us. It's with Facebook, it's with Instagram, it's with Google. We have a very Ɵny share. Not just us but all real estate portals have a very Ɵny share of that market. We are working hard to see how we can increase our share in that market. Within that market also where we have seen a flurry of acƟvity in premium housing. In fact, affordable housing has been slow right throughout the country. It's not as if the affordable housing market is very hot. It's actually perhaps easier to launch and sell five crore apartments than it is to sell an apartment for 70 lakhs, 80 lakhs, 1 crore right now. I know there's a lot of buzz around real estate and prices have moved up and so on in some markets. But it's not as if every segment of that market is doing well. We conƟnue to do well in the secondary market. We conƟnue to do well in under-construcƟon homes. We sƟll have a long way to go before we crack the new launch market which is where the big tech companies do really well.

Amit Chandra, HDFC: Yeah understood. Thank you thank you and all the best.

very different. So all that goes into the calculaƟon or the judgment that helps us. Like Sanjeev said that on a on a very prudent basis and on a very conservaƟve basis, we take the most conservaƟve view of what is happening.

The first quesƟon - any plans to enter into new lines of business?

Who knows what is going to happen a year or two down the line.