Info Edge (India) Ltd, the owner of jobs classifieds site naukri.com, expects to end the current fiscal with a marginal negative sales growth despite a better March quarter, a top official said.
An economic slowdown since late 2008 had forced companies to put off their expansion plans, slash jobs and stop hiring, hitting the business of firms like Info Edge, which draws about 85% of its revenue from recruitment activity.
“My sense is we will still be negative (in sales growth for FY10), but in low single digits,” Info Edge COO Hitesh Oberoi told Reuters in an interview.
A strong rebound in the job market may result in higher March-quarter sales, compared with a year ago, he added.
Naukri Job Speak Index “” released every month by naukri.com which reflects hiring activity based on the jobs posted by recruiters on the website “” jumped 17% for February over January, showing a strong rebound in job market.
“It is still not back to how it was two years ago. It’s not that every company has started hiring people. But they have started replacing people for sure. And in certain sectors they are looking to hire aggressively,” Oberoi said.
“Fresh hiring (headcount addition) is still limited to 4-5 sector such as infrastructre, manufacturing, BPO, KPO. In IT, financial services and insurance, it is still replacement hiring due to attrition,” he said.
Naukri.com, which competes with monster.com and timesjobs.com, has come out stronger out of the downturn in terms of website traffic marketshare, adding about 13% to take it to 61%, Oberoi said.
Naukri.com had the advantage of being market leader as it attracted more job postings even during the downturn as recruiters shrank their budget and the number of sites they planned to advertise on, he said.
Aggressive plans
Jeevansathi.com, a matrimonial site in Info Edge portfolio, was not hit by the downturn and has broken even in the past two quarters, Oberoi said.
“Even though we may have broken even now, we may go into losses as we want to increase our market share.”
99acres.com, the company’s property portal, is still losing money.
With 3.5 billion rupees in cash reserves, the company is planning to invest in more ‘consumer internet’ ventures that can increase its market share or add value to its current businesses or give it an entry into new areas.
Shares in Info Edge ended the day 1.27% down at Rs 891 in a Mumbai market that ended up 0.17%.
March 25, 2010
source: moneycontrol.com