Brightcom Group Limited (532368) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Bharti, and I will be the moderator for this conference. Welcome to the Brightcom Group Limited Investor Conference Call. The duration of this call will be for 45 minutes. [Operator Instructions] Today, we have with us our Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Suresh Reddy; Y. Srinivasa Rao, who is our Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Manohar, our Company Secretary. Before we go to the conference, I'd like to mention that during the conference call, certain statements in this release reflect company's future growth process and forward-looking statements, which involve number of risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially that those in such forward-looking statements. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company. Now I would like to hand over the conference to Mr. Y. Srinivasa Rao, who will now talk about the financial statements. Thank you, sir. Over to you.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure to speak to you all again. So now I briefly explain the matters relating to the financial under some consolidated questions from the investors. In Q4 of financial year 2021, revenue was INR 2,855.8 crores, reaching a growth of 6.07% on year-on-year. EBITDA for the financial year 2021 was [ INR 800.652 crores ] reaching a growth of 10.37% on year-on-year. PAT for the financial year 2021 was INR 483.01 crores, reaching a growth of 9.1% year-on-year. Revenue from Digital Marketing segment for the year 2021 was INR 2,494.84 crores, showing a growth of 9.68% on year-on-year. And the revenue from Software segment was INR 365.96 crores. This is the information on the annual basis. When we come to the quarterly results, the revenue for the quarter 4 of financial year 2021 was INR 699.36 crores, reaching a growth of 11.32% on a year-on-year basis compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The EBITDA for the Q4 2021 was INR 245.2 crores, reaching a growth of 19.16% on a year-on-year basis compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. That is the [indiscernible] for Q4 of 2021 was INR 134, reaching a growth of 30.08% on a year-on-year basis. When we compare the numbers from '20 March to '21 March, we have shown a very good performance. Then we come to the segment revenue. The revenue from retail marketing segment for the Q4 of 2021 was INR 616 crores, an increase of 22.2% on a year-on-year basis. Similarly, profit before tax from Digital Marketing segment for Q4 of 2021 was INR 180 crores, reaching a growth of 17.87% on year-on-year basis. Revenue from Software segment for Q4 of 2021 was INR 82.58 crores. This was briefly the financial numbers for the Q4 of the company. We have received some questions through mail from the investor. I'll briefly [ respond to ] all your question. First one is accounting receivables. When we come to the accounting receivables, our receivables for the year is INR 1,111 crores. Out of that, Digital is INR 937 crores and Software is 182 crores. Next one is can one person -- one person care about -- to explain the difference between the accounting receivables and other receivables. The accounting receivables are pertaining to sales and the amount receivable from the customers against the sale. On the other hand, other receivables are expenses paid in advance, like payments made to publisher, insurance premium payments made for the [indiscernible]. As for the accounting standard issued by the Ministry of [ Corporate Affairs ] of India or the MCA, we classified all other expenditure as per demand. Next one is regarding other revenue. In our financials, we have shown other income next to the sale. During this year, we have repaid total loans to Axis Bank on the closure of loan regards from interest saving. Apart from this, during this year, we got some farm [indiscernible] on our farm construction. We are aware that we are predominantly doing export sales in farm currently. So we gained some farm [ expenses ]. And we received some interest on [ fixed prices ] with the bank. All these 3 put together are shown as other income. Next one is regarding noncurrent assets and current assets, additional clarification. As for the accounting standard issued by the Ministry of [ Corporate Affairs ] of India, we need to classify the assets as current assets. When the asset are cash or cash equivalents are expected to be realized or settle within a period of 3 months after the reporting period. Primarily, it is certainly within the normal operating cycle like media advances and advances for expenses, et cetera. On the other hand, if any asset are securities which are settled or cleared after a period of 12 months from the reporting period that is [ 31 March ] is treated as noncurrent assets, like advances given of our [indiscernible] fixed assets, our deferred tax assets. It will be from the prior government [ department ]. Next one is acquisition strategy. We want to have a broadly [indiscernible] strategy as follows. One, as of today, we are doing around $390 million U.S. business. Once we cross the revenue of $450 million from the organic growth we start the acquisition of companies. In the recent years, we have spent a considerable amount for product development, which are fixed in nature. I'm going to give benefits for a period of next 4 to 5 years. We can get a good amount of savings from this area. I mean we are going to get the fruits out of the amount spent in the earlier years. Next one is we have paid all the bank loans, and our company is debt-free. There will be a good amount of savings from [ interest ] [indiscernible]. Next one is the new acquisition strategy is implemented fast in the holding company level. On a next [indiscernible], we are going to do with the [ subsidiary ]. As you are aware, all the subsidiary companies are 100% controlled. Our ownership base is held by the holding company. Later on, we start diluting some percentage at sublevel also, which will help us to bring new acquisitions. All these factors will help us to accumulate sufficient cash reserve for a period of time to acquire the new companies. This is briefly what is your request from the finance department. Now I hand over the floor to Mr. Suresh Kumar Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director.

Thank you, Y. Srinivasa Rao. That was a very good, long, probably one of the longest updates from -- I think they are quite interesting questions and nicely addressed. If there are further questions, we can take them later on. So that aside, I'd like to welcome all the members on to the call. We are -- this is the period of celebration for the company for various reasons, including a spectacular quarterly result of the March end when you compare to year-on-year. There are 2 things there. While what you might have not seen completely, the revenue increased from same quarter last year to this year of 11%. The profit increase from last year to this year is 30%. So what it goes to say is, one, is the sales guys have done a great job bringing additional business. And the operations have done a phenomenal job in optimizing profit. So we are very pleased, and we would like to do things in the same way going forward. And of course, we did have a little contribution from some of the debt repayments that came through. Important thing, yes, this year is we have paid off -- we had 3 large loans from 3 Indian banks, and that was the extent of debt we had. And over a period of time, we've paid out everything. The last payment was to Axis Bank. We closed that account on March 1 of this year. So we are proud to announce we are a debt-free company now. And coming to the other things, as a family, Brightcom family, we have -- we continue to grow. We have now grown further from our last call. We have -- the number as of end of June, I always -- that's very fascinating to me, I always check that. It's 79,725, almost 80,000. So we are getting stronger and stronger. So it says about a lot of things going right and gaining a lot of confidence of the investors across the spectrum. So -- and so I'm very excited to welcome all the new members into the Brightcom family and lovingly called BCG by a lot of us. And there are a lot of stories around that, and [ pray tell ] you might have seen and somebody pointed out to me in one of the WhatsApp messages. I found it funny, but it's good. So these are some of the things that are happening. For the newcomers, I would just like to briefly touch, though we have talked about the history of the company and what we stand for. I'll just briefly touch, maybe a couple of minutes, about what Brightcom Group is all about, where did we start, how did we get to where we are today and what are we doing. So these are the points that I just like to touch briefly, and then we'll get into the business of explaining further. We basically started this company in the U.S. under the name USAGreetings.com, used to be an online greeting card company. And then we have gone through various cycles and situations and changes. And by 2006, '07, we became a digital marketing back-end company called Ybrant Technology. We were about $10 million revenue from '98 to 2006, '07 time frame. Post that, we adopted a strategy of growth. I think we are at a very similar stage today, so I'll talk about that later on. Where we are now cleared out everything, now ready for new fresh breadth and trying to -- we have all the basics in place, very similar time frame. And at that time, we went from a $10 million business to a $100 million business in the next 4 years. By 2010, top line grew of course, organic, inorganic altogether. And we also raised private equity of $100 million. And the business really grew tenfold. So we -- just to give a sense that we have gone through a similar cycle and we are now excited to look at something like that going forward. So that is something I wanted to bring to notice of all the new investors who are coming onboard. Today, we are a $390 million business top line. We have 14 subsidiaries. We are out of more than 22 countries actually with partners all put together, and we have business coming from almost 40 countries. And another tidbit to remember is we basically are doing close to 60 billion to 70 billion impressions per month. And I'll talk a little bit about our business. Basically, impression is an ad-serving opportunity. So that is across our network. So it has been thanks to a lot of things that have changed in the last 2 years in the world, a lot more digital, a lot more people are staying home, a lot more people are spending -- consuming media through the digital medium per se. So coming to our specialization. Our bread and butter today has been and will continue to remain advertising to digital media. We have innovated, we have transformed, we have done a lot of things. We pride ourselves as an end-to-end digital marketing company, whose specialty is monetizing international traffic for U.S. publishers. So that's how we came to power, but now we have gone beyond that. On top of it, our eyes get wider when we hear about AI and ML, and we have started to work on that. Very early stage. We have some strategy, some ideas, and I'll share that as we go. So this is broadly what we are and where we came from. So with that, I would try and address some of the questions that came through, then we can open up for further questions. A lot of your questions were sent this time through e-mail. So just a moment, I'm just opening this list. Hold on, please.

Yes. So there have been questions about growth rate. Yes, I think people did notice that there has been a significant growth rate on the profit from last year same quarter to this year. The question is, are we going to experience a similar growth rate? Definitely, I -- we are looking at a similar one right now. There's no 2 thoughts. We have all the ducks lined up, if you may, from the operations and from the organic growth perspective. All the things are set, all the things are in place to start taking up that kind of growth. And we are continuing to see more and more growth in the industry itself. Along with it, we are also trying to push a little further, both on sales and interim efficiencies. So that is number one. Next is coming to -- there's a question about our famous line of credit. There's a lot of discussion on that in the past. And is it required? Are we still pursuing the line of credit approach to grow the business? What is the plan? Let me give you some context here. The idea here is we are a very cash flow -- a very required kind of a business. We require business -- we require more money to do more business continuously because there is a gap between the time we receive funds to the time we pay. We pay every month, whereas we receive funds in 3, 4 months. And hence, there is a lot of money usually locked up in our receivables. So that, at some point, becomes a bottleneck. And we always kind of try to work through that and figure out again. Hence, we decided to get a nice line of credit which will free us up because as of today, we are leaving close to 30% on the table. That is -- it's -- we don't feel good about it. We think we can do a lot more. So it's an important thing to get the line of credit in place. However, we've -- since our last round, which we are supposed to almost sign in January last year, we figured that the terms could be a lot better had we have a company which is valued better, has a more solid growth trajectory from a value perspective. So we decided to stall that and revisit that maybe in the next quarter or 2. So it is definitely on the cards, except that we decided to take a step back, fix a few things where we are related as a company as the value of the business, so that we could do a lot more things to get noticed and to be in a better position to come -- to get this line of credit from better lenders as opposed to the more expensive ones, if you may. So that is the reason where we have decided to postpone that a little bit. And then there was a question regarding privacy concerns. And that's a very hot topic right now. We've always been extremely careful on that front. And there have also been Google and Facebook coming out with new ways of making announcements about cookie-based issues and such. So we have expected this as a company now for a few years. We've already been investing and improving publisher relationships and getting better data on the people visiting. So it is very important to have that connect. If you'll notice, whether through our automated platform or other ways, we have been improving our ties to the publishers significantly, and we've also built better tech platforms to overcome these concerns, both from a privacy concern, both from a nonexistent cookie. How we go about this? The operating team is absolutely on top of this issue, and we are starting a few initiatives, and we will announce them as they come. We are always looking at improving quality of the traffic. I think we've done, like, for example, our Protector product has been fantastic on that front. Where you avoid -- you actually give clean quality traffic to your advertisers, which actually puts rates and puts the brand of the company at a higher level. This has actually helped quite a bit. So that's broadly the idea. And we will try and send out a note later in the next -- trying to address this so that we can have a more detailed explanation. I don't want to occupy the entire call on that. It's a -- I can tell you that it is solidly addressed for sure. Then coming to bonus shares. I would -- I have the company secretary online, Mr. Manohar, he can give a quick sense on the bonus shares, where we stand. And I will address the EPS drop versus fee improvement issue once he's done. So Manohar, if you're on the call, kindly just give a sense on the bonus shares, please?

Sure, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, everyone. So in the outcome of the Board meeting that was held on 28th of June 2021, the Board has declared, considered approved and recommended an issue of 1:4 bonus shares. That is 1 bonus share for every 4 equity shares held by the equity shareholders of the company. So along with that bonus issue, we have other 4 -- other 3 resolutions that are going to be sent to the shareholders through postal ballot. So the postal ballot notice will be circulated earlier next week, so that we will have the voting results open -- I mean voting the -- time open for the shareholders for a period of 30 days from then. And the other 3 resolutions that the Board has approved is the -- increasing the authorized share capital of the company to INR 300 crores. And the alteration of memorandum of [ association ] of the company to [ INR 30 crores ] and the issue of bonus shares that is in the ratio of 1:4, as I mentioned, and then raising of funds. So all these resolutions will be sent to the shareholders for their approval through the postal ballot notice next week. So in the meanwhile, we will apply for the requisite approvals from the stock exchanges and the issue of bonus shares will be closed on or before the 27th of August, as we have already mentioned in the outcome of the Board meeting.

There has been a question, Manohar, as to what will be the target date. So maybe, I don't know, what is reporting -- report date, I think. What is the exact technical term. You can probably dwell on that a little bit, please?

Yes. The record date would be somewhere between -- because after we obtained the shareholders' approval, we will announce the results of the postal ballot on or before 7th of August. So after obtaining the shareholders' resolution -- shareholders' approval, I mean, after obtaining the shareholders' approval, we will have another Board meeting wherein the Board will -- I mean -- decide the record date which will actually decide the record date wherein -- it will decide the eligible criteria of the shareholder. So it will be...

So most probably that would be that date and the deadline that we have, correct?

Exactly. So that would be somewhere between the second week of August. Yes, sir.

Okay. Great. So just -- if you had anything else or should I take over?

Yes. Please take over, sir. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much, Manohar. Coming to the bonus shares. There's been just -- everybody has been quite happy, from what I can see in the market. I think it has been welcomed. We -- I mean we are very happy to give back to people who have believed in the stock through all the rough period it has gone through. So that was the main intent behind that. That said, there have been some technical questions with respect to what about the EPS dropping once you do the bonus shares. And my answer to that is look at the multiple today, right? We are looking at the P/E multiple. From that perspective, if you really want to technical to technical, we have improved the P/E multiple by 25%. Without blinking in 1 day, it has gone up 25%, right? So I think it is a positive development. Plus, we are able to -- the market cap has gone up. So it also helps us. A lot of other things that we are thinking about even coming back to the LOC issuer I was talking about. So I think, yes, if you consider -- all things considered, I believe this is a positive move, and the Board also believes the same. And so we decided to go ahead with that. So I hope that answers that question. Okay. The next thing that came up was with respect to what is the strategy on stand-alone growth in India and what is the plan? When are we planning to do that? Our thinking is this year. We would like to do a few things to start growing the stand-alone business. And we have a few ideas, both from an organic perspective and inorganic perspective. We are evaluating a few targets on this front as we speak, and we will let you know once we have any progress there. Coming to Investor Relations issue, some calls not being addressed and some e-mails not being addressed and such. Yes, this has been persistent issue. I think we'll have to address it for sure. And I -- yes, I know we have promised this. It has improved significantly, but we will continue to work on it to improve it further. I do understand some of the challenges with the pandemic and staff all over and things like that, things -- also we couldn't completely make it crisp. We promise you that we'll [ remain extremely disciplined ] moving forward. In terms of communicating to the investor community. I think there's a lot of improvement. But when there are inbound calls and looking for responses, sometimes there have been issues and delays, so we will try to address that as well. We'll try to have a dedicated team to address that. So that is definitely something to work on, and I will update you on the next call. And the next question coming to Lycos Daum issue. As I mentioned in the past, this has been verbally settled, done and dusted a while ago now. We are just -- only thing pending is to make a payment and it will be out of our way, and I believe we are fairly close to that. And once it is done, we will inform the market. So there's nothing much to report on it. It's there, and we'll get it done. So there's nothing really to be concerned on that. There's also a question about a lot of competitors trying to work on connected TV and how does Brightcom address that. Connected TV, which is basically video ads -- within regular connected TV, there are video ads. On the digital videos across, which we are very active on, we've been working very well. But there has been a significant growth, especially in the U.S. on the video ad, which go into connected TV, are delivered programmatically. We have already been doing that. We are definitely part of that ecosystem right now through our Brightcom -- that was actually the name, Brightcom platform, that is how we started the name Brightcom. So that has been very much part of it. We have a clear market share there. The business itself has been growing and we are growing along with the business. We will try to start notching up on that. There are a few ideas on how to go about doing that, and the team is working on that. So I cannot tell anything beyond that for various competitive reasons, but there is significant effort there. You might see some quality of announcements we've been making from the operations side in [indiscernible]. Next question is with respect to digital audio. We did have an announcement that came out a few months ago about our interest to get more into digital audio. That is a new area and opportunity right now. It's like a wild west. There is a lot of interest and a lot of advertisers who are looking to get into it and without not -- and we don't have available publishers and traffic is there, but they're not able to connect to the staff. So there is clearly an opportunity. So we are out there. We -- from an operations perspective, you might have seen a webinar that came out, and I hear it went very well with our publishers, so they're all looking at that as an option. Plus, we have also been working on another very base level to set the framework for further acquisitions in this digital audio. So we are looking at one such company. And it is, again, in negotiations as we speak. And if there is some development there, we will surely inform the market through that. And now coming to the next question. Yes, that's about it. That's the questions I had. I might have missed a few. Let me check. I think that's all I had. So can we now open up for questions, Bharti?

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from [ Amita Ghosh ], an individual investor.

Congratulations on the good results.

Thank you.[indiscernible].

Thanks for the earlier [ fortification ] that Brightcom has been coming up with and updating the investor community. In particular, the one thing that is very interesting is that inorganic growth. Can you please highlight BCG's acquisition plans? And the potential of how many in the next year also?

Thank you. It's -- I -- we're not trying to do a count or anything like that, no. The core strategy, in general -- I don't want to go deeper into it, the core strategy in general is, where would we like to be as a company? And what are the things that we can internally grow? And what are the things that we need to buy? There's a choice between buy versus build. That is the thought process. And as an example, this year, for example, I've -- we've made an announcement as well with respect to audio, which is the Brightcom audio. And like I said, it's a wild west, the opportunities go. If we move quickly, we can establish ourselves as one of the leaders. And for us to start from scratch and build it and take it to a point, it may take a slightly longer time as opposed to bringing it maybe 1, 2, 3 acquisitions very quickly so that we establish ourselves as a key leader there. So that is one definite area that we are looking at. And it doesn't matter how many the numbers. The accounts doesn't matter, but it should get a few things. One, in terms of the business that we are [ related ] about 2 things. One is the reach, meaning how large is the network. Two is the technology, meaning how efficiently can we run that. And each subarea within digital advertising has their own variants of that. So hence, we will look at technology players, plus somebody who's got the reach. So our first acquisition would potentially be in something that will lay the basic platform to start. And then we will start adding -- swapping in other companies that will give us the reach in digital volume, that is for sure. And then other areas like I talked about during the question and answer is with respect to our India business. Yes, we need to -- we have some ideas on what to do there. And broadly, the company has worked this way. We have our front-end guys going out there, getting the business in terms of working with the end advertisers and publishers and winning that [indiscernible] and core platform is built there. And then the support and all the tech development in terms of back end is unfamiliar. And that's how the company started, as I talked to you. So we are looking to do something there to really enhance and create a robust back end where the front-end guys don't even have to think twice when they start scaling up. So it's very critical that we are -- we think that is important as well. But it depends. It depends on how things play out, right? Not everything will go as we planned, but we do have a few ideas on what to do there. Other areas that we are thinking about are with respect to geography. What are the geographies we can get into. And connected TV like some -- one of the questions that popped up is another area which, if we feel that we cannot build, we will look at buying. So this is broadly the idea. We will probably see us back in form between 2006 and '10 like I talked about. But let us see how it plays out. A lot of things have to fall in place, and we are very positive about it. I hope that answers your question, sir.

Yes.

Next question comes from [ Abhishek Manivasan ] from ABA Financial. Next question comes from [ Mr. Abhishek ].

Am I audible now?

Yes, yes, [ Mr. Abhishek ]. Welcome. Please go ahead with your...

Congrats, Mr. Reddy, on a stupendous performance.

Thank you, sir.

Okay. Domestically, the digital media performance is likely -- the industry size is likely to be tripled in -- by 2025. That's the industry analysis, right?

Correct. Yes, yes.

What is our plan to take our part in that? What is your stand on that?

Yes. Yes. This has been a tough -- definitely it's a tough area for us to crack the domestic market. It's funny because while we were a back-end company and we found experts in dealing with different markets, domestic market has not been easy to crack given the fact that it is primarily dominated by advertising agencies with their own internal systems plus some of the publishers themselves have been I think their own shop to do that. But things have changed now. So we used to be the exclusive advertising group for Microsoft in India. And we did that for a year. However, terms didn't work, so we moved on from there. So we understand to an extent, we are definitely trying to enhance that strength. So we have a few ideas right now. There may be a chance of an acquisition on that front as well, but I don't know yet. Right now my team has to come back to me and tell me the choice between buy versus build on that. But definitely, like you said, it's a great market to be in, and I'm sure that we will not get into it unless the profitability makes sense. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense to just get into the market for the sake of getting into it. So if the profitability is good, then definitely we're starting that. So right now, it is at that critical point where it's just turning very positive. Good point, sir.

Next question comes from [ Sunil K. Surin ], an individual investor.

Mr. Reddy, congratulations.

Thank you, [ Sunil ].

So it's been very nice. Our company is now debt-free, and I'm very glad to see that the markets are appropriately rerating right now.

Thank you, [ Sunil ], and thanks for the [indiscernible]

From the announcement to the Board, we are noting lots of developments happening, it seems again expecting. At this juncture, I would like to restate the question which was asked 5 years ago to yourself. That is, where will the famous J-curve growth come from in our portfolio?

Okay. Yes, yes, yes. We have been trying to find that J-curve for a while now. I think yes, it was -- I said that, yes, definitely, I said that. I think if you look at -- I'd like to digest a bit here, and then we can come back to your question. If you look at broad market between India and China and within digital, in the last 10 years, right, as the GDP or whatever, China has grown multiple fold. A lot of the growth came from digital. If you go back and check whether it is -- they call it the BAT right, whether it's Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and these have become massive trillion-dollar businesses, and they were not 10 years ago. And that is the same opportunity we at India have, I always believe that. We could be -- I mean if there are multinational -- I always have this argument with some of the people and they say, "No. No, this is a multinational." But as you know, there could be a multinational that could be based out of India and expand across the globe, plus have that kind of a growth. So that is a very core desire of mine to make Brightcom ride the J-curve. And where will it come from in our portfolio? Surely, I think it will come from all the digital expansion that is happening, plus it will come from the next-generation technologies that are coming into play. Whether it is broadly speaking, yes, you can say AI/ML, but there are a lot of nuanced things that are happening within that space, and we have been very closely studying them and observing them, and we have a few ideas on what to do. And the J-curve, in terms of that explosive revenue growth, where there is no stopping and free cash flow growth are typical, and we feel very strongly that it will happen to Brightcom and it's hard to pinpoint when. But definitely, I can tell you, these are the areas where it will happen. Plus, we have primarily been more to -- more of an expert when we are working with other businesses, other B2B business. And usually, the J-curve has happened in the world of the business to consumer, as the B2C side. So we will get there, and I think it's a matter of walking our steps, doing baby steps, doing the right thing. So we have sobered up since then, since 5 years ago, and we have done a few things to clean up and be more mature in how we are [indiscernible]. Thanks for bringing that to notice, [ Sunil ].

Next question comes from [ Sandra Raju ], an individual investor.

Okay. Although I have been in the market for a while, I am a new investor in Brightcom. I was doing some research. I'm going through the history of the company. Interestingly, I noticed sir, that the company has changed name from Ybrant Digital to Lycos Inc. to Brightcom Group over the period of 10 years. Could you please let me know as to why this was necessary?

Yes, yes, yes. I know this has been -- people have been asking this. Yes, I could have addressed it in my opening remarks. Yes, it's a good question. Usually, companies don't do name change unless there is a specific idea behind it. Nobody is planning to -- because at the end of the day, you should reflect -- your name should reflect what you stand for. So when we were Ybrant Digital, we were this strong back end, end-to-end digital marketing company that's growing. And post the Lycos acquisition, the Lycos brand actually, when we went out and when we were planning to open up new markets, whether it is in China, Taiwan or anywhere in the world or any place in Europe, we would say we are Ybrant Digital and we also own Lycos, right? So the doors would open up and say, "Wow, Lycos, that's an old one. I have worked on it. It was my first e-mail, this was at Lycos." So that brand recall was very powerful. So then we said, why don't we just name ourselves as Lycos, because that has got a solid brand recall, and it makes it so much easier for our sales guys to go out there and develop business. So that was the reason why we changed from Ybrant Digital to Lycos. As a founder of Ybrant Digital, that was a difficult call for me, but I did it in the interest of the business because the brand Lycos, they had spent a lots more money and had a lot more brand recall. And then from there, yes, a lot of things happened. As some of you are aware, we came to a situation where we got into a legal issue with the Lycos subsidiary and we didn't want this to be a hindrance. So hence, we had to figure out what else is our most branded, best brands that we have within our portfolio of products. So then we said, let's move to Brightcom. That is the reason why we changed -- because otherwise, we would have kept it as Lycos all the way. But then along the way, by then, for example, as Brightcom was our video platform, it was rated #1 in the world in terms of trust index and had huge recall with respect to -- when you're doing the business-to-business sales calls. So then we said, yes, let us name ourselves as Brightcom Group, and hence the name change. So these all have very specific reasons, and I don't think there will be any more name changes, touch wood, and I don't think it will be necessary because now the Brightcom name itself is gradually catching fire across the different customers that we have and publishers that we have.

Next question comes from [ Dan Sindecosta ], an individual investor.

Congrats for the numbers. Yes, so I had one question like which as you said, like we need more cash so that we can expand. So how will you continue going forward to retain more cash as BCG keeps on doing more and more acquisitions?

Yes, yes. A very good question, Dan, and I know Mr. YSR addressed that in his -- I think this was a similar question also on one of the e-mails. We have thought about it. Usually, the tipping point, if you may, is at $450 million where the free cash flow starts to flow into digital marketing companies, given the fact that we have to invest for product development and other things. And also with regards to our company, we had debt repayment and all those things blended in. We repaid close to INR 350 crores almost over a period of last 7, 8 years. So now we should see a lot more free cash flow coming in. And then in terms of the new acquisition strategy. What we figured is all our acquisitions, we have done 100% acquisition. So we own them 100%. So initially, we may do a little bit of fund raise at the parent level, but eventual game planning to consolidate. I think in fact, we talked about it in the past as well. We consolidate or at least pull a few of the large subsidiaries together. And then maybe raise funds through public or private equity into it. And they eventually lift it so that we don't have to dilute at the parent level, and that fund will be used for acquisition. So that is the broad strategy that we have. And we'll have to play it by the ear as we go. But this is the general plan. And so that as we go forward, more and more cash accrues and give us more dividend, and it gives us a growth momentum for the business. That's the game plan.

Okay. So as you said that the consolidation of the subsidiary, which is going to happen anytime soon, do you have any [indiscernible] going to take some more time?

In terms of time line you mean?

Yes. Is it in plan, right? You said, the consolidation of the sales...

Yes. The thing is, yes, it's all ties back, [ Dan ], to how nicely we are valued. See, I don't want to sell ourselves short because the parent is not valued right. So we decided to shift our focus to get out there and value right. So once it is valued right, everything will follow. We can do a line of credit for organic, and we could do a subsidiary dilution at a much higher valuation. And hence, it will all fall in place. That is the reason. Yes, that is the -- I'm pretty positive it will fall in place. Yes.

Next question comes from [ Dr. Supreme Prabhu ], an individual investor.

Heartiest congratulations on your results. I was wondering, when most of our sales, profits, et cetera, come from the U.S. and the Israeli subsidiaries, then why not have an international listing like in the NASDAQ to improve our fair value and to reward the India -- investors in India?

Absolutely, sir. That's exactly my previous answer. When I said we would like to raise funds at the subsidiary level, that was my point. That was exactly my point. So -- but I don't want to list it at a point where the parent is not rightly valued. We are now trading at a multiple which is very low. So once we are trading at a decent multiple, definitely, that is a very clear option we will go after.

Yes. I'm sure that will happen because now people have started looking at Brightcom as a great company, and they have also started giving it the valuation and realize that it is fairly undervalued until now.

Exactly, exactly.

And I think we can still improve on it if we improve the Investor Relations. Constant correspondence in the [ Investor Relations ].

Yes, I -- yes, sir. We will. You will see the result.

Next question comes from [ Samil Joshi ], an individual investor.

Congrats for a good set of numbers. My question -- I have 2 questions. One is pertaining to what is the aging of...

Sorry to interrupt, [ Samil ]. Sir, your voice is breaking, sir.

One moment. Now can you hear?

It's still breaking, sir.

Hello?

Yes. We can go ahead. I'm able to understand.

Yes. Yes. Can you provide me aging of receivable as on 31st March? And with respect to continuation of earlier question, with respect to NASDAQ listing, what is the date or time when we expect it? See, because the reason is until the time, it is not listed in NASDAQ. Since you don't have P/E funds or any mutual funds invested in this company, it don't have a greater fee as compared to current fee.

Okay. Yes. Okay. I'll repeat the question, if it is not clear for everybody. I think the question says, I think Mr. -- pardon me, sir, what's your name? I missed your name, again. So what's your question? Yes, his question was...

Sorry to interrupt, sir. [ Samil's ] line has dropped.

What is his name, you said [ Samil ], right?

[ Samil Joshi ].

[ Samil Joshi ]. Yes. His question -- first question was aging with respect to what is the aging retail, I think Mr. YSR can address that. And the second question is, what is the time line, what is the game plan with respect to the NASDAQ? It looks like there's a lot of interest on the NASDAQ listing. And the third one, he said, we will -- it's a chicken and egg thing, and he believes that unless we do that, our multiple will not be as good. But his point saying that because we do not have any private equity investments, we've had -- we raised $100 million private equity. So it is not that we not had private equity investments. So this company has gone through 4 levels of diligence already. So not to worry on that front. That said, our -- what we felt right was to get it rerated on the Indian market, and then go into other markets for the sake of raising funds at the right valuation. That has been the strategy, and we are going after that. And YSR, if you can kindly give the aging details with respect to our receivables, please.

Sure. Sure. The receivables as on 31st March 2021 on overall basis is INR 1,100 crores. Out of that, INR 974 crores is pertaining to the -- sorry, INR 934 crores is pertaining to Digital Marketing and the INR 181 crores is pertaining to the Software. Compared to the previous year, there is a slight increase in the number of days. Whereas due to this pandemic, our collections are a little bit affected because of the movement of the people are restricted due to [indiscernible] travel restrictions. However, going forward, we are confident that by -- in the next 3, 4 months, we will normalize the collection on receivables will come down to the previous level. That is briefly the [ aging ] on receivable.

Do we have time for one more question, Bharti?

That would be the last question for the day.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you all for being on the call, and welcome to the Brightcom family. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using Door Sabha's conference call service. You may disconnect your lines now. Thank you, and have a pleasant evening.