CarTrade Tech Limited (CARTRADE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
October 28, 2026
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorLadies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to CarTrade Tech Limited Q2 FY '27 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Salli from CarTrade Tech Limited. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Unknown Executive
executiveThank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I welcome you all to the quarter 2 and half year ended September 2026 Earnings Conference Call for CarTrade Tech Limited. To discuss the quarter's financial and business performance -- we have from the management, Mr. Vinay Sanghi, Chairman and Managing Director; Ms. Aneesha Bhandary, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Varun Sanghi, Chief Strategy Officer. Before we proceed with the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's call may be forward-looking and may involve risks and uncertainties. For more details, kindly refer to the investor presentation and other filings that can be found on the company's website and on the stock exchanges. Without further ado, I would like to hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Post then, we can open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveThank you, Sallie, and good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining the half yearly earnings call and the Q2 earnings call as well. And I just want to jump to Slide 3 in your -- Slide 4 in your presentation deck. As you know, the company's margins have expanded this quarter 36%. The 4-year road story shows PAT growth of 60% CAGR over the 4 years. Revenue growth over the last 4 years is 24% CAGR, EBITDA 74%. When you look at the capital strength, the cash reserve has crossed INR 1,400 crores. Return on equity continues to be strong. And as you know, the EPS is almost 7x in the last 4 years. If I go to the next slide and talk about the key metrics of the company. The company in this quarter, I'm glad to inform you, has recorded its highest ever revenue in its history at INR 236 crores of total income. PBT is highest ever again in this quarter is at INR 85 crores. You contribute -- I mean, India and also the world's leading automotive platform, that also leading classified platform and vehicle auction platform. We received 76 million customers among MAUs in 76 million MAUs age for this quarter. Organic traffic has jumped to 96%, and we have 500 physical locations, 1.6 million vehicles at the auction that 1.6 million vehicles a year. As I already said, revenues is higher, INR 236 crores. Adjusted EBITDA, which is a cash proxy has crossed INR 106 crores for the quarter. PAT is at INR 66 crores. And as I told earlier, our liquid cash balances are at INR 1,400 crores as of 30th September. If you look at the consolidated performances of the company, the total income at INR 213 crores for the quarter is also its highest ever in its history. As you've seen, the total income has also sequentially grown from the previous quarter from Q-on-Q by INR 12 crores, which is up from INR 201 crores last quarter, INR 213 crores this quarter. So there's been a jump, sequential jump on growth of revenues. It is also an annual jump of 10%. The half yearly growth has been 13%. Other income is down. I think other income is down primarily due to the write-backs last year in the same quarter, we had approximately INR 10 crores of write-back in the footnote below and INR 14 crores in the year of back OLX of some in back some contrast to income. And therefore, the other income is down from 19% in the first quarter -- sorry, in the second quarter and 5% annually down. But as I said, total income is at the highest of INR 236 crores and revenues at highest at INR 213 crores. Employee costs are stable at 6% growth over last year, which shows the leverage in the business. EBITDA is up by 20% over last year. EBITDA is also sequentially up 20%. So if you see the EBITDA at INR 76 crores is higher than the INR 63.59 crores the previous quarter and, of course, higher by 20% from last year, INR 63 crores as well. EBITDA margins come out at 36%. As you know, your company is focused on building a best in our margin structure. And you can see here, EBITDA margin has jumped from 33% last quarter to 36% and 36% over 31% last year same time. For half year, the EBITDA margins are 34% versus 29% in last year for the half year results. And EBITDA is also up 30% year-on-year over last year for the first 6 months. PBT as I sold you the highest and history, INR 85.45 crores, which is up over INR 79.92 crores last quarter and INR 74.45 crores last year. The 7% growth is also taking into account the lower other income which is actually bringing on the growth rate only 7%, which is the other write-backs of OLX in the same quarter last year. PAT is up by 3% at INR 65.95 crores or INR 66 crores over INR 56.75 crores last quarter and INR 64 crores last year. It's a 3% growth in PAT. Let me clarify here. And it is driven by a INR 10 crore write-back last quarter -- in the same quarter last year, and therefore, the growth is showing at only 3%. Let me also stress here that the tax impact on OLX -- our income tax impact last year, we had tax shelters on OLX. And this year, we paid tax on OLX. So there's a base effect of last year, which is kicking into the PAT of this year. So these are 2 or 3 reasons why the PAT is up only 3%. One is because of the OLX write-backs last year and other income. Second is because of the tax impacted OLX this year versus last year OLX tax shelter. So we are the reasons why the PAT was 3%. But overall, the revenues that are the highest ever, and PBT is also at its highest ever in the history of the company. If you look at the Consumer Group, which is the next slide, revenue from operations are up 4%, EBITDA is up 5% and margins have come to 41% and PAT is up 13%. Part of this reason is the -- and of course, half year is up 10% on revenue and 16% of EBITDA. Part of the reason is, as you know, last year, there was GST reduction on 22nd September. And there's also a base effect of the last -- the second quarter last year. If you look at the second quarter last year, the growth was 37% in that quarter. So if you really look at a 2-year period, you see a 20% CAGR in the new car business. The new auto business. I think there's a base effect, again, of a very, very strong second quarter last year in the new car business. If you go further to the remarketing business, profits have grown by 47%, margin is to 30%. Revenue is up 13%, half year only 12% for the quarter and EBITDA margins are at 30% year, 29% growth in EBITDA for the quarter and PAT has grown by 47% in the quarter on the remarketing business. OLX is actually revenue had a very strong growth. You had a 28% half yearly growth at 26% quarter growth. EBITDA margins are up to 32% in OLX and EBITDA growth is up to 36% here. There is a degrowth in profit after tax, primarily because of 2 reasons. And again, once again, said the other income is sharply down from INR 13 crores last year, INR 13.51 crores last year in the same quarter to INR 4.41 crores this year, which is accounted write-backs. And in addition, you've seen the tax up by 58% over last year in OLX. So this is the reason why the PAT is down. But as I said, EBITDA at the 36%, which is highest ever and revenue that is higher over a 26% as well. So this is the financial of the company. We feel very optimistic about the business conditions and the business of the company. As we've already said, we moved towards our goal of achieving a company of INR 1,000 crore profit in the next 4 to 5 years. And we continue to yet. As I said, again, PBTs come to INR 86 crores. So that directionally we've headed there. EBITDA is up by INR 13 crores over the previous quarter. If you look at the coming quarters, we feel -- as I said, the business environment is strong. We feel the OLX growth rates, which you see will be surpassed in the coming quarters. We, of course, think the growth there will cross 30%, 35% in the coming quarters at OLX. We also believe that the EBITDA of the group will grow has grown 20% from Q2 over Q1. We believe we have similar growth rates of EBITDA sequentially from Q2 to Q3. Q3 this year is likely to be the best of our quarter in almost all our businesses. And obviously, the growth is going to be strong over Q2. And then again, as I said, as we go ahead, we are very optimistic about the future as we continue to build a lot of products for the future. Our main focus is building technology for all our customers across new cars, OLX and Tamil. We've attached a few slides to this presentation. Some of these slides have been discussed in previous analyst meet, and I thought I'll stop here and then we can take question and answers. And again, I want to reiterate the confidence we have in the business environment and the business performance. Thank you.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Sanjit from Citi Group.
Unknown Analyst
analystAm I audible? I have 3 questions. So I'll start with my first question. So stand-alone revenue growth this quarter was 4% versus, let's say, 18% last quarter. Want to understand how much of an impact of seasonality and the GST effect of base you mentioned is there? And do you have a sense if there is a broader slowdown? Anything you're seeing in digital and spend from OEM or something specific to where they allocated the digital ad budgets en the backdrop of OEMs seeing commodity cost pressures, so basically commentaries from them that they are trying to cut back on discretionary expense. Are you seeing any kind of impact from there?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveLet me just take this 1 first. So we actually think that's a complete base effect, GST is lowered on 22nd September last year. And therefore, if you see last -- the second quarter last year, we had 37% growth, the base is high. And obviously, this year, if you've seen since that growth of 37%, we've grown on top in this quarter. And obviously, I've already given some guidance that we expect this quarter, the coming quarter will be the best ever history of the new auto business, which is very likely even as I said today. So we don't see any real change but there is a significant base effect of last year. If you look at the business over the last 2 years, we have more than a 20% CAGR in the business. But there is a bit of a base effect of last September of the GST reduction. In our business and the industry itself, right, if you see the industry growth rate post that, if you take it sequentially, as has not been strong. It's basically a lot of it has got concentrated around the growth on consent on the September period last year. But really no change in approach of OEMs or the business as such.
Unknown Analyst
analystUnderstood. So my second question is on OLX. So you have highlighted earlier that it buyer is something we've been focused on and then you have been focusing on product cadence and OLX revenue, if I see it's been growing in that trajectory of 10 quarters a quarter -- INR 10 crores a quarter, sorry. And should we see an acceleration in this given your product cadence or something around these lines should continue? Something around OLX revenue, especially in the backdrop of product cadence.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes, the OLX growth rate will get stronger. We already see visibility of it. We had given the guidance earlier in the previous quarter as well. The new product development is kicking in and some of it are getting immediate results. Some oil take longer. But the existing product growth also exists. And therefore, the growth rates you see right now will get much stronger in this quarter coming and the next quarter after that as well. So you are going to see a stronger growth rate in OLX. Then even it is it will be higher than 26% any year. So we do believe very strongly about the new product adoption. We also believe strongly about existing product growth both in both of them in OLX. So we are very optimistic about the OLX growth rates. We also announced a retail initiatives or partnerships with Landmark. We've announced e-commerce coming up in the future quarters. Of course early buyers getting deeper lesser product is now live in a large part of our business. So all of that is going to contribute to the growth in the coming quarters, and you'll start seeing that this growth rate of 26% being surpassed in the coming quarters as well.
Unknown Analyst
analystUnderstood. The final question is on -- can you talk about trends in OEMs versus dealers and revenue mix and also new versus used?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveThere's really not much change on OEM and dealer mix has been pretty -- almost about I think 65%, 70% in is about uses, but pretty much not much change. And not that much change in yes. I mean there's not much change.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from line of Star Bera from Nomura.
Siddhartha Bera
analystSir, first question is on the Consumer business, again, the stand-alone business. So I mean, in the past, we -- if I even look at sequentially, in the past, we have seen slightly more acceleration than this time. So I mean, if you can sort of call out any other sort of slowdown we have seen on the OE side, is it at this time the festive shifting to quarter 3 also would have been a reason why the growth is slower. And on this business, how do you see the second half like the way you have mentioned for OLX. So if you can give some color here also would be very helpful.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveSure. Yes, thanks. But the 1 big event last year, in fact, it's been game changing and credit to the government in the entire automotive industry. I think anybody in automotive has seen a massive jump last year. I think -- so they are the base effect there. It did -- it is also correct that the entire festival season last year was ended in October. I think this year will overflow to November. So it got slightly delayed that effect would probably see this quarter. But that's also happened. But I would just say that the main reason, as I said, there's no real difference in the way of OEM -- just to tell you, I mean, as I said, this October is going to be best have a number in history of auto business. So I'm again saying it -- a lot of it is just a base effect sometimes which happens over the previous year to this year. We don't really see any other major change. In OLX, like I answered earlier, there is the growth rates, I mean, I just want to go up. This is at the beginning of this journey. I think for many quarters, you all have been asking what these growth tests might be. And if you've seen the growth as a accelerating, like you heard, it's gone INR 10 crores up in revenue Q-on-Q. And I think the nature of this business is such that once it starts and once we have visibility and once we see, we can give you guidance enough to know that, listen, this is just the start of a journey. And we obviously were very optimistic for the near term and of course, the very long term as well in growth rates and the business growth. So the other good thing about these businesses when the revenues go up Q-on-Q, you've seen this quarter, Q2 versus Q1, our EBITDA is up by INR 13 crores, Q-on-Q EBITDA is up 20% Q-on-Q basis, across the group. So it's been a very strong solid performance when our EBITDA was 20% quarter-on-quarter, that's just the leverage in the business because costs have not gone up, revenue goes up. If revenue goes up in Q3, which will go up, it will be probably the best of a quarter or next quarter. And cost stay where they are, you can see margin expansion. You can see our goals of 40% margins at the group coming in. You can see, obviously, OLX margins going up. You can see CarWale margins going up and all of that happening. So Yes, I think that's the nature of the business. And obviously, we feel very optimistic about O growth rates coming into Q3 and Q4.
Siddhartha Bera
analystGot it, sir. Sir, can you share the breakup of OE dealer are new and used for the consumer business for the quarter, if it is handy.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveSure, sure. Aneesha, can you do that?
Aneesha Menon
executiveIt's the same ratio about what we have followed in the past. So about 74% would be OEM and in the total revenue.
Siddhartha Bera
analystOkay. Okay. I think in the past, we used to around 70%. So it's been a slightly increase probably.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveMaybe slight 3%, 4%, yes. yes. And is also a factor of last year Yes, go ahead. Yes.
Siddhartha Bera
analystGot it. And sir, on the OLX side also, I mean, in the past, we did share some more color on the sign-ups in buyers and sellers. So is it possible to share some more insights in the last quarter and quarter 2, how those have trended and your initiatives on the other areas like escrow and financing, which you had talked about, how should we expect the rollout in the second half?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveSure. I think the first thing is the elite Buyer program, which we also disclosed a launch for business. We've seen a massive uptake. It's only been about [ 30 ] massive uptake in the number of early buyers per day and the monetization of that as well. this is going to grow further. And like I've said earlier, there are 6x the buyers to sellers on OLX. We almost a very, very large percentage of our monetization is only seller directed. This is the first buyer-initiated monetization model. And of course, we see this becoming one of the largest parts of OLX business going forward. So that's just the growth potential OLX on the buyer side. On the seller side, a monetization of a number of paid users goes up every day. And that's partly the growth that you're seeing. There's very new rate escalation. So the growth you're seeing is basically mostly on almost all on either more customers being acquired or new product launches or new products for these customers. Elite selers been a massive success in OLX. This is 1 of our new products for sellers, for businesses and consumers. And it's now becoming a significant part of the seller revenue model. Apart from that, I mean, when you look at new product development here, there are multiple initiatives going on. One of the biggest initiatives apart from elite buyer and any buyer is going to be e-commerce, right? I think we're already in product development stage of building a platform where if today, you want to buy as you know, 25% of Indian mobile phones sold are sold or OLX. So if you want to buy a white good, you want to buy mobile, if you want to buy a car, we're moving more to a commerce model where you'll have to find it and buy now with escrow and logistics facilities. We've already got deep into integration, the partnerships that required, building technology were required. And I don't want to give a date, but in the coming quarters, it's not far away, where these will go live for non-auto products like mobile and others. And also for auto, especially in cars, where this partnership with Landmark, where we talked about it earlier, where a lot of the physical operating work is being done with them. And obviously, our role will be the technology product, customer, et cetera, et cetera. This is the first half Landmark of obviously something we feel very excited about the probably the leading dealer group in the country. And obviously, along with that, we look at doing it with other dealer groups as well in the future. But yes, very optimistic about Comas and the side of that with OLX, both cars and non-cars. It's a big part of the next 5 years for us. where we try and give more to our existing consumers. On loans, especially use products and used cars, integration that started with banks, we're looking at more banks, early days yet. But it could be very significant in the company in 12 months from now. So I think like we talked about by 1, 2 quarters ago, and today, it is, I think the same model applies to loans or something else or retail, where when you start today, we're giving you visibility, but a year later, we'll be telling you it's a very significant part of our business. So that's just a product creation cycle where we start and it start contributing 1, 2, 3, 4 quarters later, and that's where we're at, I think -- but it's partly because partly because of all of this and mostly around existing products that we feel the growth rate of OLX will continue to grow. The growth rate is not just the numbers, right? This 26% will keep improving. It's because we are visiting on existing products and of course, the new process will contribute in the future. But a lot of the growth that we're talking about even in the next quarter and the quarter after that, are really on existing products yet.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Jody Singh from Haitong Securities.
Jyoti Singh
analyst2, 3 questions from my side, sir. So 1 basically on the shared business expense, which become early double. So I mean, are there any new grants and what is expected or dilution over the next 2 years? And another, I don't know nwhether you are mentioned or not. On the other expense side, that grew 22% and around half year growth was around 24%. What is driving that? And another third question around via Life. So when we are expecting to go full-fledged and life?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveI'll take the highlight question first. It's also in this presentation where we uploaded where various aspects of live are shown. Wylie is going to part breaking for the company. There are 2 products of Ilise, it's a product where the entire automotive ecosystem gets connected. So the first product is what we call via for business enterprises, where manufacturers and dealers getting the product to understand all understand their own products and how they fare in the market. It also has on target users for sales. And the second part of Las via for consumer, which is for someone like you and me, which is going to be the #1 sales agent for any consumer wants to buy or sell a car or a bike, right? So if you want to sell your car, you need to put 5 photos and bile will give you a customer and give you a price and a condition report instantly. If you want to buy a card you compare us, I'll help you give you what other customers think about it, we'll give you pricing offers and give you discounts and assist with the entire buying journey. If you want to buy a used car. It'll assess a card, it will price a car, they'll find a car and all of that for you. So it's a sales agent, a Toffingertip as a consumer. So the biolife has got 2 different distinct users. They've got OEM and dealers on 1 side, the product and it's got to do on the other side. we are very hopeful that sometime this quarter, we're already testing it out. So we're hopeful that -- and we did show them obvious to analysts in an analyst meeting earlier. But we're very hopeful that somewhere in this quarter, it will roll out for both OEMs and consumers. And it will become 1 of our leading flagship products for cars and bikes, new and used across buyers and sellers in the coming years is a new way of transacting. And also it is built completely on intelligence. It has been completely on proprietary data, so it's impossible someone has to do. It got all the buyers, sellers vehicles and all our proprietary instances, data behavior on all our platforms synced so that the customer gets the best benefit of all this intelligence, I think. So we're very confident and optimistic about it. And really, over the next 1, 2, 3 quarters, I think you all see this being 1 of the flagship automotive products in the country across OLX, CarWale, BikeWale, et cetera. The second question is the share base statement, the amount of ESOP are just for management and team members, but it's very insignificant. We really don't see any significant dilution for shareholders at any point. If you see the stock cost continuously over the last 5 years, has been coming on in the company. And I don't think at this point, a very insignificant part of the total cost of manpower itself in the company. So I don't see -- and the third question was on other income. Other expenses, Aneesha, you want to take that other expenses?
Aneesha Menon
executiveThis clarified in the past, they are your expenses towards tech and licenses that are procured, but these are fixed in nature not variable.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Swapnil from JM Financial.
Swapnil Potdukhe
analystI have 3 questions actually. The first 1 is on your monthly traffic turn numbers that you disclosed monthly uniquestion traffic which is at 43 million, right, for this quarter. And now the question of the year is like that traffic is down 18% Y-o-Y 9% Q-on-Q. Is there any particular reason that you can highlight why there is a meaningful slowdown over here? And is that related to AI taking prominence. The second question is related to your OLX Elite buyers. We disclosed 1 lakh buyers in July. And then there was a press release also where you said that on a daily basis in some days, you are adding more than 5,000 buyers. Any update on that number at the end of this quarter? And the third question is with respect to your employee costs. In the old business, that employee cost has gone of 15% to 16% Q-on-Q. But in consumer business, that is down 12%. I mean, is there any particular reasons why these numbers have changed because our commentary in the past has been a typical OpEx costs are flattish after 1Q for the rest of the year.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveSure. The first is the traffic question. The traffic is compared to last year, you talked about the entire enthusiasm around GST, where you have multiple people inquiring or checking on prices and the impact of taxes coming down when they're going to buy a product, car or bike. And I think that impact where you had a large, large number of users coming on board. And therefore, the traffic last year showed a huge growth as well. So there's an impact of that. I think the second thing is somebody else also said this earlier on the call that the season is postponed this year. So really what happened in September last year is happening in October this year because you had the festival season delayed this year by about 10 days or so. So that's another impact of September, which is taking place there. We don't see really any impact of AI in users or genuine users. We also measure lead numbers and other numbers and other metrics, which are quite stable in the company, which is really what we monetize, right? So that's pretty stable in the company, and we don't see really any impact on end users in the company from the traffic standpoint. Also, we see organic on to 96%. So we also end up controlling some of the quality users want to bring, and we are able to manage our marketing costs extremely well. So if you see almost 96% today the organic. So I think these are all the leverages we have in this, but we really think that a large reason the traffic is at 76 million versus last year is primarily because of GST and the festival timing changing to this year. I think that's the first part. Sorry, I sorry, we did the question, Sonia question on the second one.
Swapnil Potdukhe
analystThe second question was on elite buyer. So they were a on growth.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes, we had given -- we are great at this rate. I don't want to comment on a further growth rate. Maybe in the coming quarter, we'll tell you how the numbers have gone, but it continues to do well and continues to grow. And this is early days. I think this is a starting point, there's not -- there's any sense of margin not going to be stable is going to continue to grow over the next quarter and the quarter after that. And sorry, the third question
Swapnil Potdukhe
analystOn the employee cost side. OLX cost has gone up will be gone up.
Vinay Sanghi
executive[indiscernible] and Karalis slightly down because primarily, we have -- we've looked at our star business in -- across both companies and try to invest more in the used car business in terms of cost and management and try to bring down slightly carwale management and management costs and use case, both have a common business. And I think that's the effect you might be seeing in terms of 1 going up and down -- but it's stable. I don't think this will change at all now.
Swapnil Potdukhe
analystGot it. Got it. Sir, just a follow-up just to the first question are you saying that in the next quarter, we will see possibly see an improvement in the traffic side and therefore, more conversion on the revenue side also.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveWe've already Yes, we've already given guidance right now that Q3 is the best quarter in automotive so without a doubt, the revenue will be the highest ever probably in history in Q3. It is partly because the activity is partly because it's postponed. But we don't see -- we be actually very optimistic about the new auto business over the next few quarters as well. So we feel pretty comfortable that the auto business. That's correct.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Dhiraj Gada from Input Equities.
Unknown Analyst
analystCongratulations on a great set of rates had 3 questions. Sir, can you just shed some light on what is the intersegmental revenue that has been a big item in the past 2 quarters?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveWhat is the inter segmental revenue, sorry.
Unknown Analyst
analystIntersegmental revenue elevation that is between the segments.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveAneesha, do you want to take this question?
Aneesha Menon
executiveYes. I think it's referring to the intercompany segment elimination that we do based on the used car business, which is being transferred or any other related business, which is in between the entity. So in the last 2 quarters versus quarter 1 and quarter 2, it's for the used car business, which is a consolidated.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay, sure. And coming to the OLX segment like it has been performing since the past 2 quarters, we are witnessing a very high growth -- and I think that's mostly on the back of the products that we launched in Q3 and Q4 will be elite buyer basis all of that. So what would be the contribution of these new products of compared to Total revenue right now? Is it like -- has already become 10%, 15% kind of a thing?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes, it will be a little lower than that. But the contribution of growth, just to clarify, and I did that in the earlier question as well, OLX is growing a lot on its older products, what we had. And and our management of those customers and the customer experience and the products we had an improvement in those products. The new products have started to contribute and elite buyer is 1 of them. But as I said, a lot of this contribution of new products will come in the future as well. What we feel most optimistic about are not only new products and their growth and their launches. But we feel very good about the existing business growing. Our effort is for us to keep existing businesses growing and also to bring new products to the second objective here. But the growth rates are seeing at 26% and the growth rates are going to increase over the next quarter and the quarter after that, it is a large part of the existing products and not just new products. I think new products will come on top of that. So that's why we feel good about the company and the business because old products are also delivering, and we're obviously working heavily on the new products, so they contribute in the future, too.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. Sure, very good. And I just wanted some more clarity on the remarketing segment, like we have witnessed good growth this quarter and there was growth in revenue and then there was a very good growth in terms of the EBITDA terms. Right? So can you just unlike how -- what -- how many cars have we put up in auction? What is the conversion rate? What have been the average revenue per car sold kind of a metric?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveI say that. I think in the big. I'll just say highly and the Aneesha give the number, but the growth in summer is primarily been driven by retail business of Samil, right? We have a retail business, which is more like individual retail users selling to dealers.
Aneesha Menon
executiveOnline auction,
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes, it's online. And that growth has been very strong. I think if you see, generally, you feel very optimistic about the retail business within salmon the repossession has also grown, but generally, the retail business growth remain stronger. And that's 1 of the reasons we're seeing margin expansion because our margin is the highest in the retail business and you're also seeing retail growth and volume growth. Aneesha, you want to just quickly share a number of vehicles auction and conversion, you have there?
Aneesha Menon
executiveIt's actually in the presentation, too. we have about 1.5 million regulator listed of which, [ 2.3 ]5 per auction is annualized of quarter 2.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. And like what's the conversion and like when are you witnessing like in the past 10 years, we have seen that have increased a lot of percent of the total car. So are we seeing any kind of increase in the selling side for each car is more and more SUV might now be coming into the auction pool. Are we seeing any kind of even like that?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveThe ARPUs are stable. But of course, most of the vehicles come into auction pools with the retail, it tends to be 3 to 5-year-old vehicles. If it's reproduction tends to be newer, these are a reflection of the market more or less. I mean, depending on what comes, but it tends to be a mix of your new and older vehicles.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Himanshu S from BNP Pariba.
Unknown Analyst
analystSo just on the consumer side, you said the base was high in Q2. But if I see the base was high in Q1 also and it continuing to be very good, like 25% plus in the second half. So how do you see the growth rate in the second half for the consumer business?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveWe actually feel optimistic about the business and the growth of the business. I think the base effect was most in Q2 and a little bit early in Q3, but clearly, we see oviously numbers and actual numbers being very strong in Q3, Q4 as you go on of the new water business.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. Okay, sure. And just on the monthly traffic. So I was just saying last year, there was a sudden jump in Q2 from 44 million to 52.5 million and now we are again back to close to 43 million. So should we see like this again jumping because of the festive season to above 50 million, 53 million?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveI don't want to give guidance on total traffic. But yes, obviously, the pest will be better than the nontesperiod of traffic. They come to enthuse more. But as I said, to compare it with the previous periods where GST reduction and enthusiasm around that is where they had a lot of people acquiring or checking where the traffic was obviously up because of those resins would be different at this point of time. Right? And I think that traffic doesn't exist because I think now it's pretty clear what the prices are, I think, at that point, people are just coming and checking what's happened with pricing. I think.
Unknown Analyst
analystRight, right. And I also see that monetization has improved like on the traffic. Like is there any new product which has come in the consumer segment or any traction, which has come in any of the subsegments?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveThere are a number of new products launched and getting launched. There are almost many 6, 7 new things out this month, this quarter as well on the new car side. We've also discussed this in earlier meetings where there's a whole price check by shop product, which launched earlier in the previous quarter on new auto. There are trading agents, loan agents and many, many products coming in this quarter. So the attempt is that over the next 6 months in the new auto business, again, by a live by a consumer, we talked about earlier, our new want of products, which are coming out this quarter. So there are multiple, multiple things we're working on from a product team to be new products and the new auto business as well. which enhances your experience as a shopper or your billing to buy a new vehicle, buy per car. And that investment is continuous. I think we are building more product today. I think we've talked about this earlier. -- than we ever have in our history. We are launching products out at a very, very high pace, which is partly pulling all the growth in OLX or car value Slamautomodil. And we are also, at this point, heavily focused on building intelligence in our business so that consumers, dealers, OEMs get the benefit of all the data we have. So yes, that's a continuous effort right now going on.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Ashit Share from ITI Mutual Fund.
Unknown Analyst
analystThis is the man from IT. Sir. Two questions on consumer. Is there a push pull that can transpire to accelerate growth, if at all, if we -- if you see that, okay, you have budgeted for the current year, let's say, a 15% growth. And in the half yearly, you find that it's only 10%. Is there a push pull that you can do in terms of offering something to the counterparts in terms of further enhancing growth? That's question number one. Question number two, in terms of Via, you'll have a fixed base of IT expenses, how much can the expenses go up only owing to via, and how much will the fixed base of IT expenses, hence, possibly enhance to? And last question is, you had a tax break and you were -- so what is the potential use of this huge cash funnel that resite on the balance sheet? Can we do a buyback at some stage? Can you provide some clarity on that?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveSure. The first question was on the Consumer Group See, the way we think about the Consumer Group growth is how do we bring more products to our consumers, how do you improve existing product performance for customers. And that's the fuel to growth. Whether the customer is a consumer or is the dealer and OEM. I think the best way for us to grow is giving them more capability and optimizing our product so that they use it more. And bringing in more users every day. That is where -- that's our goal. And the more users come because partly -- mostly the product of CarWale by qual is superior to others, so they find this the best place to go. So to me, that's the fuel for growth. When the industry grows, it's better. It's obviously better for us. If ARPUs grow better. And any situation of industry growth is better sometimes, like last year, you have abnormal situations where positively have normal situation where tax has reduced and you have a huge jump, which is what happened to us last year. But those are not normal situations. And we have to accept that the new bases are set. If you look at the automotive industry from last September to this year, it's barely grown after the 22nd of September. Most of the growth happened on that period, right? And after that, it's going to be more or less moderate growth. And I think because we have such a jump after that, that you had moderate growth after that. In fact, there was some reporting of FAD that said that this Navy sales were lower than last year over at the same time. And that is obvious because they have the pent-up demand of the GST reduction there. So I think those are the things, but our focus is always in the short term, medium term, long term. The best way to grow is build great products to our customers. And I think we spend all our energy and effort and time and mind share. And not just me or not just a team here, but we have hundreds and hundreds of engineers, product design people, product strategy people who does what they do. And this is how revenue growth and product and all of this and our new products come out and existing products get better, so that revenue growth and traffic growth and consumer NPS growth, right? The second question on Baya. We don't see really biotech costs are moderate fixed. So we don't see really any change in tech costs with Baa or any of the other products we launched. We're very sensitive to that. We also see that I think you may be indicating whether there's going to be more token usage, et cetera, et cetera. We have very -- worked very, very hard as a company and optimization of token cost to see that where intelligence is used where our own proprietary data exists and machine learning is used where we cash data and have compute cost. So we're very sensitive to that. We understand that. We want to deliver great products in India. We also understand India great products at very low cost is very important as well. So we don't really see any material change in tech costs on via, that's the question. I'm sorry, the third question, I think -- sorry, can you repeat the third question? I can't remember.
Unknown Analyst
analystThe use of cash pool and
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes, I think yes, the cash -- and a good thing in a company like ours is there's no CapEx really, there's no really working capital spend and there's more. And most of the profits we generate almost all the properties generated go to cash, which is the great dynamics of the marketplace business, where obviously just can generate cash every quarter. So ideally, this cash, we've talked about before, will get used for M&A if at all, but M&As are hard to find. And we've been very good with men in the past, but we obviously haven't found anything at this point in the last 2 to 3 years. Or it go to distribution back to shareholders in the form of buyback and dividend, which would be wanting to do. The tax shelters are actually gone in OLX and not in the -- not in the stand-alone group. So we still have benefits in the stand-alone company. And therefore, distribution currently by regulation is not allowed to buy back or through a dividend at this position.
Unknown Analyst
analystSo that period will possibly come to a closure in the current year. So next year, you can use it for buy back?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveNo, I don't think this year.
Unknown Analyst
analystAt least not this year...
Vinay Sanghi
executiveBut benefit continues -- this benefit continues 1 or 2 years more, I think tax as which is actually beneficial to the company as well.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Vivek Doshi from Nippon AIF.
Unknown Analyst
analystSir, just 1 question on the consumer group again. Sir, how much of the slowdown in current quarter for this festival, can we expect to come back in Q3? So what would be the growth rate? And how do we think about the growth rates from here on? Do we expect the growth rate in to accelerate from year on back to the 16%, 18% sort of a level? Or how do we think of the growth for the consumer business from your
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes. I don't want to give guidance around specific growth rates. But we do feel that Q3, as I told you already, we are the best -- probably the best in our history, right, in terms of our business. So this is as strong as ever. There are base effects of September last year. And we've got to see how much of that gets covered how the industry performs over the next 2, 3 quarters, like you're seeing in all of the manufacturers as well. But we are very optimistic about the performance of the business. And we do feel that in the coming quarters, you'll see better numbers in absolute and in growth rates than in the past. So we're very optimistic about the future. There are base effects of last year, especially in Q2, which you've seen already.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Rohan Nagpal from Helios Capital.
Rohan Nagpal
analystYes, can -- just want to check on the consumer business. So is the right way to look at this odd 20% sort of CAGR over a 2-year period to adjust for the base? And is that how you see the business continuing through sort of end of this year?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes. One way to look at it is that this has a 20% CAGR over 2 years. and that's specifically in Q2 because the impact of late Q2 last year was very heavy, right? But that's 1 way to look at it. Obviously, as far as we are concerned, we look at the health of the business and look at what OEMs are doing, what customers they're doing, what dealers are doing, how the business is tracking, how the business metrics tracking. They're all good, right? So I think the 1 way to think about it is last year, the abnormal because 37% growth in that quarter, right? I think it's still abnormal, and you can have a base effect there. But yes, the idea is to keep improving, getting better than not talk about CAGR and but talk about absolutely getting better in the business itself every day so that when the base effects go, which is now last September to this September, you get back to your trajectory of growth and many other metrics as well.
Rohan Nagpal
analystSo I mean, if I just look at our sort of 20% CAGR over 2 years, that implies significant acceleration sequentially in Q3 as well in Q3. So just wanted to get a sense of whether that is how 1 should sort of pull the business out? Or is like a 20% isolization sequentially a little too aggressive in your view based on what you're seeing?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveI don't want to comment on sequential growth for Q3. I think at this point, the guidance you're giving here and saying listen, Q3 is going to be best in our history about. That's what we are saying. I don't want to comment on whether it's sequentially at a particular growth rate or at this point, it'll be hard for me to do so.
Rohan Nagpal
analystOkay. Fair enough. And on the business, I think -- so is there on the consumer business in terms of the revenue that's generated from lead generation or could you provide us a color on whether the increase in revenue that we're seeing is coming from volume or realization. Like how
Vinay Sanghi
executiveThe first part -- the increase in revenue is coming from the generation of this business as this you're saying
Rohan Nagpal
analystSo in the consumer business there's certain round of revenue that we generate from lead generation. So how much is the lead generation portion of the revenue? And what is the mix over there in terms of volume growth versus realization growth?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveIn a new auto business, the growth is allocated to better conversion funnels, better management of users, better conversions for the OEMs and all of those metrics. If you look at our revenue, it is lead of transaction revenue, but mostly associated with that. So no matter which part of the funnel, where they're taking advertisement where taking needs, which is a very significant part or transactions are also getting significant it eventually comes under performance-driven metrics, which means that if you are coming to the customer, if harmony cars will buy or how many bikes will buy somebody. Now you might come in advertising and contribute, you might come in and need a contribute my company as a transaction will contribute, depending which part of the funnel, you are the consumer may want to follow. But yes, it is attributed, I would say, less the largest. I don't think the price escalations. So a lot of these are volume escalations and conversion escalation. They're not really rate escalations.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Vimal Jamnadas Gohil from Alchemy Capital Management Limited.
Vimal Jamnadas Gohil
analystPart of my question has already been answered. Just sorry to harp on the consumer piece. Now when it does seem, and apologies also for looking at it on a bit of a short-term basis. But I think next quarter also, I mean, if I were to look at closely, we reported INR 86 crore of revenue versus we're still below that level. So 2 things here. Are we looking to surprise that in the second half? And also, do we see this business getting back to that 20% growth in the latter half of this year?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes. I think definitely, obviously, we're saying that we're very confident within our best time number. So we have to surpass that, right? I think that's obvious. Now there are base effects of last year. It's hard to predict whether in 1 quarter or 2 quarters because the 20% growth because of the base effect. But yes, the objective of the company is, of course, to have growth rates like that, right? I mean, like I said in OLX, the growth rates are way beyond likely be best-in-class in the country. Here, you go through a phase of base effects, but the objective is absolutely to get back to growth rates of best-in-class for here as well. And that's why when you have a very, very strong last year, which has happened in this case, we have 37% growth in a quarter, you tend to -- the base effect and I think here, you will see in a quarter-to-quarter the growth rate back naturally in this business as well.
Vimal Jamnadas Gohil
analystUnderstood. Just 1 -- another question on Via. Would you be able to quantify because this is a new product for us, a new offering would you be able to quantify how much of an investment have you made till date in this particular
Vinay Sanghi
executiveI'll be honest with you. Our costs are not -- you can't the costs are not significant, and I'll tell you why because a lot of buyers built, first of all, build on AI code . The second part is that it's built on proprietary data. We don't buy data or use LLM data. if you use LLM data or LLM sources of data, you'll end up using a lot of cost tokens. We don't do that. We use only proprietary data. So a lot of what we're building here is not significant cost. It's not material, as I said. It's a very revolutionary product, but not built on because I think the strength of a business like us and to be able to do this with the best sales agent to build different product seg because the data you carry, right? It's the millions of consumers on the new car side, millions the used car side OLX millions sellers on both CarWale and OLX, right, on cars and bikes. So when you have that kind of data and the instances of that data, all vehicle data by the largest listings in the country or a very strong percentage of listings in the country or vehicles in the country. So manufacturers side, up OEM side banks tied up. That data helps us provide products like this, and it's not built on cost. -- is built on the capability to build intelligence on that data. It's on material -- it's on material. That's what I say.
Operator
operatorThe next question is from the line of Sanjay Maranhao
Unknown Analyst
analystI hope you can hear me, Vinay?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes, we can hear.
Unknown Analyst
analystTwo questions. One for the Consumer Marketing Group. Can you comment based on the trend we are seeing with respect to offline versus online spend of OEM. And within the online spend, the kind of trends that we're seeing for classifieds, such as ourselves versus others, -- that's 1 question. Should I just ask you the second question later?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveYes. One is the offline online spend OEM was the second question.
Unknown Analyst
analystThe second question is when we think about the tie-ups such as we have for Lithandmark, is there any financial investment or any kind of a share of the car purchases that we have to also participate in? Or is it just a technology and a platform contribution from our perspective?
Vinay Sanghi
executiveSure. I think the first part is that there's no real shift in OEM or online digital conversion of spend. In fact, that trend over the last few years where digital spends are going up for an and offline spend, of course, be more measured. That's just because online provides a more performance-based objective for them. And if you see here, I think the biggest gainer if you see the consumer group growth over the last 5 years almost 26% CAGR. So that's because of the direction of how OEMs have gone. This is still about 18%, 20% on platforms like us. out of the total spend. And as I said here, obviously, we've outpaced all market growth in terms of the spend. We see actually this going in a similar trend over the next 2, 3 years. We don't see -- we see the online digital spend going up. If an OEM had to sell a or a bike and the #1 place will come as CarWale. If the OEM had to build a brand of a product from scratch, they might grow television and do it or YouTube and do it. And I think therefore, there's a distinct difference on how OEM and dealers think about their spend. And obviously, we feel that there's a huge trend towards digital across OEMs and dealers on their spends. And that trend will continue for a long, long time. I think in most countries, 40%, 50%, 60%. India is still at an early stage of that. The second is a landmark, we're very actually enthusiastic with the anorarrangement. I think for many years, analysts and definitely the analyst community and others have talked about, listen, are you building a full stack model where you buy cars and you sell cars and we've always said that a marketplace like Amazon where all dealers can participate, all stakeholders can participate where they buy a seller, whether a bank, et cetera, et cetera. And that's what Carvaan Oleg provides. -- a huge marketplace where 65% all cars listed. -- also 60% sold in India are listed for sale. And the question is we also thought that, listen, if you have to provide a curated marketplace within car value within OLX, how do we do it? Obviously, the 1 way to do we full stack, buy cars ourselves, fix them, keep them, house them, sell them and do all of that. And the second way was to gain a partnership with big groups. We obviously chose a second because we said our trends are in product technology customers. And we obviously believe groups a Landmark are very, very good at physical storage, buying physical actions selling all of that. And we said, listen, lets them put the operating and the physical heaviness, let us do the tech and the product and the customer side of it. And that's how these partnerships are forged. I think when landmark we're working out, whether from a margin structure, whether we should invest some part of the working capital or not, and that is based on how much margin we want to share. And those equations are being worked out as we go on ahead, right?
Operator
operatorLadies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. SailiAmbrev for closing comments. Over to you.
Unknown Executive
executiveI would like to hand the management for taking the time out for the conference call today. And I would also like to thank all the participants. If you have any queries, feel free to contact us.
Vinay Sanghi
executiveThank you, everybody.
Aneesha Menon
executiveThank you.
Operator
operatorOn behalf of CarTrade Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
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