Matrimony.com Limited ($MATRIMONY)

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Matrimony Q4 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Jayram Shetty from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good evening, everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I would like to welcome you all to quarter 4 and FY '26 Earnings Call of Matrimony.com. From the company, we have Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman, MD and CEO; and Mr. Harigovind Krishnasamy, CFO. The call will begin with the brief management remarks followed by a Q&A session. I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Janakiraman for his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Jayram Shetty. Good evening, everyone. We achieved double-digit billing growth of 10.5% in our matchmaking business. We completed a share buyback in Q4 of FY '26 amounting to INR 58.5 crores to reward our shareholders. We'll continue to evaluate opportunity to reward our shareholders in the future as well, subject to necessary Board and shareholders' approval. Considering the immense potential to grow our personalized service segment, we opened our first ever Elite Matrimony center in Hyderabad in Q4 of FY '26. The store is first-of-its-kind in India and poised strategically to strengthen our premier Matrimony business going forward. AI is now embedded across many of our core products. Several new capabilities are going live in the current quarter and the foundation is set to scale AI across every business and function. Now coming to the results. In quarter 4, on a consolidated basis, we achieved a billing of INR 126.1 crores, a growth of 9.9% year-on-year and 7% over previous quarter. Revenue at INR 116.8 crores, a growth year of 7.9% year-on-year and 3.2% quarter-over-quarter. For the full year, consolidated billing was NR 488.6 crores, a growth of 8% year-on-year. Revenue at INR 460 crores, a growth of 1% year-on-year. Key highlights for the Matchmaking business in Q4 are as follows: billing at INR 125.4 crores, a growth of 10.5% year-on-year and 7.2% quarter-over-quarter. Revenue at INR 116 crores, growth of 8.4% year-on-year and 3.5% quarter-over-quarter. Paid profile were at 2.34 at the end of quarter 4, [ excluding ] of 4.3% year-on-year and growth 3.3% over previous quarter. Average transaction for the Matchmaking business increased by 15.3% year-on-year and 3.6% over previous quarter. We created a 2,300 success stories for the quarter. Key highlights for the Matchmaking business for the full year as follows: billing at INR 485.2 crores, growth of 8.3% year-on-year; revenue at INR 455.7 crores, a growth of 1.3% year-on-year; average transaction value for the Matchmaking business increased by 11.9% year-on-year. We created more than 1 lakh success stories during the year. Now coming to the Marriage Services & Other business. Q4 billing was INR 73 lakhs, a decline of 40.7% year-on-year and 19.4% over previous quarter. Revenue at INR 85 lakhs, a decline of 36% year-on-year and 24.7% over previous quarter. EBITDA loss for the quarter was INR 5.7 crores compared to INR 3.2 crores in quarter 3 and INR 4.9 crores in Q4 of last year. The loss also included new initiatives such as ManyJobs. For the full year, billing were INR 3.42 crores, a decline of 25.9% year-on-year. Revenue was INR 4.29 crores, a decline of 27% year-on-year. EBITDA loss for the year was INR 15 crores as compared to INR 14.5 crores in the last year. Now coming to quarter 1, we are highly confident in delivering robust financial performance, anticipating either double-digit billing growth or high single-digit growth in billing and revenue growth of double-digit revenue growth and more than doubling of profit compared to Q1 of last year. Let me now pass on to our CFO, Harigovind to comment on the key profit highlights.

Thanks, Muruga. Our EBITDA margin for the Matchmaking business in Q4 is at 22% as compared to 19.2% in Q3 and 17.7% a year ago. Marketing expenses for Matchmaking in Q4 are at INR 43.5 crores as compared to INR 43.9 crores in Q3 and INR 46.7 crores a year ago. Excluding marketing expenses, our margins in Matchmaking are at 59% as compared to 58% in Q3. For full year, our EBITDA margin is at 19% as compared to 20.5% last year. Marketing expenses are at INR 180 crores as compared to INR 185 crores last year. Excluding marketing expenses, our margins in Matchmaking are at 58% as compared to 62% last year. On a consolidated basis, our EBITDA margins in Q4 are at 12.4% compared to 11.3% in Q3 and 10.8% a year ago. Tax rate for the quarter stood at 18.1%. PAT is at INR 9.7 crores and a growth of 18.9% year-on-year and 17.2% quarter-on-quarter. Share of Q4 loss from Astro-Vision, our associate company is INR 4 lakhs. For full year, on a consolidated basis, our EBITDA margin are at 11.4% compared to 13.9% last year. Tax rate for the year stood at 21%. PAT is at INR 34.2 crores as compared to INR 45.3 crores last year. Share of loss from Astro-Vision, our associate company is INR 33 lakhs as compared to INR 11.6 lakhs last year. Cash and investments closing balance is at INR 308 crores. ROCE is at 11.2% for the year. Considering the positive developments as explained by Muruga, we expect the PAT to more than double in Q1 compared to Q1 of previous year. I would like to end with the customary safe harbor statement. Certain statements during this call could be forward-looking statements on our business. These involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update any such forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. Thank you.

Yes, we are open to questions, please.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Premalal, an individual investor.

Sir, when you are going to remove the pledge shares as well as promoter holding increase quarter-on-quarter, but there is no BSE announcement. That is the one thing. How much are you spending ads on this particular year? Because every year, you are spending INR 180 crores. But when you see that the net profit, there is no growth and all. These are the 2 questions from my end.

Yes. Let me answer that the marketing expenses. Marketing expenses at this point of time is expected to be at a similar level until otherwise, if there is any strong need to increase or decrease. So we intend to operate at a similar level. In terms of PAT, we just told, we expect quarter 1 PAT to more than double compared to the Q1 of last year because -- so we've now started getting operating leverage because last year, we introduced 1-year package, the benefits start going to happen. But also we've been growing at double-digit growth. So marketing remained at a similar level and revenue moving up, billing moving up. So we just told that we expect a sort of double-digit billing growth, high single-digit billing growth or revenue double digits, PAT more than doubling compared to Q1. So PAT growth is going to be good this year. So in terms of share price, it's a personal thing. So -- and probably at some point, I remove the pledge, yes. It's nothing on the company side, it's on the personal side.

Yes. There is BSE announcements including the shareholders, there is no announcement to BSE announcement, sir, PAT.

Sorry, can you come back?

That then the -- by the promoter, right, there is no announcements of PAT announcements when he bought and where he bought and all.

No, that is an automated intimation which happens.

Quarter-on-quarter we will be showing, but when the promoters are buying or selling, they have to have the announcements, right, but that is not showing.

That's an automated thing which has happened since the last few years. We'll just check and come back.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Anuj from FirstCapital. Since there is no reply from the line of Mr. Anuj, I'll promote the next one, which is Srinivas from TruValue.

Yes. Sir, my name is Srinivas from the True Value Advisors. I have 3 questions. So I was going through your presentation, everything. You said the year-on-year income is around INR 483 crores. That is just a small 1% of increase as well as the expenses is also around INR 440 crores, a small increase of 2%, whereas your profit margin has come down by 25%, it is around INR 34 crores. Something is not adding up in your net profit. This is one thing. And second is, so you have introduced that Bharat Ek Khoj. What is the update on that, sir? So just I would like to how much income you are gaining on that one, which is adding to our total revenue? This is point number two. And three is, you said that Marriage Services business segment, if I -- as per your stand, and if I see there is a loss mounting on this one quarter-on-quarter. So what is the plan? So this is bleeding our -- which also eats up the consolidated profit of our overall revenues and profits. So what is your plan or demerge are going to take place or some other plan for this one, sir, to reduce the losses and also increase the profitability of the company?

On the PAT reduction, we've got a reduction of close to 24%, right? This is contributed by 2 things. One, of course, there is a marginal drop in total income, but there is an increase in total expenses by 2.7%, right? That is contributing to almost INR 9 crores. And there is one -- finance income has reduced. The finance income has reduced on account of 2 factors. One, the investment balance has come down because we are also rewarding the shareholders by buying back. So our funds are getting utilized. Second, also in terms of the investment yield, which has come down due to the repo rate reduction. So because of which close to INR 5 crore reduction has happened. So that has contributed to a 24% drop in PAT. So on the Bharat Ek Khoj, Till You Marry. On the Till You Marry pack, which is the 1-year pack, the -- we started way back in March '25. So the -- if you look at the coming quarters and the last quarter, the billing has translated into revenue. It has started flowing to the P&L from Q4 onwards. So you see that in the coming quarters, our billing growth will be in line with the revenue growth.

I just want to add to what Harigovind has said, look at till the last year, the FY '25, the billing versus GAAP revenue. So more or less, it will be the same or very close. Last year, the billing was INR 488 crores, but the revenue was INR 460 crores, almost INR 28 crores difference between billing and the GAAP revenue on account of the longer tenure, the 1-year package that we launched. So that the benefit is going to come from this quarter onwards. And in terms of investment on the Bharat Ek Khoj, it's an investment into one of the AI-based astrology company. It's just a recent investment. It's one of the start-ups. So we see an opportunity. And so it's a start-up, and we have to -- we'll continue to monitor. And again, it's a very, very early stage start-up we invested and owning certain percentage company. In terms of the wedding services, the wedding services, we have moved the model from subscription service-based model. We believe the model now we are adopting, we believe there's an opportunity. We continue to experiment and we expect this year trend we have some kind of better traction on wedding services because we see the new model can be the way forward.

The next question is from the line of Prerna Arora, an individual investor.

Congratulations on good set of numbers. So I just had a couple of questions. First one is on the enterprise EBITDA margins. So they have improved sequentially to almost 12.4% in quarter 4. So what is the margin that the investors should expect for FY '27?

No. As we told we starting Q1, we see that profit is more than doubling. So we see that margins, everything going up very well. So...

Right. And on the paid subscribers additions, they continue to remain soft despite the improving billing. So is the company prioritizing any premiumization over the volume growth?

It's a combination of both. We see the traction on both the things. Obviously, personal services are growing much better percentage compared to the online, but we see the traction in online service as well. So we see that starting this year that there will be a momentum in the volume growth as well.

All right. And lastly, on the Marriage Services & Others segment, so that has continued to report losses and the EBITDA losses are also widening in Q4. So by when can we expect the segment to break even?

In terms of Q4 losses, we've taken some impairment. That's one of the reasons there's increase in losses. And second thing that we see the wedding services, we definitely moving to a new model. And we believe that model can be a big opportunity. Again, it's still in the stage where we are experimenting certain things. But we see definitely traction in other services. But in terms of when it is breakeven, definitely, it's a long way to go. But it's more of getting the product market fit right and getting the opportunity right, then it's more of scaling up. So we are not looking at breakeven in the near future, but more of getting that model right and where we want to create a very large opportunity for our organization. So I believe the new model, we believe possibly can be a right model. But anyway, so give us a couple of quarters or maybe end of the year that we'll be in a better position to comment on.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Dharmesh Patel, an individual investor.

So my first question was on the billing side. So as we can see Matchmaking billings have grown 10.5% year-on-year in this fourth quarter, which is much more than the revenue growth of 8.4%. So I wanted to ask what is driving this acceleration in billings and how sustainable is this trend going into FY '27?

We believe it's sustainable. So we expect double-digit billing growth also possibly this year as well. So high single-digit growth or double-digit growth for the FY '27 as well. What is driving? The combination of multiple factors, the growth in [ personal ] services, growth in the online services because now the profit growth also happening, that's sort of contributing to an increase in the first-time building. Now we're also seeing the traction in the renewal also. So I think we have taken a sort of a couple of years to get things right. Now there's a momentum. We expect the momentum to continue.

Okay, sir. So my second question is on your marketing expenses. So we can see that they have also declined by about 6% in this quarter. So is this due to efficiency...

Yes. No, it's more of the marketing is about optimizing it and spending what is really required. So we expect the marketing will be on the similar lines until otherwise, if we decide to step up on something or if there's scope to reduce also, we do the time being, we can assure the market will be on the similar time.

Sure, sir. And sir, another question, can you just give me some update on your astrology business side?

Astrology business side, yes, we have AI-based astrology, AstroFreeChat, and we have very good number of downloads and you said again, we have to see whether -- what is the best way to monetize it. So it's still in the experiment stage.

Yes, sir. And lastly, sir, on the newer segments, are you looking for some sort of an inorganic growth or some acquisition or partnerships to exploit this front?

If there is an opportunity, we'll definitely avail it.

The next question is from the line of Viraj Shah, an individual investor.

Yes. So I had a few questions regarding the competitive landscape in the industry. So given the structural slowdown that we are seeing in subscriber growth, how large do you think the organized online matchmaking opportunity remains in India?

Okay. What is your question? Yes, please go ahead. Any other questions?

Yes. My other question was that, do you think that the competition is intensifying from dating apps and other digital matchmaking platforms that target younger demographics?

Okay. Yes. Anything else or that's it?

Yes. My other question was that do you think there are any changes in the consumer preferences among younger users, particularly in urban markets? And how are you trying to adapt to that?

Okay. Thank you. In terms of the organized matrimony business, maybe it's over INR 1,000 crores or around INR 1,000 crores at this point of time. In terms of dating, dating remain is a small segment, probably maybe INR 100-plus crores, and we also gone into serious matchmaking. We launched love.com. And again, it's still in the early stages, but having a good traction. So love.com is a serious matchmaking service from Matrimony.com Group. MeraLuv.com. In terms of structural changing, no, I think the matrimony continues to be the go-to destination for anyone who want to get married. So while dating is there, that's a small pie of the overall segment. So we don't see that in terms of the dating or serious matchmaking services coming even close to matrimony. Matrimony continue going to be the large part of the category. And dating will be there, that's a small segment and there are -- India is a large country, there are people for various services. So love.com serious matchmaking largely in the metros and there are some segment of population. So we have also the Bharat [indiscernible] segment.

And I just had one more question. So you have spoken regarding the ManyJobs monetization. From when can we expect that? Maybe some guidance on any numbers, if you can throw any light on that?

ManyJobs, we already started monetizing. Currently, it's only Tamil Nadu. We already got more than 1 million users registering ManyJobs platform and more than 10,000 companies are using it. We started monetizing. So again, still in the early stages. So the end of the year, once you reach our revenue milestone, then we may expand to South or even pan India.

The next question is from the line of Priya Thakur, an individual investor.

In the core Matrimony, does the company continue to maintain the leadership in [indiscernible]?

Sorry to interrupt, ma'am. Could you please come closer to your handset? Priya, ma'am, your voice is not audible.

Not audible, yes. No. We continue to have challenge hearing you.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Saurabh Shah, an individual investor.

I have few questions. Am I audible?

Yes, sir, you are audible. Please come more closer to your handset.

The question is, does the company continue to take [indiscernible].

Sorry, the question was not clear. The company, what is it?

Does the company [indiscernible] the organized [indiscernible] market.

Sorry, I didn't get your question right. Can you come again, please?

Sir, the line has been disconnected. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Dharmesh Patel, an individual investor.

So firstly, does the company continue to maintain leadership in the organized online making market?

Yes.

And sir, on the Elite Matrimony segment, how is that segment performing? And how much revenue can we expect from that in FY '27?

So the segment is growing. But again, we don't give the breakup of individual businesses, but definitely, that segment has been growing.

Can we still get some sort of a ballpark number, if not any accurate number?

But as I said Mr. Dharmesh Patel, we don't share the individual numbers, but definitely we see opportunity in each segment, and that's growing well.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Anmol Agarwal, an individual investor.

Sir, my question is regarding the customer acquisition cost and what are the trends that you are seeing currently? Also, I wanted to know about any kind of conversion rates and if there are any renewals that are happening, if you could help me.

Any significant changes in terms of customer acquisition costs. It's been fairly at a similar level. In terms of renewal rate or conversion rate, definitely, we continue to take steps to increase both first conversion rate or renewal rate. So yes, we could definitely -- there's a marginal increase in both first conversion and also renewal on account of the steps we continue to take.

Okay. And I had one more question for you. So will we be continuing our investments in new segments? And also how will they impact our profitability? So would there be like a short-term pressure that we face in this user list?

I think the losses will be on the similar levels. In spite of that, we expect, as I told you, the profit to more than double. So we continue to want to invest to be the newer opportunities. So it's more of -- we are generating profit, we have cash. It's more that it's important that we identify the newer growth opportunity beyond the matchmaking so that these things add up in the future. So while definitely matchmaking has come to the double-digit growth, while we are taking steps to further accelerate growth even the matchmaking. But however, we definitely see the bigger opportunity in the wedding services or other initiatives. So we need to invest and get the product right, then you can scale up. So while you lose some money, but again, we believe it's all important to identify the next growth lever for the organization beyond the core matchmaking.

And I also wanted to know a little bit about the astrology business. So I understand it's a newer segment for us. And I just wanted to know how much are we going to invest? Or how are we going to scale up this segment going forward?

So we are just doing some experiment. So then we decide what to be done. Apart from that, we also invested in another AI-based astrology company. So once we experiment, we also -- we saw the opportunity in another AI-based astrology company. We have interest in this category. We'll see how it evolves.

The next question is from the line of Rajiv Parakh, an individual investor.

Sir, you mentioned that the organized matchmaking services market is approximately INR 1,000 crores, if I'm not mistaken. What would be the size of the -- or percentage of the unorganized matchmaking services market? And also, have you been seeing any trends of the share moving from the unorganized to the organized market? That was one. And related to that, what part of this would be the online matchmaking services? And if you have seen any trends related to that?

So very difficult to predict what will be -- what is the revenue of unorganized because unorganized market, you have probably thousands and thousands of mom-and-pop service provider, local marriage bureaus, individuals matchmakers. It's very difficult. But obviously it's understandable, it is natural that the more and more people go to organized because what organized sector can provide, it's very difficult for unorganized players because one of the core things the matchmaking is about the profiles and the service. What unorganized player can provide is the limited -- profiles are limited base. While they offer some local connect and the personal touch, but obviously we do also personalized services. So what being provided by these people is there's a local connect and there is that. So it's very difficult to estimate or we don't any -- I don't want to say some figure that I'm not sure of unorganized. But again, the second part, definitely it's natural or it's always the case that the more and more people move to the organized segment. Today, look at Matrimony, we have a product for all segment of the population. You have a Jodii even for the common people are nondegree holders. But again, the nondegree holders, not everyone would adopt online, but sometimes it takes people time to adopt the offline services -- online service, I'm sorry.

Fair enough, sir. Sir, related question, in terms of the total weddings happening, if you look at it from that standpoint, out of the total weddings happening, what percent would you say would be using online matchmaking services?

If you look at Matrimony.com alone, you may get sort of close to around 8 million to 10 million people signing up. So out of 60 million people looking for life partners in India, that's almost like we are talking about 15%. So there are other players as well, we don't know how much of the overlap. So let's say that currently, even put together sort of 15 million, you are talking about out of 60 million, it's almost 25% of people are looking for life partners are using this platform, only I'm talking about the marriage platform.

Okay. So it's fair to assume that more than 2/3 of the market would still be offline or using unorganized services?

Everyone that kind of people can have a love marriage or they have maybe relatives. It's not that everybody need to use a platform, online or offline to find a life partner. So there are still friends and relatives or people can fall in love during college or workplace. So while 60 million people look for life partners, but I don't know -- and not everyone even come to online. So considering 60 million people looking for life partners, 15 million people using online. And I said even the people using online, not everyone needs to find a life partner through online platform. So still they know they can find a life partner through other platform because people are using online platform doesn't mean that they may ignore the reference or option coming from friends and relatives. So you can exclude certain [ people ], very unlikely they're going to come online. So even assuming that out of 30 million, now the 15 million comes to online. So still there is enough headroom. So one is about getting the people to sign up on the platform. Other one is not everyone, even the 10 million -- 8 million to 10 million what I told our paid subscription are close to 1 million only or 1 million. So other things about -- it's not getting the people to sign up. Again, the conversion strategy is also another lever for the company.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Dharmesh Patel, an individual investor.

So just one question from my side now. So I just wanted to get an idea on the demand trend across Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets and how do you compare it to your sort of metro cities in India?

In fact, Tier 2, Tier 3 combining is bigger than Tier 1 market.

Okay, sir. And do you see apart -- so obviously, quarter 3 is the most valuable quarter for the company. But apart from that, do you see any other seasonality in terms of quarter 4 and quarter 1 impacting the company in the near-term?

Normally, the Q4 and Q1 are the best quarter. Normally Q2, Q3 are the quarter where there [indiscernible] a lot of festivals. So Q2, Q3, there will be some impact normally.

As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Thank you very much for your interest, and thank you for all your patience. I know last year was a year, I would say, turnaround year. As we already communicated, Q1, we expect the turnaround to happen. The benefits start flowing in, plus we also continue with our double-digit growth or high single-digit growth in billing and revenue to be doubled. And this will help profit to move up starting Q1 of this year onwards. So thank you and see you next quarter, which we hope will be the best quarter. Thank you so much.

Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.