MPS Limited (MPSLTD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
January 29, 2021
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorLadies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the MPS Limited earnings conference call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Arora. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Rahul Arora
executiveThank you. Good morning, everyone, from winter in New York this time. Welcome to the MPS Q3 FY '21 Earnings Call. I'm sure everyone has made a busy start to 2021 with February already approaching us in a few days. I've been back first in New York for a little over a month, planning and strategizing our next phase of growth. In our opening segment today, I will discuss our consolidated performance through the lens of our individual business segments, and how the business has carried forward the momentum established in the first half of the financial year. Then Robin Blakely, Chief Operating Officer of MPS North America LLC will discuss how our education publishing practices' revival has strengthened our core content business. She will then hand it over to Sukhwant Singh, Senior Vice President of Content Solutions, who will update us on our India operations. We look forward to interacting with all of you over the next hour. MPS has now arrived at a more diversified revenue mix, content similar to 49%, e-learning similar to 14% and platform similar to 37% of our business. And while all business segments are not firing to the true potential just yet, the consolidated MPS business is moving in the right direction. We achieved record revenues of INR 117 crores in Q3 on an FX-adjusted basis. PBT was not too shabby either at INR 30 crores. In Q3, we decided to opt for a recently introduced scheme by the Indian government under the income tax law. The decision is to avoid protracted litigation and the attendant uncertainty on the issue covered in those years. Consequently, a tax provision has been created to tune of INR 5.85 crores that has adversely impacted our PAT in Q3. Moving on to Content Solutions. The early momentum established in the first 6 months of the financial year has further carried into Q3. While strong performance is not surprising, given that Q3 has consistently been a strongest quarter for us, the magnitude of success was heartwarming. Our education publishing practice led the group's strong performance with other key business areas, including journals and digital solutions, providing stable support. Robin and Sukhwant will now discuss what has led to the strong performance? And how have we managed to deliver this growth despite delivery and operational constraints due to COVID-19. Robin, handing it over to you.
Robin Blakely
executiveThanks, Rahul. 2020 has been an excellent year for the educational publishing practice at MPS and Q3 FY '21 was no different. The most encouraging aspect of this practice's recent growth was that it was led entirely by new customers, while we were able to maintain our core customers. The India operations have maintained margins, which is a tremendous feat for the management team, given the environment we're in. Closer to home, MPS North America's revenue grew by 24% in the third quarter of fiscal year '21 over the previous year. So our team has done a great job of rebuilding our content development business after last year's decline. We've been focused on expanding our client base. We've also become key partners with our top-tier clients as they shifted focus to making all of their current content accessible to remote learners during the pandemic and preparing for upcoming state adoptions in both math and reading language arts. MPS North America continues to grow our multi-service business with key education clients. And now to you Sukhwant to share more about our India operations.
Sukhwant Singh
executiveThanks, Robin. Thanks, Rahul. Good evening, everyone. So MPS successfully executed its business continuity plan in wake of pandemic to power more than 2,500 people to a work from home setup. Security and admin protocols were tightened to ensure that the work from home setup was effective and IT infrastructure and security was well managed. Team leaders and managers set up virtual standup calls every few hours instead of the in-person daily once-a-day format. Managers were doing the same with their team leads. Owing to the early and successful implementation of the work-from-home model, MPS handled increased inflow and helped customers by taking on work from some of their other suppliers, when some of these suppliers were not able to quickly set up and manage through their work from home model. We placed mission 2020 and its core principles of Adapt, Resil, Reimagine and Now ahead of Vision 2023, delivering growth in the middle of a pandemic, where operations management has possibly been at its highest complexity was appreciated by all the customers, and MPS has used the past 9 months as an opportunity to differentiate itself and stand tall as a leader in a highly competitive and fragmented market of vendor partners. On average, 50% of our teams are now back to work from office model in India operations, while there are variances at the local center level based on customer requirements, local environment and employee preferences. Thanks. Over to you, Rahul.
Rahul Arora
executiveThanks, Sukhwant. Thanks, Robin. Yes, the core business strengthening is a wonderful sign ahead of Vision 2023. Now moving on to our platform business, which is our strongest march towards Vision 2023. Our profitability in the platform business significantly improved. Looking back up at a PBT of 19% in Q2, we moved the needle to 31% in Q3. We have much more to achieve still in the coming quarters and the coming years. Though progress is moving ahead of our planning and our budgets to transform the HighWire business. Interestingly, the incumbent platform business, which we had even pre HighWire days also grew by 9.6% in Q3, with an increase in business from core customers, while our THINK and fulfillment business was flattish. We acquired HighWire on July 1 and have now completed 2 full quarters with the company. Over the last 6 months, we have spent time understanding the products, listening to our customers, filling skill gaps, improving internal processes, optimizing costs and laying out a strong foundation for the future. In Q3, HighWire reported strong performance with PBT margins of 23% against losses under previous ownership. On the revenue side, we've seen an increase in account management and sales activity. We've had renewal conversations with several customers and have also responded to new RFPs, while customers continue to face cost pressures due to the pandemic. We've had several renewals and successful RFP wins with even a new logo being added in Q3. As shared in the last couple of meetings, COVID-19 has possibly had the most severe impact on our e-learning business. However, MPS Interactive in India is moving in the right direction with a step-up in revenue in Q3 and positive margins as well. A key aspect to note, of course, includes a change in strategy in MPS Interactive India, where we are being more selective about the work that we take on and positioning ourselves as a creative learning agency. The loss at e-learning then was primarily due to MPS Europa in Switzerland. Though, MPS Europa has left its worse behind in sales in Q3. The order book is back on track, clients are more responsive, new logos have been added, and the business should be profitable going forward and the outlook for FY '22 is also positive. Let's now open the call to some questions that can help us be better at what we do. Over to you. Can you open the call for questions?
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from the line of [ Ishan Agarwal from Irevna Capital ].
Unknown Analyst
analystYes. So congratulations on a great set of number there. We are finally seeing growth in profitability at MPS. So a couple of questions related to each of our business segments. Firstly, I remember in the last call, you had mentioned that the content business will be more like a cash cow for us, maybe we can expect a plus/minus 5% in revenue for the content business. But what I see from our PPD is that we've been continuously hiring in this particular business. From 2,048, we are up to 2,177 employees right now. So do you see positive outshoots of growth in this particular segment going ahead?
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. I think as Sukhwant described in his opening remarks. The past 9 months, the -- has basically -- while it has been a huge humanitarian and an operational challenge even, it's allowed MPS to kind of differentiate itself in the content space. We've been able to stand out. We've been able to take volume from other suppliers. So in a market where there are very limited points of differentiation we've been able to create those points in the last 9 months through superior delivery and operational performance. So I'm definitely more bullish about the Content Solution business than we were in -- about a year ago, and that's primarily due to the recent success. And of course, if we're hiring, we're hiring -- always, we are an efficient organization. And then our values, it's -- efficiency is one of our core values. So that's obviously got to do with -- we're expecting some more volume in some lines of business in the Content side.
Unknown Analyst
analystGreat. Great. Great. So again, on the e-learning business, last call, you had mentioned that we expect this business to turn around and you have actually turned around this business for this quarter. The normalized EBITDA margin, as I remember, you were targeting for this business were around 20%, 25%. So how soon can we hit that number, given the current run rate that we have for the business?
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. MPS doesn't give any forward-looking guidance as corporate policy. But as you rightly pointed out, we will not be satisfied till we hit margins of 25%. We're moving in the right direction. As I described, the India business of this -- of e-learning has already moved to positive margins. In fact, we had double-digit margins in Q3 itself. And now with the Swiss entity also reviving, we're hoping we'll make steady progress against that vision of 25%.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. Great. Lastly, on the capital allocation front, so we are holding around INR 160 crores of cash right now, which is around INR 90 per share. So are we looking at acquisitions? Or are we looking to distribute it in the form of dividends going ahead?
Rahul Arora
executiveWell, a bit of both. Acquisitions for MPS are not an event, it's part of our core strategy. It's something that we're working on always. So even now, we are examining various opportunities. Having said that, we are learning to be more selective in what we acquire. We want to acquire businesses that -- where we inherit new capabilities that we currently don't possess. But also where we see a clear line of value being unlocked versus it being something we achieve in -- over a 3- year period. We like to see value being unlocked immediately almost. And we've seen that with HighWire, right? On the distribution of funds, I think that's obviously a Board decision. We have -- like I said on the last call as well, we will be actively -- given that we're looking at acquisitions that are in the $10 million to $20 million revenue range, and you can also see what we're typically paying for some of these assets. We're fairly confident that we will continue with an active distribution strategy. Now whether that is dividend or buyback, that's something that will be actively discussed. And also, I guess, depends on what we see in the upcoming budget as well? Does anything change or not. So we will have to react to that, but there will be an active distribution strategy.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. Last question, Rahul, if I can squeeze in here.
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. Sure.
Unknown Analyst
analystYes. So on the HighWire front, you had mentioned on the call that we may see an initial revenue decline as we get the acquisition in place. So the -- as you see the platform business, it has been flattish Q-o-Q, quarter-on-quarter. And you have said that the other businesses Digi Plus -- mag+ and Digicore grew. So has HighWire declined this quarter as compared to last quarter?
Rahul Arora
executiveWhen you say last quarter, do you mean -- which -- you mean the sequential or the previous year?
Unknown Analyst
analystSequential.
Rahul Arora
executiveThere's been a marginal decline sequential, and it's been more on the services side and largely because in this exchange of ownership, customers wait to see whether they want projects to be executed or not. So it's largely been due to that. But on year-on-year, there has been a decline between 2019 and 2020. So we have had that decline as well. We do also going forward, at some point, maybe in 2021 or early 2022, except -- expect some customers to churn based on events that were pre-MPS ownership. Having said that, we also have sufficient time till that happens. So we're hoping -- and we are digitally working towards replacing that business with new customers. So time will tell whether the churn is greater than the additions or the additions is greater than the churn. So -- but we're working diligently to make sure that the additions are greater than the churn.
Unknown Analyst
analystSo if I have to take a year forward or say 2 years forward on the existing business of platforms that we have, what -- are you expecting good growth over here or we can be flattish, say, a year down the line or 18 months down the line on the platforms business, respectively?
Rahul Arora
executiveI think we -- first we will have a -- as you've seen in past acquisitions, we will see first a baseline year being formed, and I believe 2021, middle of 2022 is going to be our baseline. And we'll have to see whether churn is greater or additions are greater. And once that baseline is formed, we only expect the business to grow for a couple of reasons. One, we are seeing scholarly publishing has been -- is one of the few industries that has grown at a CAGR of 5% for the last 200 years. It's one of the only industry that has grown every year. So we're very confident that the macroeconomic environment kind of supports this, and we're also seeing more research being published. And the second reason is there are certain market dynamics that have led to consolidation of market share, and we are focusing that also as an opportunity. So it's going to move in phases. Phase 1 is really about forming a stable base of revenue where we have a stable set of happy customers, and we're delivering to them, delivering to the requirements. And once we get to a stable baseline, we just -- we look to take off from there on an organic growth path.
Unknown Analyst
analystAnd we are targeting an EBITDA margin -- an increase in EBITDA margin even during Phase 1. Right now, we are at around 34% EBITDA in the platforms business. And I think we're targeting around 40%, 45% by Q1 of FY '22, correct?
Rahul Arora
executiveCorrect. Yes. And we seem to be on track based on what we are seeing right now.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Divyesh Mehta from Dolat Capital.
Divyesh Mehta
analystI wanted to know regarding Platform business. Can you share the growth rate within the core business, how was that? And 1 more thing with respect to the profitability improvement, what measures are you taking? And similar question for e-learning, that what are the measures taken for profitability improvement there? And can you give us some more color with respect to the sales strategy, you mentioned increase in account management, several renewals and a bit more about that.
Rahul Arora
executiveSo I'll start with the platform segment and profitability. So I'll cover profitably first, and then I'll focus on revenue. So in the platform segment, as we've described previously, we acquired an asset that was a loss-making asset. We are turning things around through a combination of advantages of wage arbitrage by setting up an operations hub in India. That's 1 aspect. The second aspect, of course, is MPS, of course, is committed to AWS and the cloud. So a lot of the -- we've been able to optimize a lot of spend around that. And finally, there are a lot of general and administrative costs associated with the acquired HighWire business that have been streamlined just through better management and discipline. MPS, of course, we operate our business very efficiently. So just through tighter controls and better management, we've been able to reduce a lot of that. On the e-learning side, really, profitability has been more related to -- while we have made certain reductions in expenses. The profitability is really coming -- is going to come from a revenue pickup. We've seen that already take place in Q3, we've seen a slide -- if you look at sequentially from where we started off in Q1 to where we are in Q3. Like I said, the e-learning business is our only business that has been kind of impacted by the pandemic on the revenue side. And what we're seeing is, when we say impacted, what we're seeing is more of a pause than a stop. So -- and things are now starting to pick up. So we expect that to improve in the coming quarters. On the revenue side in terms of strategy, the platform business, really, we are viewing the entire platform business as 1 business. A lot of the MPS, erstwhile MPS products cater to back-end infrastructure and versus HighWire products that cater to content infrastructure. We have -- HighWire has over 150 customers in the ecosystem. MPS has over 70 customers in the ecosystem. And the first goal, as you've seen in most acquisitions that we've done, is to market some of the HighWire capabilities to the MPS customers. And the reason for that is, on average, our customers have been with us for over a decade. So there's a lot of trust in these relationships, and they're very interested in our acquired capabilities. The second strategy, of course, will be to actively market to HighWire customers or MPS products, so more of a cross-sell type of strategy. And then finally, we're investing a lot in marketing, positioning of the HighWire brand, a vendor partner in the platform space. We've positioned HighWire to be -- have 3 principles: innovation, outstanding customer service, and commitment to the community. And all of that has been really welcomed. So a lot of -- a big marketing campaign around HighWire has been rolled out. So in 2021, which we expect positive returns from. Coming back to your question on the core MPS platform business that we had even before the acquisition of HighWire. What we've seen is our core business grew by about 9.5% on the platform side. Where with -- but our other lines of platforms, whether it's mag+, Think or some of the others that we've acquired over the years, they have been flattish in Q3. But we're seeing opportunities for this entire ecosystem. We're not deterred by 1 product not doing well in 1 quarter. Overall, we are very excited about the overall platform ecosystem opportunity.
Divyesh Mehta
analystI would just like to clarify 1 point. So from what you had already highlighted in the last quarter of the current quarter, you are already making moves in the operational improvement with respect to the HighWire acquisition? I wanted an update on cross-selling as in if you can share any recent example in terms of numbers or qualitatively, how has the cross-selling moved in the last 2 quarters because that is a major benefit what you can get from the HighWire acquisition?
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. I think it's too early to comment because just this space, in general, you typically have a customer selecting you takes 6 months, transitioning to a new platform is another 6 months. So you're looking at a new customer addition over a 1-year period. So we've had lots of demos, lots of interesting conversations. Like I described, we have also had 1 new logo being added in the past quarter in the U.K. But I think it's too soon to comment on how that is going ahead. I think that will get reflected in the numbers in the coming quarters.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Keshav Garg from TCIPL (sic) [ CCIPL ].
Keshav Garg
analystSir, I'm new to the company. Sir, I wanted to understand 2 basic things, sir. So if you could shed some light on the industry as a whole that what are the main trends in the industry? Is there some consolidation happening? And basically, what is our market share? What is our positioning? And also, sir, whether our business is coming from only physical books or even e-books, we are getting revenues?
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. Yes. In the interest of time, I'll restrict myself, there's a lot of wonderful information available on our website. We have just revamped our website this past year. So I'd encourage you to look at some of that. I'd also encourage you to look at some industry reports, publishers weekly is a great repository. The STM association does a lot of reports that are openly available. So a lot of the information that you're asking is out there over the web, so -- but I'll restrict myself in interest of everyone else's time. Overall, MPS, our vision and our mission is to make -- to help make learning smarter. Where we come in within learning is we serve 3 types of customers. We support scholarly and scientific publishers. These are your publishers developing research content. We support educational publishers, which include publishers that develop curriculum for K-12, higher ed as well as for professional development. And then we also work with the corporate learning function, the L&D function of large corporates. So those are the 3 kind of customers that we serve. The way we are positioned is we are positioned as a partner that helps innovate and streamline the process. So if you're looking at -- looking to build product, we do it in an excellent and an efficient way. If we're looking to distribute product, we come up with new ways to monetize content. And again, if you're looking to create learning experiences, we do a wonderful job of making a learning experience. In terms of the marketplace, we, of course -- the markets that we operate are, like I said, scholarly publishing, educational publishing and corporate learning. Again, a lot of this information is available over the web. As a business, we also have 3 business segments. We have content solutions, which is basically pertaining to creating, developing, managing, producing and transforming content. So imagine a manuscript going through a journey of either becoming a book, a journal, an app, an epub, that entire journey is managed by us. The platform business is essentially, we operate as a software-as-a-service business. We have platforms for building content. We have platforms for authoring content, producing content, managing content, delivering content, analyzing the usage of content, so business intelligence tools as well as subscription management tools that allow customers to manage the order to cash cycle. And then we have learning solutions where we make learning -- we power learning experiences. So we create online training material. We build same simulations, games, mixed reality, so AR, VR. And also we build physical experience centers as well in India. So that's kind of an overview of the business. But again, it's difficult to describe in 2 minutes, given the diversity of our business, I'd encourage you to look up our website and also you will get some of the third-party materials available on that.
Keshav Garg
analystSure, sir. And sir, lastly, sir, I wanted to understand that what I could gather from your this thing sir that. I mean this industry, sir, then why are our -- why is our profitability basically in the past 5 years is flattish?
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. I think just to describe. So we have been on a constant drive between 2015 and 2020 to diversify our business. So we saw back in 2015, we were 100% content services business. So were basically providing content solutions. So I described to you, we have content services, learning solutions and platform solutions as 3 business segments. At that point in time, in 2015, we only had 1 line of business, which is content solutions. And we saw warning signs that this business was not going to grow, and there was a lot of downward pricing pressure. So we took it on ourselves to -- regut, transform MPS into a wonderful organization that is on a mission of making learning smarter. We've built a new business, called Platforms. We have built a new business called eLearning. And today, we are at a revenue mix where we moved from 100% content, 100% content Solutions business to a business that is 50% content, 37% platforms and 13% eLearning. So it's been a massive transformation journey and I understand for the average outsider who is looking at an income statement of the balance sheet, you're just looking at numbers, but there's a huge transformation that's gone behind the numbers. And now that transformation is showing. So that's kind of a short description of the kind of journey we've been tough over the last 5 years.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Alok Kulkarni (sic) [ Anup Kulkarni ] of Pinebridge Investments.
Anup Kulkarni
analystRahul, so I have a few questions. My question is regarding eLearning solutions business. So as you said, that now growth should come from a revenue pickup. So my question is, is the cost base now fixed. I mean whatever efforts that we have taken. And now at current revenue level, we are almost breaking even. So when revenue picks up, will that have a very high gross margin, which should directly flow through profit or this business will also have some variable cost component? That's my first question.
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. So cost base and MPS, Alok (sic) [ Anup ], as you know, is never fixed. We are always chipping away to be more efficient, whether that is efficiency through automation, whether there's efficiency through better workflows and processes or simple wage arbitrage. So we -- as a management team, we believe that growth is best served if we prune our businesses every day, if you prune every business, growth is more organized. So the cost base is never fixed. I guess your question is, will the cost increase if we see more revenue the...
Anup Kulkarni
analystCost and fixed.
Rahul Arora
executiveYes, so the answer to the question is no. Because we have a good team in place. There may be some marginal increase, very marginal, maybe 2%, 3% type of increase in cost because of the nature of our project. But really, we expect now revenue to be entirely profit accretive versus having some variable costs.
Anup Kulkarni
analystOkay. So the revenue would -- I mean, the cost base would largely remain the same, that would be the conclusion. And my next question is, in Platform business, we have seen very sharp margin expansion, and you are still hopeful that there will be even more margin expansion. So my question is what are the inefficiencies or what is it? I mean, is it workforce or reduction of -- I mean, what were the steps that led to such a significant improvement in margin sequentially?
Rahul Arora
executiveI wouldn't want to belittle the previous management team or the ownership. We are very fortunate to have completed this acquisition if -- the way I look at it, if it was not mismanaged. We would have not been able to complete the acquisition at the purchase price we did. So I would just say -- I mean just say 3 points. It was a company that was mismanaged from a cost management standpoint. Second, it was a company that was largely based out of Los Gatos, California. So they also had a limited sort of advantage of looking at themselves as a global delivery business. They were more a California delivery business. And thirdly, MPS, of course, does do a better job than most of its peers on running a business in a disciplined way. So it's just sheer discipline and running an efficient business as the ownership has changed.
Anup Kulkarni
analystOkay. So let me put it this way. If assuming revenues remain at current level, do we still have some scope for margin expansion or the margin expansion from here would come mainly from revenue growth?
Rahul Arora
executiveNo, we still have a lot of way to go. Like I described, only in our second quarter of ownership. As you've seen in past acquisitions, margin expansion at least goes on for 12 months, if not 15 months. So we will -- and our site is very -- till we hit 45% EBITDA, we will not be satisfied. And so we will continue to chip away. And there's a lot more to be done. It's still early days in the transformation.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Sachit Motwani from Param Capital.
Sachit Motwani
analystJust like a couple of quarters back, you had said that you'll give us more color on your Vision 2023 quantitatively. So just wanted to check is it the right time to now you can come and give us some guidance on that front?
Rahul Arora
executiveSachit, not there yet. We still -- we're still operating in lockdown. Only 50% of our staff is -- still is working from offices. Let things stabilize a little bit, and we'll definitely -- and let's complete the integration of HighWire into MPS. And we'll definitely share that with you at a more appropriate time, but it's still early days yet.
Sachit Motwani
analystOkay. Okay. Okay. And would it require more acquisitions to get there? I mean, like given the confidence that you have on the core and organic businesses?
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. So like I described on a previous question. Acquisitions for us is not an event. It's just something we do on a continuous basis. So we will be looking to do acquisitions between now and 2023. We've had a run rate of doing almost 1 every year. So I'm not sure how that will pan out in the future, but it's something that we have our eyes on. And we now have enough management depth in the organization. You've heard from Robin, you have heard from Sukhwant, and that's just the senior leadership team of our content business. So we have enough management depth to go out and be in a lookout for acquisitions. But what we are doing is we are being more selective. We're only acquiring companies that give us a big edge or enhance our competitive advantage overall. Plus, there's a clear line of sight, like with HighWire we knew in the first 12 months, there'll be a huge transformation journey. And as long as we do things the right way, and managing customer expectations and managing the financials, things will turn out to be good. So we're going to be -- we're looking at -- we're more selective on the acquisitions. But of course, acquisitions continue to be very much part of our core growth strategy ahead of Vision 2023 as well.
Sachit Motwani
analystOkay. Okay. And like the tailwinds in the eLearning business, like from an industry perspective, are still there, right? I mean, like the industry size, can you elaborate, give us some more color on the eLearning front?
Rahul Arora
executiveYes. I think e learning, you see a lot of reports talking about e-learning is growing at 10%, growing at 11%. But it includes so many different things that it is very difficult to figure out what size of opportunity on the global eLearning, I think they say it's a $160 billion market, growing at 10% to 11%. But to figure out -- it's been very difficult to figure out, out of that $160 billion, what is the size of the opportunity that pertains to MPS because they don't go very granular on the breakdown of $160 billion. What we are seeing, though, is a lot of momentum, a lot of interest. Certain sectors have been impacted, and that's largely been the reason for the slowness in our business, for example, a customer who's in the cruise line business has been impacted. Airlines have been impact, hospitality has been impacted. So if they're not running operations, they're not looking to train people either. But as business is picking up, things are opening up. We are seeing a lot more interest as a sales and marketing team, we are also looking at a new set of customers who've actually done well during the pandemic, so tech companies, education institutions. So there's been a little bit of a pivot we have had to do. Looking -- because a lot of our customers, our core customers did not do very well because of the pandemic. We've had -- what we've been able to do is, we've been able to achieve a new customer base over the past 9 months. And our core customers are also now picking up. So we're hoping 2021 is kind of a year where likely turned around the content solution business in 2020 we are hoping that 2021 is going to be a good year for our eLearning business going forward.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions at this time, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Arora, CEO and Managing Director, for closing comments. Please go ahead, sir.
Rahul Arora
executiveThank you. Thank you, everyone. Our strategy. Looking back, as someone pointed out, what really happened in this last 5 years, everything has been flat. I think it's important to share with all of you the journey that's gone behind -- that's been operating behind the scene in the last 5 years. Our strategy really was back in 2015 to diversify. We started seeing some warning signs on the growth prospects of our content business with downward pressure on pricing from our customers as well as volumes shrinking. Since then, we've looked to diversify, we've -- all our acquisitions, mag+, Think, Tata Interactive, HighWire, have all been about diversification. We've built 2 new business streams, platforms and eLearning. Having said that, interestingly, it was our Content Solutions business that performed exceptionally well in the last 9 months and in Q3 as well. But I think the big theme is looking back, the big theme between 2015 and 2021 was really about diversify to survive. That was really our theme as a business. There is a huge transformation journey we've gone through. We're very proud of it. And now we're entering a phase that I'd like to describe as grow to thrive. Where we're moving from a surviving phase to a thriving phase, and thank you all for your patience over the years, and we look forward to your support in the next phase as well. Thank you, and talk to you in the next call.
Operator
operatorThank you very much, Mr. Arora. Thank you, members of the management team. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of MPS Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
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