NASDAQ:YTRA Yatra Online Q1 2025 Earnings Report $0.65 -0.04 (-6.09%) Closing price 05/2/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$0.65 +0.00 (+0.62%) As of 05/2/2025 04:29 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Yatra Online EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.01Consensus EPS -$0.01Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPSN/AYatra Online Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$12.61 millionExpected Revenue$18.72 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$6.11 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AYatra Online Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2025Date8/12/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateTuesday, August 13, 2024Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsYatra Online's Q4 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 29, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Friday, May 30, 2025 at 7:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Yatra Online Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 13, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Yatra 1Q25 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Kiki, and I will be your conference operator today. I will now hand you over to your host, Manish Hamarajani, VP of Corporate Development and IR. Operator00:00:28Manish, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:32Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal Q1 2025 financial results for the period ended June 30, 2024. I'm pleased to be joined on the call today by Yatra's CEO and Co Founder, Dhruv Srinhli and CFO, Rohan Mittal. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, reflects management views as of today, August 13, 2024. We don't take any obligation to update or revise the information. Speaker 100:01:03Before we begin our formal remarks, let me remind you that certain statements made on today's call may constitute forward looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to several risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a description of these risks, please refer to our filings with the SEC and our press release filed yesterday using on the IR section of our website. With that, let me turn the call over to Dhruv. Dhruv, please go ahead. Speaker 200:01:40Thank you, Manish, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our Q1 2025 earnings call. For the quarter ended June 30, 2024, we reported total revenue of INR1051 million, which is approximately US12.6 million dollars This represents a decline of 5% year over year. Adjusted air ticketing margins were impacted by a 21% decrease on account of lower volumes. The decline was primarily driven by reduced volumes in the B2C segment as we optimize discounts amid intensifying price competition in the market. Despite challenges in the B2C segment during the June quarter, the corporate travel segment showed robust growth across all key metrics. Speaker 200:02:27The company successfully secured 34 year corporate customer accounts, representing an annual billing potential of INR 2028 1,000,000,000 or approximately $24,300,000 with average billing potential up 77% sequentially. As the leader in corporate travel in India, our customer acquisition rates remained strong, consistently outperforming industry benchmarks. We also continue to actively evaluate strategic opportunities to further bolster our corporate travel segment. In addition, we made substantial progress in our meeting, incentives, conferences and exhibitions segment, which is the MICE business this quarter. Our newly onboarded team has started ramping up operations and while MICE contributions were modest for the June quarter, early signs for the current quarter are very encouraging, with significant business already secured in the September quarter. Speaker 200:03:23In addition, we have also scaled up teams to focus on the mid market corporate segment and new products including Visa services and car rental services for corporate travelers. Adjusted EBITDA came in at INR65.6 million, approximately USD800,000, a decrease from INR 115,400,000 in the same period last year, partly reflecting the impact of lower volumes and partly due to the added expense of onboarding teams from new initiatives mentioned earlier. The cost of incremental hires is close to INR 40,000,000 in the quarter. Ex investment of new initiatives during the quarter, our EBITDA would have been INR 105 point $6,000,000 which is broadly similar to last year. Let me emphasize the critical importance of accelerating our investment at this time in the corporate space. Speaker 200:04:17Over the past few months and particularly in the last quarter, the country's largest airline has begun offering deeply discounted fares exclusively on its website and mobile app. In light of the recent consolidation within India's domestic aviation sector and the current aircraft supply constraints, this trend is significantly increasing customer acquisition costs in the B2C market. As a result, it is imperative that we rapidly expand our corporate business and we are actively exploring both organic and inorganic opportunities to achieve this. The MICE industry presents a compelling growth opportunity with its attractive margin profile, making it a strategic addition to our corporate portfolio alongside our Visa facilitation and car rental services. Additionally, we have initiated a cost optimization program, which includes streamlining over 100 positions within the company. Speaker 200:05:08We anticipate realizing the benefit of these cost savings starting in September after accounting for any notice period obligations. We continue to make progress towards simplifying our corporate structure as well with the Board appointed Restructuring Committee actively engaging with all relevant stakeholders. The committee is diligently working on developing a comprehensive proposal to streamline our operations and enhance shareholder value. For the quarter ended 30th June 2024, we reported total revenue of INR 1051,000,000, which is USD 12,600,000, as I mentioned, down 5% year over year and adjusted revenue of INR R1422 million dollars which is approximately US17.1 million dollars which is down 14% year over year, mainly on account of the factors that I mentioned about. While it is our strategy to position ourselves as the corporate provider of choice, we recognize our ideal customer mix must be strategically balanced, and we are determined to winning back and regaining some of our B2C market share by implementing certain strategies in the coming quarter. Speaker 200:06:15These strategies we feel will be more tech enabled, technology enabled and innovation enabled ones and will not have a significant negative impact on our operating performance. Meanwhile, we continue to expand our corporate customer base demonstrated by the strong addition of new corporate customers during the Q1. We believe that our momentum in GAAP garnering reputable GAAP gathering reputable corporate clients serves as a testament to our excellent service and attractive platform offerings. Travel volumes in the IT sector, which is one of India's main business travel segments, was subdued in the Q1 of FY 'twenty five. However, we are pleased to report that our performance in this segment outpaced industry trends. Speaker 200:06:57While travel spent on the Yatra platform by our IT services customers were approximately 30% below pre COVID levels, Industry reports indicate a nearly 50% decline in overall IT services spend compared to pre COVID. This demonstrates Yatra's ability to capture an increased share of wallet within its existing customer base. I would like to also take the time to highlight some of our more recent strategic initiatives to expand our market and growth potential. As mentioned last quarter, we've expanded our software service to better meet the needs of our clients through the launch of our expense management solution. We are calling this solution recap, which stands for Receipt Capture and Processing. Speaker 200:07:39Recap leverages cutting edge technologies, including GenAI large language models for this receipt analysis to enable more accurate and comprehensive expense traffic, significantly reducing errors and saving time for our customers. We are currently working with a handful of customers on the expense front as part of our pilot program as we look to cross sell this product further into our current installed base. Expense management is a large and highly profitable segment, and our product capabilities make it a product that is suitable not just for the Indian market, but for international markets as well. Our initial response from customers has been very encouraging and this solution allows us to further deepen our relationship with our customers. With our focus on the corporate segment and our commitment to expanding our presence and offering, as mentioned earlier, we've added a team for the MICE segment and the early indications are highly encouraging. Speaker 200:08:32To provide you some context to the MICE market, the MICE market is valued at approximately USD US3.3 billion dollars in 2023 and is expected to grow to US10.5 billion dollars by 2,030, reflecting a CAGR of 18% from 2023 to 2,030. Now turning to the broader economic landscape, business travel in India is on an upswing. Currently, India ranks with the 9th largest market globally in terms of business travel spend. The market is expected to reach RMB38 1,000,000,000 this year and is projected to grow by 18% next year, surpassing pre pandemic levels. This growth is underpinned by a strong economic outlook for the country with the Reserve Bank of India projecting real GDP growth of 7.2% in FY 2025. Speaker 200:09:19The Reserve Bank of India has also highlighted the positive impact of healthy balance sheets amongst banks and corporates along with the government's ongoing focus on capital expenditure, and we believe this translates into greater demand in the corporate travel segment in the coming years. While domestic travel remains stable with expected growth in the highest northern regions, outbound travel is forecasted to grow significantly. Reports suggest that India's outbound departures could nearly triple to 50,000,000 by 2,030, fueled by improving connectivity, more direct and affordable flights and a growing desire for international travel. While the June quarter posed challenges for our B2C segment, we are encouraged by the strong momentum we are witnessing in our corporate travel business. The growth in new corporate accounts and the existing development in our MICE business underscores our commitment to driving long term value for our stakeholders. Speaker 200:10:12We continue to fine tune our strategic initiatives to maintain our position in the corporate sector, while working to improve market share and regain share in the direct to consumer sector. With that, let me hand the call over to Rohan to walk you through the details of the financial performance. Rohan? Thank you, Dhruv. I will now review our numbers for the quarter ended 30th June 2024. Speaker 200:10:38We saw a 17% YOY decline in our gross bookings. This was mostly due to the 20% decline in our air gross bookings as explained earlier. Our hotel and packages gross bookings remained flattish. Our overall adjusted margin for the quarter decreased by 15% y o y. Our adjusted margins for the air ticketing business were at 6.8% and 11.6% for hotels and packages. Speaker 200:11:11Moving on to expenses. As a percentage of total gross booking value, our marketing and sales promotion expenses reduced sharply by 25% on a YOY basis. Our personal expenses increased by 23% YOY as we continue to invest in talent to build out our mid market MICE visa and expense management solutions. Other costs remained largely range bound. On an overall basis, adjusted EBITDA was INR65,600,000 compared to INR 115,000,000 in the quarter ended June 24. Speaker 200:11:43Lastly, as of 30th June, we were carrying cash, cash equivalents and term deposits of INR4.5 billion, which is approximately US54 million dollars on our books. And our gross debt is to an all time low level of INR 210,000,000, which is roughly USD 2,500,000. With this, we conclude our prepared remarks, and I'd like to hand it over to the moderator for Q and A. Thank you. Operator00:12:12The person you are speaking with has put your call on hold. Please stay on the line. The first question we received is from Scott Beck from H. C. Wainwright. Operator00:12:48Scott, your line is open. Please go ahead. Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. Speaker 300:12:55Thank you for taking my questions. Dhruv, you touched on it in the prepared remarks, but could you give us a little more color on what options are on the table in regards to the independent committee and maybe what a reasonable timeline is to expect some decisions to be made? Speaker 200:13:11Sure. So with regards to the independent committee, the committee is currently working with advisers on evaluating the multiple options in front of us for simplifying our corporate structure. There are a couple of preferred groups that we've narrowed this down to. And now the committee, along with the advisers, is working with the regulators to understand the process and the feasibility of the different structures that are there in front of the company. In terms of time line, I think the structures which are there are a 6 to 12 month kind of a time line in terms of achieving full simplification of the process. Speaker 200:13:50This is, in certain scenarios, dependent on regulators in different jurisdictions. So this is only a broad guideline that I can share with you and not an exact number, as you said, because there are multiple regulators which are involved in the process. Speaker 300:14:04Sure. I can understand that. And is the goal here to create some sort of fungibility between the shares? Speaker 200:14:14That is the end objective, to try and create a way through which the shareholders in the U. S. Will get access directly to the India stock. Speaker 300:14:25Okay, perfect. I appreciate that color. Next, I want to ask about the B2C weakness. I'm curious what of that that you saw in the quarter is being driven by just kind of temporary softness in travel demand versus what may be more permanent headwind in direct sales of tickets from India's largest carrier? Speaker 200:14:50So there are 2 factors playing in right now. 1 is the supply side constraint. So as I had mentioned in our last earnings call, 75 aircrafts are taken out by Indigo because of the issue that they were facing with the Pratt and Whitney engines. This is a well publicized litigation and issue which is going on between Indigo and Patton Whitney. So that's the one thing which is there on account of which supply is limited in the country. Speaker 200:15:15The other challenge which is there, which has got accentuated is the view that Indigo has started taking over the course of the last 6 months and more so in the last quarter of offering fares directly on its site, which are meaningfully cheaper than what are available through 3rd party distribution channels. That I think is the bigger and more concerning trend that we are addressing at this point of time. Okay. That makes sense. And then the last thing, obviously, will get solved, right? Speaker 200:15:46It's just a matter of timing that supply will get addressed. So those engines won't get repaired, those aircrafts will come back, right? So whether it happens with a delay of a quarter or 2, that's between Indigo and Titan, but we do figure out that the supply will come back. Whereas this is or could potentially turn into a more secular trend while there are discussions which are happening between the airlines and the intermediaries in the country will come to an equilibrium. Speaker 300:16:15Okay. That's helpful. And then last one for me on the MICE business. It's nice to see you guys are starting to see some favorable momentum there. What is the typical contract structure? Speaker 300:16:26Are your customers under annual or multiyear contracts there? Just trying to understand from a visibility standpoint. Speaker 200:16:34So there are some customers at this point of time given that it's still relatively early day. There are annual contracts which exist and there will also be some which are more event based and large event and cycle based contracts. We are not yet at a stage like our business has already had multiyear contracts. Here, we are not yet at that stage where we are signing straight off the bat multiyear contracts. Here, these are most short to mid term kind of contracts, which are there as opposed to multiyear contracts. Speaker 200:17:04But as the business progresses and stabilizes, this should translate into multiyear contracts. Speaker 300:17:12Okay, perfect. Well, I appreciate the color guys. Thank you very much. Speaker 200:17:16Not at all. Thank you, Scott. Operator00:17:23The next question is from Amish Mahel from Private Investor. The line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:17:31Hello, morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have a couple of questions. One is, what percentage of your airline business is B2C? I thought it was a very, very small portion. Speaker 400:17:45So for this to have a 20% impact on your revenue seems a bit much. The second is, let's say, the largest carrier's decision to go direct to customers. Does it not also affect your cockpit business? And maybe a third relevant question is, how is it that companies like MakeMyTrip don't seem to have been impacted by the same issues that you're pointing out? Sorry for the last questions, but I can repeat definitely as needed. Speaker 200:18:17No. Thank you for the question. So let me clarify the first point in terms of the share, and you would have heard this on multiple calls from us. The B2C business till last year was accounting for almost 50% between 55% to 60% of our gross bookings. So it's not an insignificant part of our business. Speaker 200:18:36It's a fairly material part of our business, and that's the reason why the overall impact on the gross bookings because of what's happening. Secondly, in terms of between us and MakeMyTrip, the impact on MakeMyTrip is exactly the same as the impact that we are facing. The only difference which is there is that Makemarket has taken the view of discounting on Air India and Vistara, which is the other airline in the country quite meaningfully to offset some of the volume that they're losing on Indigo. You could do a quick search on any of the comparable platforms like Skarescanner or Google Clights, and you'll be able to validate that. In terms of overall numbers, obviously, MakeMyTrip has a scale advantage on hotels and bus from where they are generating incremental profits, which are helping them subsidize some of this gross investment on the air side. Speaker 200:19:27But the challenge that we are facing is something that everyone in the country is facing, not just us. To your third point on the corporate side as to why would this not flow into the corporate segment, the reason behind that, in fact, on the corporate side, it's a managed travel services where corporate employees have to go through our platform to book their business travel needs. And typically, what happens is these kinds of fares, which are offered on the airline side, which are direct, are the most restrictive fares with the least amount of value adds attached to them, whereas corporate travelers, 95% of the corporate bookings that happen, happen on special corporate rates, which come in bundled with other flexibility like cancellation protection, free seats being bundled with it, meals being bundled with it. And that is not something that Indigo discounts directly. The other thing which is also there is that on the corporate travel front, this MSR is a scenario where a company which employs 50,000 people has to then manage their employees going and booking Indigo flights or some part of their Indigo bookings directly coming back and claiming that while the rest of their travel is managed through the Yatra application and the Yatra portal for their business travel needs, including the approval process, including their expense management, etcetera. Speaker 200:20:45So that's not really a scenario which is quite easy for an airline to replicate. And even globally, if you look at the examples of people like Southwest, Ryanair, Easyjet, their focus is on the leisure travel segment in terms of these kinds of promotional sales that they offer on their own website. This is not targeting the business travelers. These fares also just to give you an indication typically will be there for advanced booking. That's where the bulk of the leisure travel happens, whereas business travel typically happens in a D minus 3, which is travel date minus 3 days kind of booking window. Speaker 200:21:22In that window, these vans are typically not available. I hope that clarifies your questions. Yes, you did. Speaker 400:21:30Thanks a lot. Praveen, really appreciate the details behind it. Just an additional question, if I may. The meeting management solution that or expense management tool that you launched, do you already have some traction with the mid market segment that you're targeting? That's the question. Speaker 200:21:49Yes. So we are currently running a pilot of that with a few of our customers, with a handful of our customers. That's the first phase which is there. We are also in discussions with some of our larger customers to see if this can replace more extensive global solutions, which are currently being used by the larger customers. But the initial subset that we are targeting is more on the mid tier segment. Speaker 200:22:12Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:22:17Thank you. The next question is from Korp Zettler from Catamount. The line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:22:28Hey, guys. I have a question on the potential acquisitions that you may do. I think, was it 2? Is it 1 or more than 2? And then also, what is the revenue size of these deals as it relates to the corporate business? Speaker 500:22:45I mean, is it going to double the corporate business, 20%, 50%? And then I have some follow ups. So, Scott, in the And the timing of completion of these deals. Sorry, go ahead. Speaker 200:23:04Sure. So these are deals which are currently it's hard for me to comment on an exact timing for ongoing discussions or dialogues that may or may not be happening. We've said that we are evaluating multiple options. It's hard to give an exact timing to closure of any of the acquisitions. I don't want to set any expectations in terms of timing from a closure point of view. Speaker 200:23:28These are discussions which are ongoing, and there are multiple such discussions which are ongoing. Our endeavor through the M and A part, and if I look at, I can guide you to what we've said from an India IPO standpoint, VPMR is approximately $20,000,000 for an acquisition of our multiple acquisitions. Whether this translates into 1 or multiple acquisitions, only once it's crystallized, would we be able to share more details on that. Since such time, there is no commitment in terms of that there is an acquisition which is actively going to happen in the near term. Speaker 500:24:05Okay. So but all right. Well, but you have aspirations to close some deals, I would assume. And so in the number, was that $20,000,000 what you would pay or the revenue that you would like to add? Speaker 200:24:19So $20,000,000 is what we have set aside as IPO proceeds in terms of an acquisition. Okay. So you will use cash system Or up to $20,000,000 would be potentially the payout for acquisitions. This could be for 1 acquisition or this could be for multiple acquisitions. Speaker 500:24:39Could you use stock also or is that $20,000,000 Speaker 200:24:41to cap? Operator00:24:41That's not Speaker 200:24:41in the case from an equity standpoint. When you do an IPO, you have to call out what are the end users of the IPO proceeds. And then the end use in the Indian IPO, we've EMR approximately $20,000,000 for IPO of all acquisitions. Speaker 500:24:59Okay. And you would use cash solely or could you use stock also and buy more revenue? Speaker 200:25:07Yes. So we could use stock as well. There is nothing that holds us back from doing our stock plus a cash deal. Speaker 500:25:15Okay, got it. All right. And the timing, I mean, how long have you been at this? Like, I guess, like, why don't you have an idea on timing? Speaker 200:25:29Rob, your question is then implying that there is an active acquisition, which is ongoing. And I'm clarifying that I can either confirm nor deny any such thing but there is an active acquisition conversation that is going on. Speaker 500:25:45Okay. All right. That's fair. And then on the fungibility of shares, did I get this right? You said 6 to 12 months, you think you'd have an answer there? Speaker 500:25:57Or was that an answer to was that a the question was how long will it take you to my question is how long will it take you to know whether or not the shares will be fungible? And the other question is what do you think that the Indian investor base would think about that? I mean, I'm guessing they don't the structure, as I understand it, you're kind of the first dual listing company in India. And so my guess is a little confused, as probably all investors are about the structure. So do you think that would be a positive for them if you were able to collapse the structure? Speaker 500:26:35That's one question. And then do I have it right that you think that fungibility, if it were to occur, would occur within 6 to 12 months? Speaker 200:26:46Yes. So in terms of the second part, based on the discussions that we've had with various advisers across multiple jurisdictions, 6 to 12 months could potentially be the timeline for a fungibility event. As I said, given that there are multiple regulators involved in this, it could be a lengthier process. But our best estimate at this point based on the advice that we have from the council that we have in different jurisdictions, it is an event which could take up to 12 months. Speaker 500:27:22Okay. All right. And then so the multiple entities that are involved, is that so you probably have the SEC and you probably have SEBI. Is there other regulatory agencies or bodies that need to sign off? Speaker 200:27:40So these are the 2 main bodies. There is the SEC and then there is SEBI. There will also be tax clearances, etcetera, which will be needed in India depending on the structure that we adopt or it could also be Indian courts if it's a merger structure that we adopt. So there are a couple of options that we are working closely with. And in each one of them, there are different sets of regulators that are involved in the process. Speaker 200:28:09As you rightly also pointed out, this is a fairly unique scenario. There aren't enough recidences of a scenario like this that one can look at and use that as a basis of saying, here is a more definitive timeline for doing something like this. Speaker 500:28:26Okay. And I guess by doing this, you will eliminate some overhead costs, filing costs, legal costs, management costs. Would you collapse the boards, maybe add some board costs that are eliminated? Do you roughly have an estimate of how much costs would be eliminated associated with the collapsing of the listings, if that were to occur? Speaker 200:28:51Sure. So today there is approximately $2,000,000 to $2,500,000 of cost which is associated with being the U. S.-listed entity, that cost will go away on collapsing of this structure or large part of that cost will go away on collapsing of this structure. Speaker 500:29:09Okay. All right. And then just on the expense management product, could you just talk briefly about so it sounds like it's did I get that right that you said that you may see some revenue was that revenue from newly added corporate customers or expense management? I didn't hear that clearly. When do you think expense management, the revenue could actually start to be somewhat meaningful? Speaker 500:29:40Then I Speaker 100:29:40have a follow-up on expense management. Speaker 500:29:42So for the revenue to be Speaker 200:29:48material on the expense management front, I think we are looking at more like next fiscal year for the revenue to be material. At this point of time, we are going through a process where we are inducing trial with our customers. We are offering it to some of our customers as an initial bundle proposition for a period of time where it's free to use, right? Or there is a premium kind of service, which is there that certain features are available to them, free to use. And beyond that, then they have to look at a pricing model. Speaker 200:30:20So in this year, at least, I feel it's going to be still relatively immaterial from an earnings point of view. But next fiscal year, it will become more relevant. So today, the focus is trying to make sure that we can get a larger installed base on the expense side as opposed to looking at monetizing that on day 0. Speaker 500:30:41Okay. And the product, is it kind of a I believe you said that you're going to target both, but initially in the way software typically worked is SMB. Is it fully featured? I mean, so I guess is your comp or competitor, a Zaggle type company? And are your features and functionality similar to the more fully featured suites? Speaker 500:31:12Or is it kind of a basic product to start for SMB that don't want to pay for something like Zaggle or another competitor? Speaker 200:31:22So today, the product is in a situation where oil in a shape, but it can definitely compete with the likes of Zaggle. In terms of the expense side of things, what we are looking at out here is a solution which uses a lot of the new Gen AI large language models for receipt analysis, which is much more advanced than the older models or older tools, which use OCR based recognition. OCR based recognition by its very nature has a limited amount of accuracy, whereas the LMM models because of the self learning aspect of theirs tend to be much better in terms of analyzing the expenses and capturing of the data. So we feel the solution is fairly comparable with the other mid market proposition products which are available today. The advantage which is there is that it comes in as a tightly knit or can be offered as a tightly knit solution between travel and expense or it can be sold singularly as an expense solution as well. Speaker 200:32:20So that is the advantage that we are offering to customers, especially those who are our existing customers already provide a more seamless experience between travel and expense for their employees. Speaker 500:32:33Okay. All right. And then, just back to the fungibility, I guess, you have some investors, U. S. Investors that have FBI licenses that can actually just, as I understand it, can actually just take Indian shares and then then hold them, buy more, sell some, whatever. Speaker 500:32:54And then you have some U. S. Investors that do not have FBI licenses, they're smaller. And so, how would that work with them? They would would you have, would Indian investors acquire the U. Speaker 500:33:10S. Shares from if they wanted to sell of U. S. Investors Or Speaker 200:33:18will there be some sort Speaker 500:33:21of offering or will there be some sort of private equity firm that would come in? And I'm just guessing overall, the marginal Indian investor would be more likely to acquire shares. I mean, I'm assuming there's some Indian investors that don't like the structure and would then want to add or buy for the first time shares. And so that should be a very positive event. But I guess going back to the FPI situation, how would you handle if they have an FPI license, it's not a problem, but if you don't have one, then what do you do? Speaker 200:34:03Sir, if that does allow visibility that we go down comp, at that point we will also see what assistance we can provide through local bankers out here to make sure that the shareholders are able to get access to the shares. So that's something that we will try and do from our side, but it's only something that will come up much closer to once the option gets finalized. And we will factor this into our decision making process as well as to how easy or difficult would it be for the shareholders to get access to the India shares. Speaker 500:34:37Okay. All right. That sounds good. I mean, that's a major net positive in my opinion because the U. S. Speaker 500:34:42Shares are trading at a huge discount. So, good luck in collapsing that. Thanks. Speaker 200:34:49Sure. Thank you. The only word of caution that I want to put out there for a 1 week reason is that from a timing point of view, it is a slightly healthier process. So I want to just let that out there be so that from an expectation setting point of view, we don't set the wrong expectations with shareholders. Speaker 500:35:08I understand that, but you did say 6 to 12 months? Speaker 200:35:13That's right. That is right. So that's the kind of timeline that we are working towards based on advice from advisors. Speaker 500:35:19Okay. Roger that. Thank you. Speaker 200:35:24Sure. Thank you. Operator00:35:35Thank you. The next question is from Amish Mahal. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:35:52Thanks for taking my additional question. Just a question actually on the buyback of the U. S. Shares. You had completed a buyback of $5,000,000 Is there any reason why the number should not be higher considering the steep discount and the best use of corporate funds? Speaker 400:36:11I realize it's a Board decision, but I wanted to know whether there's a rationale for capping it at 5,000,000? Speaker 200:36:19There is no capping on that. It's just that as we go through this process, we are evaluating multiple options. And we might also need to convert some cash for doing the larger restructuring that we spoke about. So once we have greater clarity on the route that we are going down, at that point we can evaluate if the buyback needs to be expanded or we do this in one go as part of the restructuring. Speaker 400:36:46Okay. Thank you. That's very clear. Speaker 200:36:49Sure. Operator00:36:55Thank you. As we currently have no further questions, I will now hand back to the management team for closing remarks. Speaker 100:37:05Thank you everyone for joining the call today. As always, we are available for follow ups. Please feel free to reach out for the same. Kiki, you can now close the call. Thank you. Speaker 200:37:18Thank you. Operator00:37:20Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallYatra Online Q1 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K) Yatra Online Earnings HeadlinesYatra Online, Inc. 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Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Yatra Online and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Yatra OnlineYatra Online (NASDAQ:YTRA) operates as an online travel company in India and internationally. It operates in Air Ticketing, and Hotels and Packages, and Other Services segments. The company provides travel-related services, including domestic and international air ticketing, hotel bookings, homestays, holiday packages, bus ticketing, rail ticketing, cab bookings, and ancillary services for leisure and business travelers. It also offers various services, including exploring and searching comprises web and mobile platforms that enable customers to explore and search flights, hotels, holiday packages, buses, trains, and activities through its website, www.yatra.com. In addition, the company provides its services through mobile applications that comprise Yatra, a mobile interface; Yatra Web Check-In, an application for flight check-in process for travelers; and Yatra Corporate, a self-booking application for business customers. Further, it offers tours, sightseeing, shows, and event services; rail and cab services, and other ancillary travel services; and sells travel vouchers and coupons. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Gurugram, India.View Yatra Online ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Amazon Earnings: 2 Reasons to Love It, 1 Reason to Be CautiousMeta Takes A Bow With Q1 Earnings - Watch For Tariff Impact in Q2Palantir Earnings: 1 Bullish Signal and 1 Area of ConcernVisa Q2 Earnings Top Forecasts, Adds $30B Buyback PlanMicrosoft Crushes Earnings, What’s Next for MSFT Stock?Qualcomm's Earnings: 2 Reasons to Buy, 1 to Stay AwayAMD Stock Signals Strong Buy Ahead of Earnings Upcoming Earnings Palantir Technologies (5/5/2025)Vertex Pharmaceuticals (5/5/2025)Realty Income (5/5/2025)Williams Companies (5/5/2025)CRH (5/5/2025)Advanced Micro Devices (5/6/2025)American Electric Power (5/6/2025)Constellation Energy (5/6/2025)Marriott International (5/6/2025)Energy Transfer (5/6/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Yatra 1Q25 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Kiki, and I will be your conference operator today. I will now hand you over to your host, Manish Hamarajani, VP of Corporate Development and IR. Operator00:00:28Manish, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:32Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal Q1 2025 financial results for the period ended June 30, 2024. I'm pleased to be joined on the call today by Yatra's CEO and Co Founder, Dhruv Srinhli and CFO, Rohan Mittal. The following discussion, including responses to your questions, reflects management views as of today, August 13, 2024. We don't take any obligation to update or revise the information. Speaker 100:01:03Before we begin our formal remarks, let me remind you that certain statements made on today's call may constitute forward looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to several risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a description of these risks, please refer to our filings with the SEC and our press release filed yesterday using on the IR section of our website. With that, let me turn the call over to Dhruv. Dhruv, please go ahead. Speaker 200:01:40Thank you, Manish, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our Q1 2025 earnings call. For the quarter ended June 30, 2024, we reported total revenue of INR1051 million, which is approximately US12.6 million dollars This represents a decline of 5% year over year. Adjusted air ticketing margins were impacted by a 21% decrease on account of lower volumes. The decline was primarily driven by reduced volumes in the B2C segment as we optimize discounts amid intensifying price competition in the market. Despite challenges in the B2C segment during the June quarter, the corporate travel segment showed robust growth across all key metrics. Speaker 200:02:27The company successfully secured 34 year corporate customer accounts, representing an annual billing potential of INR 2028 1,000,000,000 or approximately $24,300,000 with average billing potential up 77% sequentially. As the leader in corporate travel in India, our customer acquisition rates remained strong, consistently outperforming industry benchmarks. We also continue to actively evaluate strategic opportunities to further bolster our corporate travel segment. In addition, we made substantial progress in our meeting, incentives, conferences and exhibitions segment, which is the MICE business this quarter. Our newly onboarded team has started ramping up operations and while MICE contributions were modest for the June quarter, early signs for the current quarter are very encouraging, with significant business already secured in the September quarter. Speaker 200:03:23In addition, we have also scaled up teams to focus on the mid market corporate segment and new products including Visa services and car rental services for corporate travelers. Adjusted EBITDA came in at INR65.6 million, approximately USD800,000, a decrease from INR 115,400,000 in the same period last year, partly reflecting the impact of lower volumes and partly due to the added expense of onboarding teams from new initiatives mentioned earlier. The cost of incremental hires is close to INR 40,000,000 in the quarter. Ex investment of new initiatives during the quarter, our EBITDA would have been INR 105 point $6,000,000 which is broadly similar to last year. Let me emphasize the critical importance of accelerating our investment at this time in the corporate space. Speaker 200:04:17Over the past few months and particularly in the last quarter, the country's largest airline has begun offering deeply discounted fares exclusively on its website and mobile app. In light of the recent consolidation within India's domestic aviation sector and the current aircraft supply constraints, this trend is significantly increasing customer acquisition costs in the B2C market. As a result, it is imperative that we rapidly expand our corporate business and we are actively exploring both organic and inorganic opportunities to achieve this. The MICE industry presents a compelling growth opportunity with its attractive margin profile, making it a strategic addition to our corporate portfolio alongside our Visa facilitation and car rental services. Additionally, we have initiated a cost optimization program, which includes streamlining over 100 positions within the company. Speaker 200:05:08We anticipate realizing the benefit of these cost savings starting in September after accounting for any notice period obligations. We continue to make progress towards simplifying our corporate structure as well with the Board appointed Restructuring Committee actively engaging with all relevant stakeholders. The committee is diligently working on developing a comprehensive proposal to streamline our operations and enhance shareholder value. For the quarter ended 30th June 2024, we reported total revenue of INR 1051,000,000, which is USD 12,600,000, as I mentioned, down 5% year over year and adjusted revenue of INR R1422 million dollars which is approximately US17.1 million dollars which is down 14% year over year, mainly on account of the factors that I mentioned about. While it is our strategy to position ourselves as the corporate provider of choice, we recognize our ideal customer mix must be strategically balanced, and we are determined to winning back and regaining some of our B2C market share by implementing certain strategies in the coming quarter. Speaker 200:06:15These strategies we feel will be more tech enabled, technology enabled and innovation enabled ones and will not have a significant negative impact on our operating performance. Meanwhile, we continue to expand our corporate customer base demonstrated by the strong addition of new corporate customers during the Q1. We believe that our momentum in GAAP garnering reputable GAAP gathering reputable corporate clients serves as a testament to our excellent service and attractive platform offerings. Travel volumes in the IT sector, which is one of India's main business travel segments, was subdued in the Q1 of FY 'twenty five. However, we are pleased to report that our performance in this segment outpaced industry trends. Speaker 200:06:57While travel spent on the Yatra platform by our IT services customers were approximately 30% below pre COVID levels, Industry reports indicate a nearly 50% decline in overall IT services spend compared to pre COVID. This demonstrates Yatra's ability to capture an increased share of wallet within its existing customer base. I would like to also take the time to highlight some of our more recent strategic initiatives to expand our market and growth potential. As mentioned last quarter, we've expanded our software service to better meet the needs of our clients through the launch of our expense management solution. We are calling this solution recap, which stands for Receipt Capture and Processing. Speaker 200:07:39Recap leverages cutting edge technologies, including GenAI large language models for this receipt analysis to enable more accurate and comprehensive expense traffic, significantly reducing errors and saving time for our customers. We are currently working with a handful of customers on the expense front as part of our pilot program as we look to cross sell this product further into our current installed base. Expense management is a large and highly profitable segment, and our product capabilities make it a product that is suitable not just for the Indian market, but for international markets as well. Our initial response from customers has been very encouraging and this solution allows us to further deepen our relationship with our customers. With our focus on the corporate segment and our commitment to expanding our presence and offering, as mentioned earlier, we've added a team for the MICE segment and the early indications are highly encouraging. Speaker 200:08:32To provide you some context to the MICE market, the MICE market is valued at approximately USD US3.3 billion dollars in 2023 and is expected to grow to US10.5 billion dollars by 2,030, reflecting a CAGR of 18% from 2023 to 2,030. Now turning to the broader economic landscape, business travel in India is on an upswing. Currently, India ranks with the 9th largest market globally in terms of business travel spend. The market is expected to reach RMB38 1,000,000,000 this year and is projected to grow by 18% next year, surpassing pre pandemic levels. This growth is underpinned by a strong economic outlook for the country with the Reserve Bank of India projecting real GDP growth of 7.2% in FY 2025. Speaker 200:09:19The Reserve Bank of India has also highlighted the positive impact of healthy balance sheets amongst banks and corporates along with the government's ongoing focus on capital expenditure, and we believe this translates into greater demand in the corporate travel segment in the coming years. While domestic travel remains stable with expected growth in the highest northern regions, outbound travel is forecasted to grow significantly. Reports suggest that India's outbound departures could nearly triple to 50,000,000 by 2,030, fueled by improving connectivity, more direct and affordable flights and a growing desire for international travel. While the June quarter posed challenges for our B2C segment, we are encouraged by the strong momentum we are witnessing in our corporate travel business. The growth in new corporate accounts and the existing development in our MICE business underscores our commitment to driving long term value for our stakeholders. Speaker 200:10:12We continue to fine tune our strategic initiatives to maintain our position in the corporate sector, while working to improve market share and regain share in the direct to consumer sector. With that, let me hand the call over to Rohan to walk you through the details of the financial performance. Rohan? Thank you, Dhruv. I will now review our numbers for the quarter ended 30th June 2024. Speaker 200:10:38We saw a 17% YOY decline in our gross bookings. This was mostly due to the 20% decline in our air gross bookings as explained earlier. Our hotel and packages gross bookings remained flattish. Our overall adjusted margin for the quarter decreased by 15% y o y. Our adjusted margins for the air ticketing business were at 6.8% and 11.6% for hotels and packages. Speaker 200:11:11Moving on to expenses. As a percentage of total gross booking value, our marketing and sales promotion expenses reduced sharply by 25% on a YOY basis. Our personal expenses increased by 23% YOY as we continue to invest in talent to build out our mid market MICE visa and expense management solutions. Other costs remained largely range bound. On an overall basis, adjusted EBITDA was INR65,600,000 compared to INR 115,000,000 in the quarter ended June 24. Speaker 200:11:43Lastly, as of 30th June, we were carrying cash, cash equivalents and term deposits of INR4.5 billion, which is approximately US54 million dollars on our books. And our gross debt is to an all time low level of INR 210,000,000, which is roughly USD 2,500,000. With this, we conclude our prepared remarks, and I'd like to hand it over to the moderator for Q and A. Thank you. Operator00:12:12The person you are speaking with has put your call on hold. Please stay on the line. The first question we received is from Scott Beck from H. C. Wainwright. Operator00:12:48Scott, your line is open. Please go ahead. Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. Speaker 300:12:55Thank you for taking my questions. Dhruv, you touched on it in the prepared remarks, but could you give us a little more color on what options are on the table in regards to the independent committee and maybe what a reasonable timeline is to expect some decisions to be made? Speaker 200:13:11Sure. So with regards to the independent committee, the committee is currently working with advisers on evaluating the multiple options in front of us for simplifying our corporate structure. There are a couple of preferred groups that we've narrowed this down to. And now the committee, along with the advisers, is working with the regulators to understand the process and the feasibility of the different structures that are there in front of the company. In terms of time line, I think the structures which are there are a 6 to 12 month kind of a time line in terms of achieving full simplification of the process. Speaker 200:13:50This is, in certain scenarios, dependent on regulators in different jurisdictions. So this is only a broad guideline that I can share with you and not an exact number, as you said, because there are multiple regulators which are involved in the process. Speaker 300:14:04Sure. I can understand that. And is the goal here to create some sort of fungibility between the shares? Speaker 200:14:14That is the end objective, to try and create a way through which the shareholders in the U. S. Will get access directly to the India stock. Speaker 300:14:25Okay, perfect. I appreciate that color. Next, I want to ask about the B2C weakness. I'm curious what of that that you saw in the quarter is being driven by just kind of temporary softness in travel demand versus what may be more permanent headwind in direct sales of tickets from India's largest carrier? Speaker 200:14:50So there are 2 factors playing in right now. 1 is the supply side constraint. So as I had mentioned in our last earnings call, 75 aircrafts are taken out by Indigo because of the issue that they were facing with the Pratt and Whitney engines. This is a well publicized litigation and issue which is going on between Indigo and Patton Whitney. So that's the one thing which is there on account of which supply is limited in the country. Speaker 200:15:15The other challenge which is there, which has got accentuated is the view that Indigo has started taking over the course of the last 6 months and more so in the last quarter of offering fares directly on its site, which are meaningfully cheaper than what are available through 3rd party distribution channels. That I think is the bigger and more concerning trend that we are addressing at this point of time. Okay. That makes sense. And then the last thing, obviously, will get solved, right? Speaker 200:15:46It's just a matter of timing that supply will get addressed. So those engines won't get repaired, those aircrafts will come back, right? So whether it happens with a delay of a quarter or 2, that's between Indigo and Titan, but we do figure out that the supply will come back. Whereas this is or could potentially turn into a more secular trend while there are discussions which are happening between the airlines and the intermediaries in the country will come to an equilibrium. Speaker 300:16:15Okay. That's helpful. And then last one for me on the MICE business. It's nice to see you guys are starting to see some favorable momentum there. What is the typical contract structure? Speaker 300:16:26Are your customers under annual or multiyear contracts there? Just trying to understand from a visibility standpoint. Speaker 200:16:34So there are some customers at this point of time given that it's still relatively early day. There are annual contracts which exist and there will also be some which are more event based and large event and cycle based contracts. We are not yet at a stage like our business has already had multiyear contracts. Here, we are not yet at that stage where we are signing straight off the bat multiyear contracts. Here, these are most short to mid term kind of contracts, which are there as opposed to multiyear contracts. Speaker 200:17:04But as the business progresses and stabilizes, this should translate into multiyear contracts. Speaker 300:17:12Okay, perfect. Well, I appreciate the color guys. Thank you very much. Speaker 200:17:16Not at all. Thank you, Scott. Operator00:17:23The next question is from Amish Mahel from Private Investor. The line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:17:31Hello, morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have a couple of questions. One is, what percentage of your airline business is B2C? I thought it was a very, very small portion. Speaker 400:17:45So for this to have a 20% impact on your revenue seems a bit much. The second is, let's say, the largest carrier's decision to go direct to customers. Does it not also affect your cockpit business? And maybe a third relevant question is, how is it that companies like MakeMyTrip don't seem to have been impacted by the same issues that you're pointing out? Sorry for the last questions, but I can repeat definitely as needed. Speaker 200:18:17No. Thank you for the question. So let me clarify the first point in terms of the share, and you would have heard this on multiple calls from us. The B2C business till last year was accounting for almost 50% between 55% to 60% of our gross bookings. So it's not an insignificant part of our business. Speaker 200:18:36It's a fairly material part of our business, and that's the reason why the overall impact on the gross bookings because of what's happening. Secondly, in terms of between us and MakeMyTrip, the impact on MakeMyTrip is exactly the same as the impact that we are facing. The only difference which is there is that Makemarket has taken the view of discounting on Air India and Vistara, which is the other airline in the country quite meaningfully to offset some of the volume that they're losing on Indigo. You could do a quick search on any of the comparable platforms like Skarescanner or Google Clights, and you'll be able to validate that. In terms of overall numbers, obviously, MakeMyTrip has a scale advantage on hotels and bus from where they are generating incremental profits, which are helping them subsidize some of this gross investment on the air side. Speaker 200:19:27But the challenge that we are facing is something that everyone in the country is facing, not just us. To your third point on the corporate side as to why would this not flow into the corporate segment, the reason behind that, in fact, on the corporate side, it's a managed travel services where corporate employees have to go through our platform to book their business travel needs. And typically, what happens is these kinds of fares, which are offered on the airline side, which are direct, are the most restrictive fares with the least amount of value adds attached to them, whereas corporate travelers, 95% of the corporate bookings that happen, happen on special corporate rates, which come in bundled with other flexibility like cancellation protection, free seats being bundled with it, meals being bundled with it. And that is not something that Indigo discounts directly. The other thing which is also there is that on the corporate travel front, this MSR is a scenario where a company which employs 50,000 people has to then manage their employees going and booking Indigo flights or some part of their Indigo bookings directly coming back and claiming that while the rest of their travel is managed through the Yatra application and the Yatra portal for their business travel needs, including the approval process, including their expense management, etcetera. Speaker 200:20:45So that's not really a scenario which is quite easy for an airline to replicate. And even globally, if you look at the examples of people like Southwest, Ryanair, Easyjet, their focus is on the leisure travel segment in terms of these kinds of promotional sales that they offer on their own website. This is not targeting the business travelers. These fares also just to give you an indication typically will be there for advanced booking. That's where the bulk of the leisure travel happens, whereas business travel typically happens in a D minus 3, which is travel date minus 3 days kind of booking window. Speaker 200:21:22In that window, these vans are typically not available. I hope that clarifies your questions. Yes, you did. Speaker 400:21:30Thanks a lot. Praveen, really appreciate the details behind it. Just an additional question, if I may. The meeting management solution that or expense management tool that you launched, do you already have some traction with the mid market segment that you're targeting? That's the question. Speaker 200:21:49Yes. So we are currently running a pilot of that with a few of our customers, with a handful of our customers. That's the first phase which is there. We are also in discussions with some of our larger customers to see if this can replace more extensive global solutions, which are currently being used by the larger customers. But the initial subset that we are targeting is more on the mid tier segment. Speaker 200:22:12Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:22:17Thank you. The next question is from Korp Zettler from Catamount. The line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:22:28Hey, guys. I have a question on the potential acquisitions that you may do. I think, was it 2? Is it 1 or more than 2? And then also, what is the revenue size of these deals as it relates to the corporate business? Speaker 500:22:45I mean, is it going to double the corporate business, 20%, 50%? And then I have some follow ups. So, Scott, in the And the timing of completion of these deals. Sorry, go ahead. Speaker 200:23:04Sure. So these are deals which are currently it's hard for me to comment on an exact timing for ongoing discussions or dialogues that may or may not be happening. We've said that we are evaluating multiple options. It's hard to give an exact timing to closure of any of the acquisitions. I don't want to set any expectations in terms of timing from a closure point of view. Speaker 200:23:28These are discussions which are ongoing, and there are multiple such discussions which are ongoing. Our endeavor through the M and A part, and if I look at, I can guide you to what we've said from an India IPO standpoint, VPMR is approximately $20,000,000 for an acquisition of our multiple acquisitions. Whether this translates into 1 or multiple acquisitions, only once it's crystallized, would we be able to share more details on that. Since such time, there is no commitment in terms of that there is an acquisition which is actively going to happen in the near term. Speaker 500:24:05Okay. So but all right. Well, but you have aspirations to close some deals, I would assume. And so in the number, was that $20,000,000 what you would pay or the revenue that you would like to add? Speaker 200:24:19So $20,000,000 is what we have set aside as IPO proceeds in terms of an acquisition. Okay. So you will use cash system Or up to $20,000,000 would be potentially the payout for acquisitions. This could be for 1 acquisition or this could be for multiple acquisitions. Speaker 500:24:39Could you use stock also or is that $20,000,000 Speaker 200:24:41to cap? Operator00:24:41That's not Speaker 200:24:41in the case from an equity standpoint. When you do an IPO, you have to call out what are the end users of the IPO proceeds. And then the end use in the Indian IPO, we've EMR approximately $20,000,000 for IPO of all acquisitions. Speaker 500:24:59Okay. And you would use cash solely or could you use stock also and buy more revenue? Speaker 200:25:07Yes. So we could use stock as well. There is nothing that holds us back from doing our stock plus a cash deal. Speaker 500:25:15Okay, got it. All right. And the timing, I mean, how long have you been at this? Like, I guess, like, why don't you have an idea on timing? Speaker 200:25:29Rob, your question is then implying that there is an active acquisition, which is ongoing. And I'm clarifying that I can either confirm nor deny any such thing but there is an active acquisition conversation that is going on. Speaker 500:25:45Okay. All right. That's fair. And then on the fungibility of shares, did I get this right? You said 6 to 12 months, you think you'd have an answer there? Speaker 500:25:57Or was that an answer to was that a the question was how long will it take you to my question is how long will it take you to know whether or not the shares will be fungible? And the other question is what do you think that the Indian investor base would think about that? I mean, I'm guessing they don't the structure, as I understand it, you're kind of the first dual listing company in India. And so my guess is a little confused, as probably all investors are about the structure. So do you think that would be a positive for them if you were able to collapse the structure? Speaker 500:26:35That's one question. And then do I have it right that you think that fungibility, if it were to occur, would occur within 6 to 12 months? Speaker 200:26:46Yes. So in terms of the second part, based on the discussions that we've had with various advisers across multiple jurisdictions, 6 to 12 months could potentially be the timeline for a fungibility event. As I said, given that there are multiple regulators involved in this, it could be a lengthier process. But our best estimate at this point based on the advice that we have from the council that we have in different jurisdictions, it is an event which could take up to 12 months. Speaker 500:27:22Okay. All right. And then so the multiple entities that are involved, is that so you probably have the SEC and you probably have SEBI. Is there other regulatory agencies or bodies that need to sign off? Speaker 200:27:40So these are the 2 main bodies. There is the SEC and then there is SEBI. There will also be tax clearances, etcetera, which will be needed in India depending on the structure that we adopt or it could also be Indian courts if it's a merger structure that we adopt. So there are a couple of options that we are working closely with. And in each one of them, there are different sets of regulators that are involved in the process. Speaker 200:28:09As you rightly also pointed out, this is a fairly unique scenario. There aren't enough recidences of a scenario like this that one can look at and use that as a basis of saying, here is a more definitive timeline for doing something like this. Speaker 500:28:26Okay. And I guess by doing this, you will eliminate some overhead costs, filing costs, legal costs, management costs. Would you collapse the boards, maybe add some board costs that are eliminated? Do you roughly have an estimate of how much costs would be eliminated associated with the collapsing of the listings, if that were to occur? Speaker 200:28:51Sure. So today there is approximately $2,000,000 to $2,500,000 of cost which is associated with being the U. S.-listed entity, that cost will go away on collapsing of this structure or large part of that cost will go away on collapsing of this structure. Speaker 500:29:09Okay. All right. And then just on the expense management product, could you just talk briefly about so it sounds like it's did I get that right that you said that you may see some revenue was that revenue from newly added corporate customers or expense management? I didn't hear that clearly. When do you think expense management, the revenue could actually start to be somewhat meaningful? Speaker 500:29:40Then I Speaker 100:29:40have a follow-up on expense management. Speaker 500:29:42So for the revenue to be Speaker 200:29:48material on the expense management front, I think we are looking at more like next fiscal year for the revenue to be material. At this point of time, we are going through a process where we are inducing trial with our customers. We are offering it to some of our customers as an initial bundle proposition for a period of time where it's free to use, right? Or there is a premium kind of service, which is there that certain features are available to them, free to use. And beyond that, then they have to look at a pricing model. Speaker 200:30:20So in this year, at least, I feel it's going to be still relatively immaterial from an earnings point of view. But next fiscal year, it will become more relevant. So today, the focus is trying to make sure that we can get a larger installed base on the expense side as opposed to looking at monetizing that on day 0. Speaker 500:30:41Okay. And the product, is it kind of a I believe you said that you're going to target both, but initially in the way software typically worked is SMB. Is it fully featured? I mean, so I guess is your comp or competitor, a Zaggle type company? And are your features and functionality similar to the more fully featured suites? Speaker 500:31:12Or is it kind of a basic product to start for SMB that don't want to pay for something like Zaggle or another competitor? Speaker 200:31:22So today, the product is in a situation where oil in a shape, but it can definitely compete with the likes of Zaggle. In terms of the expense side of things, what we are looking at out here is a solution which uses a lot of the new Gen AI large language models for receipt analysis, which is much more advanced than the older models or older tools, which use OCR based recognition. OCR based recognition by its very nature has a limited amount of accuracy, whereas the LMM models because of the self learning aspect of theirs tend to be much better in terms of analyzing the expenses and capturing of the data. So we feel the solution is fairly comparable with the other mid market proposition products which are available today. The advantage which is there is that it comes in as a tightly knit or can be offered as a tightly knit solution between travel and expense or it can be sold singularly as an expense solution as well. Speaker 200:32:20So that is the advantage that we are offering to customers, especially those who are our existing customers already provide a more seamless experience between travel and expense for their employees. Speaker 500:32:33Okay. All right. And then, just back to the fungibility, I guess, you have some investors, U. S. Investors that have FBI licenses that can actually just, as I understand it, can actually just take Indian shares and then then hold them, buy more, sell some, whatever. Speaker 500:32:54And then you have some U. S. Investors that do not have FBI licenses, they're smaller. And so, how would that work with them? They would would you have, would Indian investors acquire the U. Speaker 500:33:10S. Shares from if they wanted to sell of U. S. Investors Or Speaker 200:33:18will there be some sort Speaker 500:33:21of offering or will there be some sort of private equity firm that would come in? And I'm just guessing overall, the marginal Indian investor would be more likely to acquire shares. I mean, I'm assuming there's some Indian investors that don't like the structure and would then want to add or buy for the first time shares. And so that should be a very positive event. But I guess going back to the FPI situation, how would you handle if they have an FPI license, it's not a problem, but if you don't have one, then what do you do? Speaker 200:34:03Sir, if that does allow visibility that we go down comp, at that point we will also see what assistance we can provide through local bankers out here to make sure that the shareholders are able to get access to the shares. So that's something that we will try and do from our side, but it's only something that will come up much closer to once the option gets finalized. And we will factor this into our decision making process as well as to how easy or difficult would it be for the shareholders to get access to the India shares. Speaker 500:34:37Okay. All right. That sounds good. I mean, that's a major net positive in my opinion because the U. S. Speaker 500:34:42Shares are trading at a huge discount. So, good luck in collapsing that. Thanks. Speaker 200:34:49Sure. Thank you. The only word of caution that I want to put out there for a 1 week reason is that from a timing point of view, it is a slightly healthier process. So I want to just let that out there be so that from an expectation setting point of view, we don't set the wrong expectations with shareholders. Speaker 500:35:08I understand that, but you did say 6 to 12 months? Speaker 200:35:13That's right. That is right. So that's the kind of timeline that we are working towards based on advice from advisors. Speaker 500:35:19Okay. Roger that. Thank you. Speaker 200:35:24Sure. Thank you. Operator00:35:35Thank you. The next question is from Amish Mahal. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:35:52Thanks for taking my additional question. Just a question actually on the buyback of the U. S. Shares. You had completed a buyback of $5,000,000 Is there any reason why the number should not be higher considering the steep discount and the best use of corporate funds? Speaker 400:36:11I realize it's a Board decision, but I wanted to know whether there's a rationale for capping it at 5,000,000? Speaker 200:36:19There is no capping on that. It's just that as we go through this process, we are evaluating multiple options. And we might also need to convert some cash for doing the larger restructuring that we spoke about. So once we have greater clarity on the route that we are going down, at that point we can evaluate if the buyback needs to be expanded or we do this in one go as part of the restructuring. Speaker 400:36:46Okay. Thank you. That's very clear. Speaker 200:36:49Sure. Operator00:36:55Thank you. As we currently have no further questions, I will now hand back to the management team for closing remarks. Speaker 100:37:05Thank you everyone for joining the call today. As always, we are available for follow ups. Please feel free to reach out for the same. Kiki, you can now close the call. Thank you. Speaker 200:37:18Thank you. Operator00:37:20Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by