Infibeam Avenues’ Q1 PAT Jumps 12% YoY To INR 25.46 Cr

SUMMARY

Income from operations zoomed more than 77% to INR 742.3 Cr in Q1 FY24 from INR 418.3 Cr a year ago

While PAT rose on a year-on-year basis, it tanked over 33% from INR 38.43 Cr in the quarter ended March 2023

Infibeam Avenues’ total gross volume rose to a record high of INR 742 Cr in Q1 FY24, up 77% from INR 418 Cr in Q1 FY23

Fintech company Infibeam Avenues reported a 12% year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at INR 25.46 Cr in the first quarter (Q1) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). In contrast, PAT stood at INR 22.59 Cr in the year-ago period.

However, PAT tanked over 33% from INR 38.43 Cr in the quarter ended March 2023. As per the company, its adjusted PAT stood at INR 32 Cr in Q1 FY24 as against INR 23 Cr in the Q1 FY23.

For adjusted PAT, the company excluded the notional value of mark-to-market investment gain/loss.

Without explicitly specifying the reason for the quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline in PAT, Infibeam said that Q1 is seasonally a weak quarter.

Income from operations zoomed more than 77% to INR 742.3 Cr in Q1 FY24 from INR 418.3 Cr in the corresponding quarter last year. On a QoQ basis, operating income jumped 13% from INR 652.6 Cr.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at INR 56 Cr in the quarter under review, up 31% from INR 43 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

Meanwhile, total expenditure in Q1 FY24 zoomed over 81% to INR 710.6 Cr from INR 390.8 Cr in Q1 FY23. On a QoQ basis, total expenses rose 14% from INR 619.7 Cr.

“… The strong performance of the company is the result of our relentless endeavour to build a great company with merchant satisfaction at the centre of all our business strategies. It reflects our collective resolve to evolve, innovate, and lead continuously,” said Infibeam Avenues MD Vishal Mehta.

KPIs Witness Improvement

The company’s total transaction processing value (TPV) rose 27% to INR 1.18 Lakh Cr in the quarter from INR 93,356 Cr in the year-ago period. While 55% of the total TPV came from payments business during the quarter, the remaining came from platforms vertical.

Payments vertical includes offerings such as CCAvenue International, BillAvenue and GoPayments, while the platforms vertical includes payments related to the government’s GeM portal and other large enterprise software implementations.

Similarly, gross volume soared to a record high of INR 742 Cr in Q1 FY24, up 77% from INR 418 Cr in Q1 FY23.

The net take rate (net earnings from each transaction) of its payments vertical improved to 8.4 bps in Q1 FY24 from 7.2 bps in the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile, the company added, on an average, 9,500 merchants to its fold daily during the quarter. The total merchant count for its online businesses stood at 1 Cr at the end of June 2023. As per the company, the downloads of its omnichannel mobile payments solution, CCAvenue TapPay, doubled between April 2023 and June 2023 to close the quarter at 3 Lakh.

The company is eyeing a gross revenue in the range of INR 3,000 Cr to INR 3,300 Cr and a PAT between INR 130 Cr and 150 Cr by the end of the current fiscal year.

In a regulatory filing with the bourses, the company also announced a slew of new elevations to its top brass. While Vijay Subramanian will be appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the platform business, Vishwas Patel will be elevated as the joint managing director of the fintech firm. Alongside, Mehta will now become the chairman and managing director of the company.

In addition, the company also announced its foray into the artificial intelligence (AI) space to cash in on the booming AI-enabled fraud detection market. As part of this, it will establish its first AI HUB, headquartered at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) with an initial focus on fintech and other financial sectors.

The company’s board also approved plans to list its digital marketing arm Odigma on the Indian stock exchanges. It also gave its nod for a ‘composite scheme of arrangement’ among various subsidiaries of Infibeam under which every shareholder of the parent company Infibeam Avenues Limited (IAL) will receive one equity share of Odigma for every 89 fully paid-up equity shares held in IAL.

Besides, the company’s board also approved a proposal to increase its stake in cross-border remittance platform, Fable Fintech, by an additional 25% (that will increase total stake to 41%) for a total cash consideration up to INR 3.2 Cr and an additional INR 1.4 Cr consideration via compulsorily convertible debentures (CCDs).

Shares of Infibeam Avenues ended 2.69% higher at INR 14.9 on the BSE on Tuesday.