Justdial posts 6% rise in Q3 net

MUMBAI: Online business search engine Justdial posted a small 5.8% rise in profit for the third quarter at Rs 27.4 crore as compared to Rs 25.9 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. A 16% jump in expenses to Rs 165.23 crore pulled back a strong rise in the profit, which was lower on a sequential basis too against the Rs 29.6 crore posted in the second quarter. Justdial, however, clocked an 8.4% increase in operating revenues to Rs 180.27 crore, from Rs 166.17 crore a year ago, while remaining flat sequentially.

“We managed to execute well despite some headwinds during the quarter. With a refresh of our product portfolio, we believe we can continue to improve user engagement and provide greater value to our customers,”said VSS Mani, chief executive officer, Justdial, in a statement.

Margins saw a bit of a bump with adjusted operating Ebitda margin coming in at 17% as compared to 25% last year. Growth in paid listings kept up its pace rising 20% at 4,24,830 campaigns for paid advertisers — the highest in five quarters. The listings database too grew a modest 7% y-o-y at 17.3 million.