Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Michelle, moderator for this conference. Welcome to the conference call of Route Mobile Limited, arranged by Concept Investor Relations to discuss its Q4 and FY 2024 results. We have with us today Mr. Rajdipk umar Gupta, Managing Director and Group CEO, Mr. Gautam Badalia, Group Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Investor Relations Officer, and Mr. Suresh Jankar, Chief Financial Officer. At this moment, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made in today's earnings call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve certain risks and uncertainties. Kindly refer to slide number two of the presentation for the detailed disclaimer.
Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajdipk umar Gupta, MD and Group CEO. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Michelle. Good evening, everyone. I wish you all good health and prosperity. FY 2024 has been a remarkable year for Route Mobile. We have been able to post our highest quarterly revenue in Q2 and Q3 and register a good growth in H1. We continue to acquire some large customers and deliver unique solutions across industries. The CPaaS industry is facing headwinds since November 2023, including enterprise cost optimization initiatives, particularly from global OTT, and shift in communication channels. While some of these structural changes will take time to stabilize, we remain vigilant to leverage emerging opportunities. Route Mobile strategic roadmap position us to seize this moment and establish our leadership in the CPaaS ecosystem. The imminent closure of the Proximus deal will bolster our portfolio, extend our global footprint, and ignite our innovation pipeline, creating unparalleled potential for Route Mobile in future.
The synergies derived from this partnership will complement our products, geographic, and customer base while accelerating our journey towards a billion-dollar revenue. We have fallen short of our revised guidance. However, we have secured strategic deals and laid the groundwork for a stronger FY 2025, expecting significant growth in revenue and profitability driven by the synergies within the Proximus Group. Some key development of FY 2024, some new customer wins. We signed a direct contract with leading e-commerce cloud computing company, providing CPaaS services across 10 countries, including India. We secured an exclusive A2P monetization deal with Vi India, now active since 1 April , 2024. We were appointed as an exclusive partner for A2P monetization with MNO in APAC. We have partnered with Robi Axiata , Bangladesh, as a technical enabler, sales partner for RCS Business Messaging.
We have installed our MAP server with Robi, and we want to replicate the same solution with other operators globally. In terms of new product achievement, we piloted the metro ticketing, ticket booking across WhatsApp and RCS for select Indian cities, generating the highest user traffic in just three hours on WhatsApp business messaging. On the award and recognition, Route Mobile was ranked as tier one vendor in the A2P messaging market impact report by ROCCO, excelling in both enterprise and MNO categories. Awarded Juniper's Best Mobile Authentication Solution Platinum Partner Award, featured as a major provider in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for CPaaS, and highlighted in four Gartner's Hype Cycle reports. I'm very proud of my team for having delivered a successful financial year, and congratulate them on the great performance.
Finally, leveraging a solid FY 2023-2024 performance, the board of directors has proposed a final dividend of INR 2 rupees per share, following an interim payout of INR 9 rupees per share. Now I will pass it over to Gautam to walk us through the financials in detail. Thank you for your time, and let's continue working towards a successful FY 2025. Over to you, Gautam.
Thank you, Rajdip. Good evening, everyone. To start with, we've already uploaded our quarterly earnings presentation on our website, as well as stock exchange website. Hope you had a chance to go through the presentation. I'll quickly summarize our financial and operating performance during Q4 FY 2024, and for the full year, FY 2024, before opening the floor for Q&A. Further to what Rajdip said about the current industry dynamics, there were a few related factors highlighted in slide 14 of the earnings presentation, which affected our growth and profitability in FY 2024. These factors are... The first factor essentially is MRM's, M.R. Messaging's financial performance was adversely impacted in FY 2024, owing to geopolitical issues in Europe and, a particular client of, M.R. Messaging, undergoing the industry consolidation.
So some of these things affected M.R. Messaging's revenue, and that had a financial impact, I mean, on the payout as well as on the impairment that's been captured on the financials. There was a sharp devaluation of naira, and that had an impact on the revenue that we earn in the Nigerian market. There was a provision for an onerous contract, which is already being renegotiated. Hopefully, I mean, if the things go fine in terms of the renegotiation, these provisions will be brought back into the books. In volume terms, moving back to some of the business KPIs. In volume terms, we processed 34 billion transactions in Q4 FY 2024 and 126 billion in FY 2024....
India continues to be, our largest market by termination, accounting for over 48% of our revenue by termination. India termination revenues grew by 19% in FY 2024. The revenue contribution from U.S.-headquartered clients as a percentage of total operating revenue reduced from 46% in FY 2023 - 42% in FY 2024. Revenue from U.S.-headquartered customers grew by only 4% during the same period in absolute terms. You may refer to slide 19, for this. Further, Q4 is generally the weakest quarter for Masivian from a seasonality perspective. In terms of the cash flow, we witnessed, improvement in the normalized cash flow conversion. In FY 2024, our normalized CFO to EBITDA conversion was 56%, as against 45% in FY 2023, this is referred in slide 16 of the analyst's presentation.
We believe there will be marked improvement in the free cash flow generation in FY 2025. With this backup, let me walk you through our financial performance. In terms of Q4, FY 2024 performance, Q4 revenue from operations grew by 0.8% YoY and declined 0.7% sequentially to INR 10,170 million. Billable transactions stood at over 34 billion in Q4 FY 2024, as compared to 31 billion in Q3 FY 2024 and 27 billion in Q4 FY 2023. Average realization per billable transaction declined to INR 0.30, compared to INR 0.33 in Q3 FY 2024, due to a significant increase in the domestic volumes in India. Gross profit margin expanded to 21.8% as compared to 21.3% in Q4 FY 2023, and 21.2% in Q3 FY 2024.
EBITDA for Q4 decreased by 9.4% YOY and 2.9% QOQ to INR 120.4 million, due to reasons mentioned above, plus there were a few expenses related to MWC and a few other events conducted by the company during the last quarter. EBITDA margin contracted from 13.2% in Q4 FY 2023, and 12.1% in Q3 FY 2024 to 11.8%. Profit after tax adjusted for exceptional items declined by 10.3% YOY and 5.3% sequentially to INR 934 million in Q4 FY 2024, with PAT margin declining from 10.3% in Q4 FY 2023 and 9.6% in Q3 FY 2023 to 9.2% in Q4 FY 2024.
In terms of the full year performance, FY 2024, revenue from operations grew by 12.7% from INR 356.92 million in FY 2023 to INR 402.23 million rupees in FY 2024. In terms of certain KPIs, billable transactions increased from 107 billion in FY 2023 to 126 billion in FY 2024. Average realization per billable transaction was INR 0.32, as against INR 0.33 in FY 2023. We had a net revenue retention of 106%. Gross profit margin decreased to 21.4% in FY 2024 versus 22% in FY 2023. EBITDA non-GAAP grew by 8.4% to INR 49.49 million rupees in FY 2024. EBITDA margin stood at 12.3%.
In terms of operating leverage, EBITDA as a percentage of gross profit stood at 58%. Effective tax rate for the year was around 15%. Profit after tax adjusted for exceptional items grew by 11.7% YoY to INR 3,720 million in FY 2024, and PAT margin was 9.2%. Average receivable days increased to 80 days, and payable days increased to 66 days. We onboarded 43 employees during Q4 FY 2024, and 53 employees left during the same period. With this, I'd like to open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only the handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Nikhil Chaudhary from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on revenue growth expectation. Rajdip Gupta, we have been guiding our revenue growth each year. What stop us from not giving numerical guidance this year, or any range band you can highlight for growth expectation in FY 2025?
So let me just answer this, maybe Gautam can add. So I, Nikhil, I think there is lots of synergies, post-deal with Proximus, which needs to be planned, and I think that is one reason we are not able to give any guidance at this point of time. Gautam, if you want to add to this.
Yeah, no, no, so, so, absolutely. So I think, we are, I think, expecting the closure to happen any time now, and once the closure is done, I think a lot of these synergies will be quantified, and, some of these are material and will warrant shareholders' approval. So once some of these things are kind of approved by the shareholders, I think it will be worthwhile to then, give, the guidance for, for, FY 2025 and beyond.
So just I request you to kind of bear with us for maybe some time before we kind of talk about... But as Rajdip highlighted, I think some of the large deals have already gone live, like the Vodafone deal has gone live from 1 April . So some of those benefits are naturally kind of different flow through now... But the synergy, I mean, because these are material numbers, and they will have a significant bearing on the full year performance in FY 2025, and hence, I think we'll request you to kind of just hold it till we get the share, minority shareholder approval for the same.
Sure. Can you at least quantify what kind of benefit you are seeing now that, you know, the merger is almost complete? While you might not want to, you know, classify it between FY 2025, 26, but after the merger, now you have more clarity, more integrated. Can you please quantify how much could be potential benefit of the synergy?
So I think it will be worthwhile for us to kind of validate or give any of those guidance once the transaction is closed. So please bear with us for a few days, I think, for the transaction closure, and then I think we can publicly talk about a lot of these numbers.
Sure. Also, clearly we are seeing challenges in the ILD revenue side, and ILD revenue continues to decline, even in this quarter, right? Any color, and what kind of visibility you have going forward, especially, on growth perspective?
Yeah.
Initially, I think we went live with Vodafone Idea Firewall on first of April, and we do see a growth in traffic at our end, and I think our Firewall is doing fantastic job. There were some leakages which we have identified. I think the Vodafone team is already taking action on it. So I think, as of now, we are just one month, you know, like in terms of our exclusive deal with Vodafone Idea, and we have seen a growth on ILD volume. But I'm sure that volume will grow in coming quarters as well.
Sure.
And, Nikhil-
Yeah.
Just to add, I think we have from an Indian ILD standpoint, I think there was a growth. I mean, while it was a single-digit growth, we witnessed growth, so there was no decline per se, from an Indian ILD standpoint.
Yeah.
I think the decline was largely more from a rest of the world standpoint, more to do with M.R. Messaging and material, and seasonally, I mean, it's a weak quarter for material. So some of these things had a little bit of a bearing from a growth, involving standpoint.
Got it, Gautam. My last one is on the INR 100 crore line credit facility we have issued for Route UK. Any color what it is for?
Yeah, so this is essentially for a bank guarantee that we have to give it as part of a contractual arrangement. So, it is essentially backed by fixed deposits, and since Route Mobile UK is kind of doing it, and the fixed deposits are being held in India, so this was, this approval was warranted.
So what we have mentioned, improvement in cash flow is including the assumption of INR 100 crore going for fixed deposits, right?
No, this INR 100 crore doesn't go out of the balance sheet, so essentially this is cash sitting on the balance sheet.
Okay.
This is only a guarantee, which is a non-cash, I mean, out of balance sheet.
Yeah, Gautam, and that's it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kaustav Bubna from BMSPL Capital. Please go ahead. Mr. Popna, I have unmuted your line. Kindly proceed with your question. As the current participant is not answering, we'll move on to the next question, which is from the line of Dipesh Mehta from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yeah, a couple of questions. First, about the onerous contract, if you can provide some detail about the onerous contract, where we made some provision. Second question is about EBITDA margin. I think you indicated 60 basis points one-off in the 2024. Should we even assume that 60 basis points will not recur and your margin should be 60 basis points higher in next fiscal? Third question is about new product. New product, again, quarter-on-quarter, seems to be down, so more like plateaued performance, even though industry and some of your peers shown good acceleration. So if you can provide some color around it. Thanks.
So I, Dipesh, I will start from, question number three. I mean, like, I, I don't know what my peer is doing, but, as far as, our customer onboarding is concerned, on RCS or on WhatsApp or on other channel of communication, we are doing fairly well, and we have a great pipeline, and we are definitely looking out to, scale this business in coming months. So as a company, I think we are very bullish about this growth potential, which we are right now seeing based on the current pipeline. Gautam, over to you.
Yeah. So just adding to your question number three: So essentially, Masivian has a very good profile of some of these new products that they have been able to cross-sell a lot of these new products. Unfortunately, this is a seasonally weak quarter, but for Masivian, I think we have overall, I think, grown our new products business meaningfully well. But, but I think Masivian was, I think, because of the seasonality aspect, a little bit of a drag on the new products growth.
Coming to the onerous contract, I think the onerous contract, I mean, because of confidentiality and because of the competition sensitivities around it, we would not want to kind of call it out, but we can kind of give you a perspective that this is being negotiated, and once the negotiations are through, we'll be able to kind of get some benefits back to the books as a write back, I mean, to the books. So, at this point in time, we want to reserve our comments on this onerous contract and the... But, I mean, there are active negotiations already happening, I mean, on this front. And on the second question, I think on the EBITDA margin, yeah, so I think Q4, typically we have-
...A little bit of one-off, I mean, in terms of some of the events that we attend, in terms of our AOP, planning that happens, and, and plus, I mean, the track because of, MR-
Plus the variable payout as well, I think in the year 13. Yep.
Yeah. So some of these things I think were a bit of a drag, but yeah, some of these things should normalize. We are hopeful. I think MRM should bounce back strongly. So we are kind of working very closely now, I think, across the teams to see whatever synergies they could give from the group. So, yeah, so I think that's where we are.
Yes, just to get further detail about the EBITDA margin. When I refer, I was not referring for quarter four, I was referring from 25, because in your presentation, you mentioned 50 basis points impact in FY 2024, because of various factors you highlighted. So my question is more about next year. When you look from margin perspective, do you think that is likely to be fully recovered?
As I said, I think there will be a lot of material related party transactions. So I'll request that we discuss this-
Sure.
once some of these approvals from minority shareholders-
Just on the onerous contract, whether it is a, because, it pertains to domestic market-related business or it is outside of India business?
No, it is outside of India.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, so thanks for the opportunity. So the first question is, so you mentioned about the changing landscape in which enterprises were looking for cost optimization and also in terms of alternative channels for communication. So if you can please elaborate and started from November onwards. So, you know, how do you see, you know, the situation there as it stabilized and how we see that shaping maybe in next year? Because, you know, the shift was mostly from the traditional channel to the OTT channel. And, now with the price hike in the OTT channel also, can we, you know, see stability in the domestic and the ID, you know, volumes?
And also the shift, in terms of the channel is not, you know, reflected in our, in our numbers in terms of the, you know, like, new growth areas. Like, if you see YoY it is there, but, you know, sequentially, we are not seeing that kind of growth. So how to read that?
So, Amit, let me start this. I think, if you talk about the large OTT players, they have actually cut down their costs, and they have not moved their channel to another channel. Like, they're sending OTP from SMS, they have not moved that to WhatsApp or other channels. So that's. In fact, as a company, we are already in talks with large, large OTT players. If they want to shift their channel from A to B, we as a company, we are happy to help them in those areas as well, and we are in talks with various other channels, OTT players, if they use multiple channels powered by Route Mobile. And as far as the volume is concerned, I think we do see stability now.
We see that in last few months the numbers are getting better, coming from OTT players, and they do understand the potential of SMS being a better way to authenticate than other channels because of lots of data security and other aspects which they also believe in. So for me, the next few quarters or coming years down the line, A2P business will flourish, and the OTT players will come to this, because for WhatsApp price hike to $0.025 makes more sense for them to go for OTP channel. But there are many companies which are looking out to use WhatsApp channels. We definitely as a company will provide those API in various part of the world.
Okay. And then in terms of the Vi deal, you know, we're happy to hear that it has gone live. So you mentioned in earlier calls that in terms of the overall revenue potential. So how we can see the ramp-up here? So, like, from first month only, it has picked up, or it will take time to ramp up to the full potential?
It has picked up from first month onwards. It varies. We definitely see a growth coming from large OTT players. As well, because of our Firewall, we are able to block lots of leakages, which were happening domestically as well as on DT level coming from outside. We were able to mitigate those risks through our Firewall, and there are lots of new channels being used for gray routes, like a flash call. We have identified those leakages, and we shared the entire detail with Vodafone, and we tried to put, you know, like, mechanism on a Firewall to block those. So we have definitely seen a growth in ILD business in last month.
Okay. And so my last question would be, you know, mention that the weaknesses coming mostly from M.R. Messaging and seasonally weak Masivian. So these two acquired entities have been facing problems over the last, I think, two, three quarters. So most of the challenges we're seeing are in this portfolio. And if you can elaborate more on what kind of challenges and is there trend aggregates, or if you can elaborate more or give some more color, what's happening there?
So as Gautam mentioned, Amit, so because of the geopolitical issues, you know, like, they were serving some customers in Russia and Ukraine kind of thing, and those customers got impacted. So I think there's a reason behind it, and we are working very closely with M.R. Messaging. As far as MessageEn is concerned, I think they are doing fairly well. I think Q4 for them is always a weak quarter, but, as far as the growth is concerned, MessageEn is doing fantastically well. On a M.R. Messaging side, we as a group company, working very closely with them about in terms of supporting them to win more contracts in their region.
So I think both the companies are fairly well-placed, and whatever dip we have seen in the market and because of the certain geopolitical issues in past.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Swapnil Potdukhe from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rajdip. Hi, Gautam. Thanks for asking me. My first question is with respect to the ILD messaging trends, right? Now, you mentioned that some of the weakness that we are seeing is because of things happening outside of India, especially MRM and Messian. Now, the question here is, if that is so, what are some of the entities in U.S. which contribute meaningfully to your revenues? You know, in the Americas, 42%, and Europe, 14%. Do they also include someone like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and they were the main customers in those particular regions as well, and that is why the impact is there, or it is something very, very regional to those particular geographies?
It's very regional to those geographies, Swapnil.
And if you could elaborate a bit more, Rajdip, I mean, is it like the Ukraine situation is something which is happening, affecting your-
So in M.R. Messaging , we are working with some large customer based out of Russia. You know, like, so they were, we had a large contract with them, and because of the, they're operating from Europe, they've been told to stop working with those customers. So I think that's one impact. I think, Gautam, you want to add to this?
Yeah. So I think on the ILD front in India, I think from some of these U.S.-headquartered clients, we've been doing well, but it could have been much better. I think for some of these clients, I mean, they've been a little cautious about their spends. So some of that, I think, is being reflected across the board. It's not only relevant from a Route Mobile standpoint, I mean, it's across the CPaaS industry. But now I think with this WhatsApp pricing, I think they're talking about $0.028, so it's pretty much, I mean, close to the parity levels of ILD pricing. So we believe a lot of these things will come back.
Some of the issues related to, as Rajdip highlighted, in A2P messaging and messaging are more regional, and once they start to get the traffic back, I think we should do fairly well. But, we're waiting for at least some of these ILD traffic to ramp up, especially now with the Vi deals going live.
So on that, Gautam, at one point of time, you mentioned the Vi deal has a potential of around $100 million in revenue terms. Does that figure stay the same, or is there any change because that was, I think two or three quarters back. So, any... Yeah.
We continue to serve Vi even in the previous year. So adjusted for, I mean, whatever revenue that gets cannibalized, I mean, we should do incrementally about INR 500 crore-INR 600 crore from the Vi deal.
So I think, Swapnil, you need to also understand the synergy between, Proximus, TeleSign, and Route Mobile, you know, like. And I think keeping that in mind, I think we need to understand that there is definitely a potential where we have a direct access of some of the large, U.S. customers, which we don't have as a, as a Route Mobile as of now. So we will definitely come up with a strategy as to how to win more, large OTT players, sitting in U.S., and how to start directly, working with directly with TeleSign to win more, large accounts. But keeping all this in mind, I think we are very fairly, very much, sure that we will, see that number of INR 500 crore -INR 600 crore which we have guided.
No, but, is that a change from the earlier assumption that the Vi deal will add around INR 800 crore of incremental revenue to your top line, and now it is just INR 500 crore-INR 600 crore? There's a-
No, no. So Swapnil, we, we continue to terminate about INR 200 crore of revenue. I mean, we, we're doing that as we speak, even last year, right? So, so to that extent, I mean, that would be revenues that will get cannibalized this year. So that INR 800 needs to be adjusted for whatever we've been doing last year, right?
Okay. Okay. And, the other thing is with respect to your receivable, receivable days going up meaningfully, this year. Now, is it entirely related to the Firewall deals or is there more to it?
No, we realized a chunky bit of payment, I mean, towards the first week of April, so that had a little bit of a bearing in terms of the receivable days going up.
Okay, but that jump has been meaningful.
Yeah, it is meaningful. You are right. So it was a large OTT payment, a couple of large OTT payments that we received during the first week of April.
April. Okay, okay. And this one-off provision, have you already provided for it or, or... And if you have provided, where exactly will that reflect?
No, it is part of the exceptional item, and you can maybe also refer it as within the cash flow statement.
Okay. So any recovery from over there will not be, get reflected in your, operating profit. Is that I'm understanding correct then? It will come in other income or somewhere.
Yeah, it will get maybe kind of written back in the same head. Yes, you're right.
Okay. And, the last question is with respect to your domestic volumes. How have they moved in the recent past? I mean, is there any incremental- I think, you know, addition in terms of, you know, clientele, earlier you used to disclose that you have, you, you were winning some BFSI clients and all. Has there been any, any incremental gains for this?
So per se, in India, I think we have done fairly well. I think domestic volumes have grown in double digits for India. So there, I think we are very, very bullish.
This, this is despite the fact that there has been a 20%-odd hike in the NLD pricing, you know, last one or two-
Yes, yes, Swapnil. We... Yes, you're right. We have, in fact, we are able to close some large account last quarter, and we already have some great pipeline for this quarter as well.
Okay, Rajasthan. Thanks, thanks for that. All the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shivan Rajesh Kabra, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks for granting me this opportunity. Sir, I wanted to ask you about, receivables-
Sir, your audio is not clear. May we request you to use your handset, please?
Okay, sure, sure. Am I audible now?
Yes, sir. Please proceed. Thank you.
Yes. I wanted to ask you about receivables. So there has been a jump of almost INR 300 crore in receivables. Can you throw some light on that?
Sorry, the voice was not very clear. Can you please repeat the question?
Yes. I actually wanted to ask you about receivables. There has been a jump of almost INR 390 crore, which has impacted our cash flows. I wanted to know about that.
Breaking. I mean, it's high and low, your volume.
Are you on a speaker? I think you better use-
Yes, sir. You better use your handset, please.
I'm using a handset. I wanted to... Am I audible now?
Sir, it's high and low, your volume. I mean, like, the pitch is high and low.
Are you able to-
I'm unable to understand.
I think, I think you are asking about the receivables. I think we've just answered it prior to this. I think the query, I think, was on receivables. So I think we received a, a large payment from a few OTTs and clients during the first 10 days of April, and hence, that receivable, the queue that you see there, got impacted.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's it.
Thank you.
Uh, it-
Participant, you may please press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Gokul Maheshwari from Awriga Capital . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, thank you. So my question is that you guys were working on certain Firewall deals in LATAM market. Is there any update on that?
Hello? Hey. Hi. So I think it is an ongoing, and these are a little confidential kind of information to be shared publicly. So I think some of these things are being kind of changed by the teams, and they're working closely with those on those opportunities. As and when they fructify, we'll come back to you with an update.
Sure. Secondly, just on the receivables front, if you could just quantify the amount which you would have given as an advance to the telecom operator? I mean, given that it is there in the balance sheet, but the revenue flow has not yet happened for those investments, can you exactly quantify that?
Yeah. So I think on the balance sheet, I think it is called out on the cash flow statement in the notes. So about INR 448 crore is what was given out, and out of which I think we would have consumed about INR 70 crore during the year gone by.
Okay. And lastly, just on the international messaging, could you just give an indication of what is the volume growth for the industry and, or volume growth or degrowth in the industry for FY 2024, and how would have Route said versus, the industry, performance?
So actually, there is no data published as such, but we have seen a domestic growth in various market wherever we work in a domestic market. Whether it's in Middle East, Africa or, India or other, other Asian countries where we directly operate and work with the enterprises, enterprises. We have definitely seen a growth on the domestic, front, and as a company, I think we are very bullish, to focus more on the enterprise side, and, I think that's what I can share. But we don't have any number as such about the overall market growth in last year.
Okay, great. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipesh Mehta from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yeah, just want a performance number for MRM and MessageEd. If you can give some revenue and EBITDA kind of thing, even maybe QoQ or YoY, some comparison, how they fit. Second question on the receivable. If I look above three months, it is 18%. Seems to be slightly higher than usual trend. If you can, I understand you said some of the payment you received, but above three months, 18% seems to be on higher side, if you can give some sense.
Yeah. So in terms of, I'll give you the quarterly numbers for MessageEd and M.R. Messaging. So, MessageEd did about INR 514 million, so there was a 17% QOQ drop there. MR Messaging, they did INR 1,794.95 million in Q4 FY 2024. So again, they also witnessed about a 17% QOQ decline. For MessageEd, as I highlighted earlier, it was more seasonal.... Sorry, what was your other query? On the receivables. Yeah. On the receivables, a large part of our receivables also comes from a lot of these PSU clients, where there are quarterly settlements. So maybe I think there is a little bit of a skew because of that.
But, so do you expect it to be that kind of thing, about three months, also almost one-fifth of your receivables?
Dipesh, maybe we can discuss it offline. I, yeah, so I think we can, we can discuss it offline.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ronak Chheda from Awriga Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, am I audible?
Yes, sir, you're audible. Please proceed.
Yeah. Hi, Gautam. Hi, Rajeev. I have a couple of questions. First is on the revenue retention, which has come in at 106%. Now, I understand you've already spoken on the industry not doing well, but, how should one look at this number? Is this a sustainable net retention ratio which should be assuming for the business going forward, given the environment we are in? That's the first question.
So, Ronak, I think for sure, I think, FY 2025 looks much better from a growth standpoint, and a lot of this growth will be garnered from existing clients. So I think the NRR should improve materially in FY 2025. Once, I think we will be able to kind of give you more color once the some of these synergy approvals are in place with respect to Proximus. I think at that point in time, we can also touch upon, I mean, how we see this NRR improving during the course of this year.
Okay. And the second question is on, we've seen the volume growth, right, on the transactions of around 17%-10.5% for the full year, versus the revenue growth is around 12%-12.5%. Right? So when you stack up this, what I think, what I'm trying to gauge is, how should we look at the volume? Because you mentioned that now there is some volume has gone and exited the system, and some of this has changed the channel. The volumes which have changed the channel should still be part of this number, right? So how should we look at the volume which is exited?
A significant increase of these volumes is attributable to domestic volumes, which is at a much lower realization.
Okay, so for a full year basis, qualitatively, ILD volumes would have de-grown for us?
No, ILD volumes have increased.
For the full year?
One second.
Yes.
For the full year... Yeah, for the full year, ILD volumes have come up because I think there was a price increase also during the course of the year.
No, no, I am asking on the volume basis.
Yeah, because of the price increase, the volumes have come off.
Yes.
There was a decline in the ILD prices. You're right. ILD volume, sorry.
So the ILD volumes on a full year basis have must have de-grown, and a lot of this is domestic and hence this. And in Rajeev's opening remarks, he mentioned that there are some of these are more structural changes, right, for the industry itself. How are you thinking now for the industry itself to recover from these structural changes? Do you see a case for industry to do a double-digit volume growth over the next three years, or that would be far-fetched, given how the clients are thinking?
So you have to see, Ronak, in two ways, like, there will be definitely a volume growth going to happen because of the multi-channel approach by the customer. So we will see a growth in, omni-channel, whether it's the WhatsApp, RCS and email or maybe SMS. So overall, transaction growth is definitely going to be there. And how much is going to be on SMS and how much is going to be on, RCS or WhatsApp? Probably that is, we have to wait and see. But I can just, let you know, in terms of, adoption and transaction growth, it happens across the channel, and that is exactly, one good, thing where we believe as an industry, as a CPaaS.
In fact, all the CPaaS companies are now very well placed to offer multiple channels to their existing customer as well as to the new customer. So overall transaction is going to increase in coming years down the line.
Understood. This Proximus deal is supposed to get closed in next couple of weeks? That is how we should be reading into your commentary?
Yeah, Ronak, I think we, I think this month is what I think we are anticipating for the closure, and it should happen very, very soon.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Aniket Kulkarni from BMSPL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. So with respect to this, Vi India deal, is there any concern regarding receivables, given the financial situation of the company? Or, I mean, do they pay upfront as the contract unfolds?
So strictly speaking, we would monetize that revenue from the enterprises, collect the revenue and then pay to Vi. So per se, except for whatever is the advance given, I mean, there is no, I mean, delinquency risk, so to say. But, I mean, on a monthly basis also, we keep realizing, substantial chunk of revenue from those enterprises for which we have to settle with Vi. So per se, I mean, the risk associated is very, very minuscule.
Can you quantify how much advance has been given so far?
So that is again, I mean, confidential, so we would not want to divulge it in any public forum, and we are also bound by the confidentiality in the agreement.
Okay. Okay. No worries. And secondly-
Part of the number that's already been called out in the balance sheet. So we've given, advances to the operators to the extent of that INR 448 crore, which is there in the balance sheet.
Yes. All right. Okay. And secondly, on the debt front, the debt seemed to have gone up on a year-over-year basis, so is there anything particular in this or it's just normal business?
Yeah, I mean, it is just normal. I mean, so average maturity of this debt will be, like, kind of a year.
Okay, so it should return back to... Because it went from INR 140 crores to around INR 380 odd crores. So-
Yeah, that's correct.
Yes.
For these contracts that we have done, we would have passed these in certain currencies and then taken the debt, and then some of these are on a monthly basis, self-retiring.
Okay. Okay. We understand. All right, thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Devraj Singh, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. I actually had two questions, but one has already been answered, so I just have a small question. I think about, I would say about two or three calls ago, you had shared something regarding the intention of Proximus not to take Route private, right? Does that still stand, considering where we are in terms of the equity tender, et cetera?
Sorry, please repeat your question, please.
Yeah, sorry. So I just want to say that a few calls ago, you had mentioned the intention of Proximus not to take Route private. Does that still stand?
That indeed, that indeed still stand, and, I think there is no plan of taking Route as private.
Okay.
The intention was captured in the open offer document as well.
Right, I know. But considering the amount of equity that has been tendered, I was just wondering if anything has changed in that. Thank you for that. The second question I wanted to ask is that, one of the consistent themes has been that the synergies with Proximus will help us get to a better margin profile, right? Considering the deal has been in the works for a long time now, I just want to know what sort of margin profile with all the new products that have been launched. I'm seeing that the new product revenue is approximately 20-50 or something like that. I just want to understand, what sort of margin profile are the new products showing?
Yeah, so the new products, I mean, most of the new products entail a much higher margin than the SMS margins, so-
Right.
It could be-
That would be around?
Yeah, it could vary from, I mean, 30% - 75 % -80%, I mean, in case of email, right? So, so at a blended level, it should be around that 30 % -35%.
30% or so. Okay. That's what was guided earlier as well. So that's, that's great. Thanks. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Participants, you may press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Ritu Shah from Janak Merchant. Please go ahead.
Hello?
Yes, ma'am. Please proceed.
Yeah. So I just wanted to ask, so what's the purpose of giving a security deposit to the MNOs? I think, is there any risk they have from our side? We're just giving a service, so why, why, and why a security deposit?
No, it is a contractual negotiation that has happened, and it's essentially a quarter. So they are giving their network exclusively to us to manage it for them, so for which we take the security deposit.
Okay. So, like, renew it after four to five years, once we're done, we get back the deposit, right?
Yes.
If we renew the contract, so if we renew the contract, we have to give the deposit again every time?
Yeah. It depends on the negotiations then. Yeah, these are... I mean, this can be rolled over to the subsequently if the contracts are renewed.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. You may press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Sangram Kanade, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible? Yeah, yeah.
Yes, sir.
Yeah. Actually, one of my question that, when you did a deal with Proximus is already answered, so thank you for that. Secondly, I wanted to ask the $1 billion target of the management. Actually, we missed the profits guidance in the FY 2024. So is the target still on? And my second question for today is, will the top management in the Route Mobile get changed post the Proximus deal?
So to answer your first question, Sangram, I think we are very much intact with our $1 billion revenue target, and we are working towards that. If you see the kind of work we are doing on different channels, the kind of synergies we are working with our customers, and along with this partnership with Proximus, still also going to add lots of value to Route Mobile. And I think in terms of management, I think we may not able to share any information as of now. Probably you have to just wait and watch once the deal happens.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today. I would now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajdip Kumar Gupta for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, everyone. Thanks for showing your interest, and thank you for all your support, as an investor. Looking forward for support again, and once again, thank you once again. Have a nice evening, guys. Take care.
Thank you very much, sir. Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Route Mobile Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.