Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Sagar, moderator for this conference. Welcome to the conference call of Route Mobile Limited, arranged by Concept Investor Relations, to discuss its Q1 and FY25 results. We have with us today Mr. Rajdip , 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 a 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 risks and certain uncertainties. Kindly refer to slide number two of the presentation of the detailed disclaimer. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rathindra Das, Gautam Badalia, and over to you, sir.
Thanks, Sagar. Good evening, everyone. Wishing all of you good health and prosperity. It gives me immense pleasure to highlight that Route Mobile has demonstrated an industry-leading revenue growth of 14% year-on-year basis and 8.5% on a sequential basis, despite global headwinds and geopolitical situations. During the quarter gone by, Proximus Opal completed the acquisition of an 83.1% stake in Route Mobile. This acquisition will help Route Mobile in entering mature markets like the USA and Europe, expand its product portfolio, and unlock synergies with TeleSign. We are thankful to all our minority shareholders for approving the related party transactions. Some of these related party transactions may take time to ramp up. However, the green shoot of this synergy from the group was further validated recently when Proximus and Microsoft announced a five-year strategic partnership on digital communication services, including CPaaS.
As a group, we are working on similar large strategic deals, and we will update you as and when it materializes. The following are some of the key highlights of our quarter gone by. We welcome the new board members to the Route Mobile board, and it will be a privilege to learn and embody the best practices at Route Mobile from their vast experience. We continue to gain significant market share in India and have demonstrated staggering 25% year-on-year growth and 12% sequential growth. Route Mobile's largest firewall deal with Vodafone Idea was live in April 2024. There were a few teething issues during the month of April, which were resolved during that month. Our new product revenue continues to witness very strong momentum, registering 94% year-on-year growth and 16% sequential growth. We are India's largest WhatsApp ticketing enabler for Metro as a premier partner of Meta.
We have demonstrated similar use cases over RCS too. In terms of FY25 guidance, we expect our revenue growth to be in the 18%-22% band with approximately 13% EBITDA margin. The free cash generation for the business should improve meaningfully during the year, and we expect the cash conversion from EBITDA to be within the 50%-75% band. Further, in terms of our capital allocation strategy, we have done fairly well in terms of our geographical expansion strategy through organic as well as inorganic initiatives. At this point of time, our immediate priorities in terms of our inorganic strategy are to augment our existing product portfolio with a few cutting-edge futuristic technologies. Some of these proposed acquisitions may not warrant significant capital to be deployed. Hence, we shall continue to maintain a similar dividend payout ratio of up to 20% of our consolidated PAT for FY25.
Last but not the least, it gives me immense pleasure to highlight that Route Mobile Limited is yet again recognized as a niche player in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CPaaS 2024. With this, I will now turn it over to Gautam to take us through the financials. Thank you for your time. Over to you, Gautam.
Thank you, Rathindra. Good evening, everyone. We have already uploaded our quarterly earnings presentation on our website as well as on the stock exchange websites. Hope you had a chance to go through the presentation. I'll quickly summarize our financial and operating performance during the quarter gone by before opening the floor for Q&A.
The key takeaway from our financial performance in Q1 and FY25 has been the strong revenue growth and the direct margin growth momentum, revenue growth of 14% and direct margin growth of 17.6% on a YoY basis, coupled with registering double-digit growth in EBITDA, both on a YoY as well as on a sequential basis. As highlighted previously, Q1 is seasonally not our strongest quarter, and yet we have delivered an industry-leading revenue growth. In volume terms, we processed over 37 billion billable transactions in Q1, which is again the highest quarterly billable volumes processed by us till date. Such exemplary financial performance in Q1 and FY25, a large global deal won by Proximus Group, which is a validation of the group synergy, and the Vodafone Idea firewall deal going live paved a strong foundation for a robust FY25. The normalized cash flow conversion from EBITDA stood at 110%.
You may refer to slide 17 of the earnings presentation. In terms of the operating overhead, there were significant increases in workforce cost. That is, the employee benefit expenses increased by around 27% on a sequential basis. It includes the annual increments and certain one-off incentives paid to employees for retention and to reward them for the exhaustive integration work done by the team to reap the synergies from the group. We also stopped capitalizing the digital identity project through TruSense at Masivian . The employee cost amounting to INR 14.5 million with respect to such capitalization was expensed out during the quarter. In terms of the other operating overheads, there were non-operating non-cash forex translation loss of INR 119 million and one-time cost of INR 8.6 million incurred for seeking expert opinions on the asset pricing for the related party transactions with the Proximus Group and for the mandatory tender offer.
With this backdrop, let me walk you through our financial performance. In terms of Q1 FY25 performance, revenue from operations grew by 14% YoY and 8.5% sequentially to INR 11,034 million in Q1 FY25. Billable transactions stood at over 37 billion in Q1 FY25 as compared to 27 billion in Q1 FY24 and 34 billion in Q4 FY24. Average realization per billable transaction declined to 30% compared to 33% in Q1 FY24 due to increase in domestic volumes in India. Sequentially, it remained stable at 30%. We had a net revenue retention of 105%. You may refer to slide 13 of the presentation.
In terms of direct margin, after adjusting for non-cash impact of INR 38.8 million related to refundable security deposits provided to an MNO, which has been amortized and booked under purchase accounting under Ind AS 109, gross profit margin expanded to 22.1% as compared to 21.4% in Q1 2024 and 21.8% in Q4 2024. EBITDA for Q1 increased by 11.5% YoY and 14.5% QOQ to INR 1,379 million. EBITDA margin expanded from 11.8% in Q4 FY24 to 12.5% in Q1 FY25. On a YoY basis, it declined by about 30 basis points, primarily due to reasons mentioned above. Adjusted for forex impact of INR 111 million, profit after tax improved by 1.5% YoY to 931 million in Q1 FY25.
That margin declined from 9.5% in Q1 and FY24 and 9.2% in Q4 and FY24 to 8.4% in Q1 and FY25, primarily due to increase in the effective tax rate to 21%. This increase was mainly due to increase in profitability in the UK, which is today taxed at 25%, and the implementation of tax in the UAE. During the quarter, we onboarded about 61 new employees and about 60 employees left during the same period. With this, we open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets 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 Jyoti Singh from Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity, sir. So my question is on the promoter holding side. Like post-acquisition, it is showing 83%. So how we have done that and what's the planning to reduce it? Because as per norm, this is not.
Yeah. Hi, Jyoti. Pursuant to the Open offer, the promoter shareholding actually increased to 83%+, and we have a stipulated time frame of one year to bring it back to the minimum public shareholding of 75%.
So, sir, I mean, who will be—I don't know whether I can ask—I mean, who will be participating in this? And/or anyone will going to buy from the promoter side?
Yeah. So I mean, there are various means to kind of get this done, either through block deal up to 2% during the year or through an offer for sale. So we are already kind of working on those avenues to streamline and be compliant with the minimum public shareholding.
I think, Gautam, the question was, is promoter going to buy? I think that was the question.
Okay. No, so promoter will be selling, and it will largely be open to the investors. It could be institutional, retail, HNI.
Okay. In the first place, why we go beyond the 70%?
So in the open offer, so I mean, Proximus signed an agreement to acquire about 58% shareholding from the founding family of Route Mobile, promoters of Route Mobile. And while they continue to be promoters, but they don't have any shareholding right now in Route Mobile per se. And in the open offer, which was up to 26%, they got a significant chunk in the open offer, which tantamounted to their Proximus shareholding going beyond 75%, close to 83%+.
Okay. Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil Choudhury from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Hey, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is regarding any color management can provide on revenue synergy?
Nikhil, hi. As I said in my speech also, there's a large deal won by Proximus Group. It's a five-year deal we signed with Microsoft. CPaaS is definitely one of the key areas for growth. There are multiple deals we are working on with Proximus, with the large IT companies and other enterprises, which we will announce very soon. At the same time, we are working very closely with TeleSign because TeleSign do work with multiple aggregators in market. I think probably we would like to work with them very closely to get all the traffic through Route Mobile channel. That's a strategy we are working on. Wherever we are competitive as a company, as a Route Mobile, we are working on those kind of synergy right now, which we will see the impact in coming quarters.
Sure. Should we assume that in your guidance, you are tracking in those revenue synergies?
I think yes, Gautam. Correct me.
Yeah. So Nikhil, I think as we speak, I think we got the minority approval, I think, around the 17th of June. And then to some extent, I think some of those post-minority approvals are kind of there in the number. And we have also been slightly working with TeleSign. And there is a certain amount of revenue throughput that already comes and has come during the quarter gone by this one. But we definitely believe that the momentum of support will increase in the months to come. And so today, the guidance that we have kind of goes on. They pinned the existing run rate with TeleSign. And as and when as I said, I mean, some of these incremental throughputs that will come, that is today not baked into the numbers, and that could be an upside.
Got it, Gautam. Second thing, in terms of new product revenue, Rathindra, we have seen that's about INR 100 million on quarterly basis, right? But the kind of revenue we have guided for Vodafone Idea is much more higher, right? Last quarter than it could be INR 500 crore in FY25. So just wanted to understand why such a small number for this quarter.
Sorry, Nikhil, can you just repeat your query? I think that the connection between Vodafone and the new products, I think we recognize firewall deal within this, right? Or we are just recognizing firewall within?
Without the firewall. Without the firewall. Firewall is reported separately.
Got it. Understood. So one thing I want to understand in terms of guidance, sorry for pushing this, is INR 500 crore if we account for Vodafone Idea and plus the material revenue synergy from TeleSign, the core business growth looked quite conservative, Gautam. So any color of what is leading to that? Are we still seeing pressure on organic ILD volume?
No. So I think the way we are looking at it, maybe I mean, it's kind of leading to some amount of double counting. So essentially, with Voda only we get the net share, right? I mean, we generate the revenue from enterprises globally, right? Which is terminated on Vodafone Idea. And whatever we kind of generate revenues for Vodafone Idea, we share it out as a revenue share out of it, which is the firewall piece of the revenue. Now, coming to whatever is being terminated onto the Vodafone network, that includes traffic that is from TeleSign to Vodafone as well. So to that extent, I mean, I believe there may be some amount of double counting there.
And hence, the numbers, I mean, at the gross level may look a little higher, but when you net it off, it may be a little lesser than the, I mean, the numbers that we are counting for. So in the INR 500 crore of incremental revenue for Vodafone that we are talking about, it would be some amount of revenues that would come from TeleSign onto the Vodafone network.
Okay. Okay. Understood, Gautam. Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Just to continue on the last question in terms of guidance. If you can tell us what was the incremental or the contribution of the VI, or we should consider whatever incremental is there in this quarter is from VI. And as April was not in full swing, maybe INR 100 crore is the quarterly run rate. Maybe whatever guidance for the full year, half of that is assumed to be coming from the Vodafone. In the base business, assuming that the ILD volumes have been recovering and we are seeing volumes recovering in the domestic business, 10% growth in the base business—is it too conservative or we can see some upside there also?
So let me just start with this question. Maybe Gautam, you can add to it. So Amit, we have definitely seen a growth in certain traffic coming from ILD side. But we have also seen a huge growth on the domestic volume in India on our platform. At the same time, I think the new product growth, we have seen the 94% growth, which we already shared with you guys. I think overall growth-wise, we are working very strongly on our firewall because there are multiple issues we have noticed in last quarter that there are many gray routes where like delivering messages to the Vodafone Idea network. We try to mitigate those risks. And I think now we believe that from this quarter onwards, all these leakages which were there, and there are still a few leakages which we are trying to highlight to Vodafone Idea to overcome.
Vodafone Idea is completely supporting us. I think with our current firewall and its capabilities, we believe that the volume may increase. But there are certain brands who have cut down their volumes for sure, which is like they just don't want to spend that kind of money. But in terms of Route Mobile volume, we have seen stable volume as well as there is a little growth as well on our ILD volumes. Gautam?
Yeah. And just to highlight, Amit, I think this is not the seasonally best quarter for us. So I think gradually, I think the traffic will ramp up further.
Okay. Also in terms of the revenue from OTT, we have won some deals there. So obviously, that is showing up in the new growth areas. But can this piece grow much faster because of the ramp-up that we're seeing on?
Yes. Amit, you're right. Definitely yes. Because quarter 2 and 3, because of the festivity, I think we will definitely going to see some growth on those sides as well.
Okay. So any quantification you can give there?
We will not quantify, but what I can just share with you right now, yes, we have seen a growth already because there was some large campaign happened in this month, and we have seen some growth. We believe in this quarter because of certain more such events going to happen, and we will see growth. I may not quantify at this point of time, but I can only share that the things are looking good at this point of time for ILD business.
Okay. Now, the only thing is that that confidence is not being reflected in terms of the guidance, or we are being more conservative as we move into the year. We can see how it progresses. But obviously, the fraction is there.
Amit, I think at least when the entire CPaaS market is growing at lower single digits, like we as a company giving 18%-22%, still is one of the best guidance we are giving based on certain clear idea we have about pipelines. So I think if we overperform, definitely in the past, we have done. But we are not trying to be conservative out here, but based on the current market scenario and if you see the entire CPaaS growth globally, we are still giving the best guidance to the market.
Okay. Sir, now with the new management fully coming in and beginning the first quarter, any changes in the way we used to work or any changes in terms of the sales approach or in terms of how we are seeing the market? Anything if you want to highlight in terms of the changes?
Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. There's a lot of positive things to highlight. Because of Proximus as a group, we got direct access to large enterprises like Microsoft, and there are many enterprise access we already received, and we are working on certain large contracts because of them. So I think on the overall side, if you see the deal value, the entire partnership with Proximus is going to help us to win more large accounts, which we are going to announce very soon. I think the entire management at Proximus is very supportive. My role has now extended not only just to Route Mobile, but as a group. And I'm here to bring more synergies to Route Mobile. And my idea is to how we can optimize lots of other costs for TeleSign and other groups to make Route Mobile a bigger story together.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipesh from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions. First is about, I think you indicated about CPaaS market is growing in low single digit. Seems to be very muted growth compared to where the market used to grow earlier. So if you can give just some sense about what factor is affecting growth. This year, obviously, because of specific large deal as well as related party pass-through revenue related thing, we are benefiting. But from structural medium-term perspective, if you can give some sense what is affecting growth and how you expect it to change. And I have some follow-up, but maybe you can answer it first.
Yeah. Let me just answer this question, Dipesh. So as a group strategy, we are very, we know the potential of domestic market, the kind of success we have seen in India, the kind of success we have seen in Middle East market, at the same time in Latin. We want to replicate this success again to various markets where we are not operating for. There are markets like Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, and other markets in Africa along with Mexico. These are the markets where we are going to focus completely on our domestic side of the business, which is very sticky business, and we believe that market is going to grow multifold. And we as a group, we already have a mandate to do that, and we are working on those strategies.
So it is not about just if you see the overall growth on the international traffic terminating internationally has seen some kind of a degrowth. But if you see the domestic use cases have increased multifold. And that is the exciting thing for all the CPaaS players to look at right now where we have seen the growth in domestic market, any market you operate for, right? Because of the digital adoption and various other points. You can go to the next question, maybe, Gautam.
Sure. No, Rathindra, just continuing on this question. Now, in a way, you are indicating same market unlikely to grow that fast. That is how I want to interpret because your focus was on expanding into other markets to maintain momentum rather than you finding similar growth is possible, which we earlier used to see in the same kind of market.
It's not like that way. As I said, India itself, if you see, is a very large market, and the digital adoption in India is increasing multifold. The market in India is still going to grow multifold, and we will definitely get a benefit out of that. And if you talk about the Africa market or Latin market, they are also going to adopt more digital channels. And all the CPaaS companies or companies like Route Mobile, who are already based out of those markets, will definitely get advantage of that. So it is not about just international story that international OTT players are committing messages to different domestic markets, but it is all about the domestic enterprises also getting stronger and the better use cases they are using right now. So I see it's a combined story together, Dipesh.
Okay. Second question is about, I think, what kind of changes, let's say, we made in sales process compared to when Route used to be a standalone kind of entity. And similarly, on accounting side, I think some of the things which I think Gautam earlier alluded about, some of the expenses earlier capitalized, now expense out. So if you can give just sense, first on business side, from sales side, what kind of changes we made?
Probably we will not be able to share publicly about our sales and strategy, but we are definitely working on multiple level points. I think we believe our sales and strategies are very good right now. Now it's a combined team of TeleSign and Route Mobile working together to gain more access to enterprises domestically and internationally. That's the only thing I can share at this point of time. On the second question, Gautam, you can answer.
Yeah. So Dipesh, I think on the capitalization bit, I think TruS ense, if you look at it, since TeleSign has a more evolved product on digital identity and has the related party resolutions that were kind of approved by the minority shareholders, we've already shared that we would be licensing, I mean, their digital identity stack to our customers. So in a way, I mean, we're looking at considering the TruS ense development and incremental development while the product is already kind of being monetized with enterprises. And hence, we stopped the capitalization of that product and started expensing out the employee-related cost and also amortizing, I mean, the cost related to TruS ense.
The question was, Gautam, more about any other thing because in TruS ense you called out, so we are aware, but any other accounting change happened because of, let's say, post-merger kind of?
No, no. There isn't any accounting change per se. But I think the systems and processes have become more robust. There is more accountability. And which is actually good, I mean, so we are able to kind of now, I mean, track. I mean, we have been doing that in the past, but I think now with the additional reporting and stuff, I think things have become more robust, which augurs well for us.
Okay. So post-transaction only changes is in Trus ense and then some of our robust process, no other changes in accounting perspective.
That's correct.
Understood. And I think, Rathindra, you earlier alluded about some RPT synergies will take some time to materialize. So if you can help us understand, because if I look post-operator approval, number was fairly large. For next three years, number was mentioned. If I put that into context of the guidance, what we gave, guidance is not that strong. If I adjust for Vodafone and then residual kind of thing. So if you can just help us understand what is likely to realize immediately and how one should understand this synergy benefit playing out.
I think, Dipesh, as I said, like 18%-20% guidance is still one of the best industry-leading guidance. How the synergy will pan out, probably I may not be able to share. Gautam, do you want to share anything on that?
Sorry, Dipesh, can you please repeat what is your exact query?
So exact query was about, I think, Rathindra's earlier comment made about some of the RPT benefit is likely to realize in Q1, Q2, Q3 kind of thing, and some of it will take some time to materialize. I just want to understand what is immediate, what will take time.
Yeah. So I think cost of sales will be immediate. I mean, for whichever routes, I mean, we are more efficient or they are more efficient, that will be immediate. What will take a little bit of time is in terms of cross-selling the new products, where they will be cross-selling our Omnichannel stack and we will be cross-selling their digital identity stack. So that will take a little bit of time because there are some regulatory challenges in terms of data privacy regulations and stuff, which needs to be kind of adhered to, I mean, locally. The data localization bit has to be done, I mean, locally for some of the newer geographies. So some of these things, I think, will take a little bit of time.
But the cost of sales and, to an extent, the entire shared service, which is contemplated out of India, that should start to flow in from this quarter. I mean, the planning would already be, I mean, ahead of time, I think, this quarter. I think from next quarter, you will see some of those cross-charging revenues out of companies.
So from Q3 or Q2, I missed because your voice was.
Cost of sales. Cost of sales, as we said, it's already kind of happening, I mean, from, I mean, immediately after we started to get the minority's approval. In terms of the cross-charging on the shared services, that will happen from Q3 onwards.
Understood. Two questions last from my side. First is about these INR 38.8 million, which you called out, refundable security deposit related accounting amortization. Can you help us understand the nature of it? Because it seems to be we have earlier also signed some firewall deal, but this is something new. First time we are hearing about.
So this is not firewall deal. This is essentially, I mean, an advance to a supplier where the supplier has kind of doled out a decent price discount. And our usage with that supplier is almost 3x of that amount. So per se, I mean, it is part of a regular course of business. And I mean, by November, December, I mean, this should be off our books as well, I mean, in terms of the usage.
Okay. And then last question from my side is about tax rate. This quarter, obviously, we have seen some uptick, but.
Sorry, Dipesh. Dipesh, sorry, sorry. Just wanted to kind of reclarify. I think your query was on that INR 38.8 million impact on the P&L, which is non-cash. Okay, okay. This is for the security deposit that we have given for a firewall deal. And that security deposit essentially is being treated under Ind AS 109 accounting standard. And hence, there is a non-cash charge to the purchase accounting. And the interest added on that security deposit is charged to the other income.
The question was, this kind of deal we have signed earlier also. I presume this is the 4 large Telco IL deal which we start.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's correct.
That's correct. That pertains to it. But we have signed in the prior quarter also some of those large deals in different markets. That time, we have not seen such accounting adjustment. This is any different than rest?
Yeah. So some of those deals, I think, are somewhat a little different because those deals allowed for settlement of the invoices from the advances, whereas here, it is kind of a security deposit.
Okay. I think then you gave something Telco-related discount. I am not clear. Let's say what was that?
No, no. That is a different deal altogether, which is, I mean, related to one of the short-term loans that we have taken, which we have called out in the cash flow, which will get, which is an advance to the Telco, which will get consumed by November, December of this financial year, of this calendar year as well.
Okay. Thank you, Gautam. I think I have a last question on tax rate. If you can give some sense about what one should model because you gave reason for U.K. business profitability and UAE increase, but not for current year. So obviously, we get sense about 20 kind of number, but medium-term, what number is reasonable?
Yeah. It should be in the vicinity of 18%-20%. I think that should be the definitive of the tax rate.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Swapnil from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is with respect to the advance to the supplier that you called out. Just wanted to get a sense of why this sudden change in policy because I don't think we have been doing such kind of deals in the past. Any particular reason we felt that such kind of deals are necessary?
No, so it essentially is, I mean, the supplier was willing to offer a discount. I mean, our throughput gave us value. So per se, I mean, we would have used this with respect to what we got. So it made all the sense for us to kind of give this advance to the supplier and avail the discount.
Now, assuming you are getting a decent discount because of this deal, would it be fair to say that your gross margins, once the deal is over, will dip a bit because then the discount will not be available to you?
I mean, we'll see it at that point in time, Swapnil, but at this point in time, yeah, we are enjoying the benefit of, I mean, that discount.
See, there is always we can always negotiate with the same deal terms, right? But again, as I said, there are lots of increment on our new product line also. So it is not about just one deal we are talking about. We have multiple deals right now, and I think most of the deals, we will definitely try to negotiate with the operator to extend this deal in future. But right now, based on our new product line growth, I think we believe the whatever gross margin guidance we have, I think we would always maintain that.
Got it. Got it. The second question is with respect to your employee expenses. Now, you called out a sudden increase this particular quarter. And just wanted to sense, how should we look at your employee expenses going ahead? Will it continue to be in the same run rate of this quarter, or there will be, since it was kind of a one-off, there will be a dip?
Yeah. So Swapnil, at this point in time, I think there were a few one-offs. So I think it will be worthwhile to kind of assume about a INR 20 crore-INR 21 crore kind of quarterly run rate.
Okay. Got it. The next question is with respect to your intangible assets under development. Now.
Sorry, Swapnil's, INR 20-21 crore of monthly cost, not quarterly.
Got it. Got it. With respect to your intangible assets under development, you have called out INR 28.7 million in this particular quarter, while in the beginning, you mentioned that you are not capitalizing Masivian-related expenses anymore. Can you just give a sense on what is the nature of this particular line item then?
Yeah. So there were two projects that were being kind of developed by Masivian along with Route Mobile. One of the products, which is TruS ense, as you called out, I mean, we would kind of look at the more evolved stack of TeleSign for cross-selling. So I mean, that we have stopped capitalizing, and we are already monetizing it with a lot of banks and enterprises there. But the other project, I think, which was being capitalized, continues to be capitalized.
Any time period as to how long this will continue and what would be the overall capitalization setting today?
So I think in terms of the value, I think it should be on an average close to INR 1 million a year. And I think we are towards the far end of the development of that project. And it should, I think, be done, I think, in a year, year and a half time.
Okay. Got it. And so last bit on your top line, by any chance, you can call out what is the value actual that you expect because of the Microsoft deal? And starting when can we expect that to come to your P&L? And a related question, we have been in the past mentioning about the Amazon deal across 10 years. We haven't heard of any particular mention of that particular revenue. If you can just elaborate on that as well.
Swapnil, we can't call out any. Some of these are very, very confidential. But as I said, the Microsoft deal, I think, is a large five-year deal. And there is a lot of incentive for Microsoft to start using the Proximus CPaaS stack for termination. So I mean, we'll tend to benefit, I mean, from that Microsoft A to B messaging termination. And on Amazon, I think we are seeing good, good traction, I think, in terms of India, in terms of some other geographies.
So yeah, that's.
Yeah, Rathin?
I think, as I mentioned, we already started getting some traffic for UK termination from Amazon. And we are already testing a few more destinations. I think we have already signed total 10 destinations. And there is already a test process going on, which we believe will take another few weeks to start a new destination. But right now, we are serving them for India and UK.
Just a follow-up to that, Rathindra. Since we have been talking about so many different types of deals, and the expectation is that a decent proportion of that revenue should start accruing in FY25, 18%-22% guidance, despite all the so many initiatives, looks a tad conservative. I mean.
Swapnil, as I said, I think past also, if you see our history, probably the last year is the only year where we guided something, and we failed to achieve that, honestly. But in past also, we have overachieved a number. Based on the current market scenario, the current spend by some of the, I think, the spend cut by some of the large OTT players, I think, based on the overall scenario, I think 18%-22% is still a very good guidance, which I believe. And if we definitely have a tendency to overachieve our numbers, we will definitely work towards it. And you are right. We do have a very strong pipeline and very strong deals, which is going to come very soon. But some of these deals may take some long time also.
Onboarding a customer like, say, large enterprise customers takes 3-4 months or sometimes 6 months also. So how much time it takes to actually start coming as a revenue to our portfolio, we cannot comment at this point of time. But based on the current scenario, like current pipeline and current customers, which we have already onboarded, that is the kind of guidance we are giving to the market.
Got it, Rathindra. Thanks a lot for that clarification on all of this.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gokul Maheshwari from Awriga Capital Advisors LLP. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yeah. Hi, Rathindra. We are audible. Yeah. Yes. So in the recent commentaries, even in the press, you had this aspiration of wanting to achieve $1 billion of revenue in a 2- or 3-year time frame. So keeping the guidance for FY25 aside, given the current market conditions, is that something which is still in your overall scheme of things? Or is that still an aspiration, or is there a concrete plan to really achieve that particular guidance? Because if you were to achieve what you've envisaged for FY25, to achieve $1 billion, it's going to be a fairly steep climb in 2026 or 2027. So any comments on that would be helpful.
So Gokul, if you see the kind of deals which we are working on right now and the kind of support we are getting from the Proximus Group, and as I said, large deal wins like this, like Microsoft will definitely get us to that $1 billion revenue. And we are still having our aspiration to achieve that $1 billion. And we are very much sure that we will achieve that number because we can clearly see the synergy between both the companies and how we are going to move forward. And we have already laid down a plan to reach $1 billion in the next two to three years down the line, and we are working towards that. And there is no change as such in terms of my aspiration or the company's aspiration to generate $1 billion revenue as a look ahead.
We are very much in touch with our vision and our guidance also.
Great. Thank you for the clarification. That was my question.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Keval Shah from Banyan Tree Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to know more about the IRD volumes. So did you see any growth in the current quarter versus, say, H2 and FY2024, or the volumes remain impacted?
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Shah, your voice is pretty much muffled. Could you please use the handset, please?
Am I audible now?
Slightly better, sir. Please go ahead. Can you please repeat your question?
Yeah. Just wanted to know more about the IRD volumes. In the current quarter, did you see any growth, or the volumes remain impacted as compared to, say, H2 or FY24?
As I said.
Go ahead.
Yeah. So in terms of IRD, I think we have definitely seen growth in terms of volumes on a YoY basis.
The second question is, so are these players moving the traffic to other channels, or they have basically cut down the budget? Because I'm seeing that Amazon India is started using WhatsApp for the delivery of data. So Keval, if you see, I think there are multiple channels available, and people are exploring the different channels. But again, SMS is one channel which is far better in conversion ratio. All these large OTT players are definitely believing in that conversion ratio on SMS is far better than all other channels based on various reasons. And I think we always believe that definitely there may be a little drop in overall volume for IRD in long term.
But as a company with a firewall at Vi and Vodafone, we are in a very good place in the current scenario in the Indian market, where we believe if we do the right job with our firewall, and which we are doing right now, we will definitely see some growth in our overall traffic in IRD.
Okay. Sure. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pradeep Rawat from Yogya Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity. So my question is regarding the change in percentage of the company. So would it be probable that domestic banks would be hesitant to give business to Route Mobile now as the percentage is foreign now?
Why so? Because all our servers, everything is there. There's no change in Route Mobile. Everything is within the country. We are serving completely guided by Indian law. I don't think there's any change we have done post this merger or acquisition. I don't think that's a question, right? Because there's no change as such. Everything remains as it is what we were operating before.
Yeah. Yeah.
And then.
Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Yeah. And the next question was regarding our realization. So over the years, our realization has been falling. So what could be the reason behind that?
It's the domestic volume.
Yeah. Gokul, go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. So this is a function of, I think, the change in geography. So if the volumes in India are increasing, will the realization so much the realization become southward impact on the realization?
Yes. Okay. And my next question is regarding our promoters. So why did our promoters hold a controlling stake in Route Mobile, which is present in a growing market for stake in a company that is present in slow-growing markets like the U.S. without any controlling stake? So I just wanted to understand the thinking behind that.
I think I've explained this multiple times, Pradeep, in various forums. As I said, the combined deal which we have won, such as Microsoft and some of the deals which we are working on, is only possible because of the large partnerships like these. I think there was a multiple reason to do this. I may not share all the reasons, but as I said, what works best for the company, I have taken that call. That's the only thing I can share right now.
Yeah. Understood. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. That's all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raunak Chedda from Abakkus Asset Manager . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. First is on the Proximus Capital Market Day. There, the president talks about the growth in direct margin. And in your opening commentaries, Rathindra, you did talk about direct margin.
Sorry, Raunak, your voice is not very clear.
Yeah. Hi. Am I clear now?
Yeah. Go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. Gokul, I just wanted to understand on direct margins per se, can you quantify the current guidance in terms of growth rate for direct margins?
On the growth rate for direct margins, so I think the growth rate on direct margins will be looking at better than the revenue margin growth, certainly because of the direct margin expansion. Plus, yeah, it will grow in line with the revenue growth.
So for this quarter, you have grown faster. Should we assume a similar this, or it would be in line with revenue?
Yeah. I think we should be able to maintain this. Because of the new products, as Rathindra said, we'll be able to also expand it.
Got it.
The only thing that Raunak, I'll just call out here is it also is a function of the related parties. Some of these related parties may be a little diluted, I mean, from a direct margin and EBITDA standpoint, but it would be, I mean, accretive or at par with the EBIT margin.
Got it. My second question is, almost 45%-47% of our business comes from territories outside of India, right? So we understand what is happening in Indian markets and the customers choosing to either shift or cut down on their expenses. But can you talk about the volume growth in markets which are ex-India, let's say for the current quarter on a sequential and a YoY basis? And in terms of your guidance, what is the outlook for markets ex-India? Can you talk about these markets? And what are the trends which we are seeing there? The existing markets, not the newer ones.
Yeah. So I think we've witnessed some growth, I think, in terms of the rest of the world volumes as well. But you're absolutely right. I think in geographies where the ILD prices have gone up very significantly, I mean, some of them were kind of quoting at $0.15, $0.20, there is a natural pushback from the enterprises to use the ILD, EBITDA route. And that's where, I mean, they're looking at either grey routes or alternate channels. So, I mean, there is some degree of headwinds, I mean, in some of those markets. But for markets where I think the pricing is more palatable, I mean, to a lot of these large enterprises, I think we continue to witness the volume increase.
Got it. And last question is on RCS. What we understand is the pricing for RCS sits between SMS and WhatsApp. And we've read about Rathindra's comments in the press about how excited this technology is. So just wanted to understand, let's say when you are envisaging the kind of growth rate over the next two, three years, and if these platforms like RCS and WhatsApp were to scale up, your profit growth would kind of not mirror the revenue growth, right? Because the realization per unit will come down significantly. So just wanted to pick your thoughts on how you are seeing profit growth in terms of over the next two to three years.
But Raunak, I think Gokul, you can add to it, Raunak. But I think RCS prices and WhatsApp prices are better, higher than SMS for sure. And definitely, there's a higher margin than SMS in both the channels.
Rathindra, when you're looking at, let's say, 25% kind of growth rate over the next two to three years for the current business, and if your direct profits grow in line, direct margin growth in line or faster, should we assume a similar trend for other profits also when the channel shifts or below-line items as well?
Gokul, you can add to this here.
So Raunak, I think you're absolutely right. I think on the new products, we're already witnessing, I mean, staggering growth rates. I mean, so quarter-on-quarter, 16%, YoY 94%. So I think we will be able to kind of have a similar kind of a play on RCS as well. And the good thing is, I mean, even TeleSign, I mean, for all these customers, there are now requirements, I mean, that they have for RCS, for WhatsApp. And we have seen some good conversations, good pipelines, I think, being built on those products as well. So I think it looks much brighter, I think, on the new products' work stream. And give us maybe a couple of quarters, we should be able to announce some big deals on both those accounts or both these platforms.
Got it. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pankaj Kumar from PK Shares & Securities . Please go ahead.
Good evening, gentlemen. My question is regarding the gross profit margin, EBITDA margin, and CapEx margin. We have a competitor which is listed on Indian securities markets, and it has a very good profit margin compared to Route Mobile. I would like to know why is there such a gap between the two companies' profit margins?
I don't think I should comment on that. Maybe Gokul, you can answer the other question.
So, Pankaj, I think we have consistently been kind of trending around this kind of margin. I think we can only talk about our numbers. I think, in terms of even our guidance, I think we believe we should be, I mean, in that vicinity with a little bit of an upward bias in terms of margin expansion. That's where I think we are.
No, I would like to understand from you like the other player has the same business as yours, and why is it able to earn better margins than yours? I mean, why can't we achieve the same margins?
Pankaj, this will be very difficult for us to kind of comment on what others are doing. I mean, we can comment for our performance. I think if you look at us, I mean, for the last eight, 10, 12 quarters as well, I mean, we would have been kind of trending in this kind of margins. I mean, there is definitely room for what these margins to improve, as I said. I think we are working towards it.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next follow-up question is from the line of Jyoti Singh from Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity once again. So my question, sir, what is our average IRD price versus what are international competitors' charge?
Jyoti, the price that operators give us is about $0.05. And due to confidentiality and, I mean, this is competition-sensitive, we'll not be able to comment on what price we offer it. Yeah.
We can't share that. Jyoti, sorry.
Are we at discount or at a premium to Global peers?
As Jyoti has said, we cannot share any such information over this call.
Okay. Thank you. No issue. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rajdip Kumar Gupta for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you for joining this call, and looking forward to answering all your questions. Thank you once again. Thank you. Have a nice evening.
Thank you. On behalf of Route Mobile Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.