Operator
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MakeMyTrip Limited Fiscal 2019 Q2 Earnings Conference Call. I would now like turn this conference call over to Mr. Jonathan Huang, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.
MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT)
Q2 2019 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 25, 2018
$46.76
-0.95%
Same-Day
-0.17%
1 Week
+13.49%
1 Month
+0.98%
vs S&P
+1.60%
Operator
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MakeMyTrip Limited Fiscal 2019 Q2 Earnings Conference Call. I would now like turn this conference call over to Mr. Jonathan Huang, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.
Jonathan Huang
Management
Thank you, Kevin. Greetings, and welcome everyone to MakeMyTrip Limited's fiscal 2019 second quarter earnings call. We wish to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provision of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and by their nature, are subject to inherent uncertainties and actual results may differ materially. Any forward-looking information related on this call speaks only as of this date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update information to reflect changed circumstances. Additional information concerning these statements are contained in the risk factors and forward-looking statements section of the company's annual report on Form 20-F, filed with the SEC on June 20, 2018. Copies of these filings are available from the SEC or from the company's Investor Relations department. On our call today are Deep Kalra, our Founder, Chairman and Group CEO; Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and CEO India; and Mohit Kabra, our Group CFO. And now I would like to turn the call over to Deep to start off the discussion for today.
Deep Kalra
Management
Thank you, John, and welcome everyone to our second quarter earnings call for fiscal 2019. I would like to begin by reiterating my optimism on the long-term growth opportunities ahead of us as India's leading online travel agency. India continues to be among the fastest-growing large economies globally within attractive and fast-growing leisure travel market. This Travel market contains several underpenetrated domestic online segments like hotels, alternative accommodations, bus ticketing and car hire. Furthermore, we see significant opportunities to bring online, the booking of outbound flights, international hotels and other accommodations. Additionally, India has over 0.5 billion Internet users of which about 100 million are already e-commerce users today. I'm glad that despite the recent volatility caused by global macroeconomic events, including currency fluctuations, we continue to deliver growth in line with our plan, while further reducing operating losses. This achievement was made possible by ensuring that we continue to innovate and deliver a superior experience for our users and maintain our market leadership. In the quarter, since the merger with ibibo, we've been making steady progress on returning our business towards profitability. We remain committed to keep pursuing the group's operating philosophy and long-term vision of balancing high-growth with profitability. We believe what differentiates us is the superior experience users receive from start to finish when they access our multiple brands for travel research and booking. Furthermore, that superior experience continues with real time always available post-sales and on-journey support. It is with this unwavering focus on customers’ end to end experience, which positions us well to ride the multiple growth tailwinds available. I'd also like to provide an update on our domestic aviation industry. As mentioned last quarter, the country's air carriers have been experiencing financial pressures from rising fuel cost and a soft pricing environment. However, over…
Rajesh Magow
Management
Thanks, Deep, and hello everyone. I would like to begin with a quick summary of our accomplishments in the second quarter of fiscal 2019, which is a seasonally slow travel quarter here in India. I'm happy to report that the MakeMyTrip Group recorded gross bookings of over $1.2 billion representing year-on-year constant currency growth of nearly 27%. Adjusted revenues stood at $160 million, representing year-on-year constant currency growth of over 25%, the contribution of our hotels and packages business to total adjusted revenue stands at over 53%. During the past quarter, we locked our highest ever quarterly room nights with over 6.5 million actual room nights stayed in our standalone hotels business, a growth of nearly 22% year-over-year. We remain optimistic that we will be able to drive further growth acceleration in hotel room night stayed in the second half of the current fiscal year. In our air ticketing business, over 10 million flight segments were flown by our customers during the past quarter. The number of air ticketing segments grew by over 29% year-on-year at the same time we are seeing very healthy outbound flights growth as we shift customers online for their booking needs. While the domestic air market, demonstrated healthy growth rates in Q2, we remained cautious, of the potential for any short-term growth disruption as domestic carriers continue to operate in a high input cost and low ticket fare environment. Lastly, our bus ticketing business also witnessed very strong growth momentum with nearly 13.2 million tickets traveled for the fiscal second quarter, representing more than 53% year-on-year increase. We remain excited about this fast growing that’s worth roughly $3.5 billion and has less than 10% online penetration in the government-owned and operated bus markets across India. Now I would like to share some highlights from our…
Mohit Kabra
Management
Thanks, Rajesh, and hello everyone. As I had mentioned during the last quarter's earnings call, subject to any change in market dynamics, we would like to continue driving operating efficiencies in the first half of this fiscal year, while accelerating growth in the second half. Given this backdrop, here are the key takeaways from our second quarter financial results. In the seasonally weaker second quarter, we reported gross bookings of over $1.24 billion representing a year-on-year growth of nearly 27% in constant currency terms. Largely in line with gross bookings our adjusted revenue at $160.1 million, grew year-on-year by over 25% in constant currency terms. It would be important to call out that this adjusted revenue constant currency growth of over 25% came along with significant reduction in adjusted operating losses, as well as a quarter-on-quarter growth acceleration in stand-alone hotel room nights booked online. Now, let me share highlights of our key business segments. In our holidays and – hotels and packages segment, while constant currency year-on-year growth in gross bookings was only 11.5% due to declining mix of packages. The room night growth stood higher at 19.1% along with adjusted revenue growth and constant currency being at 17.7%. During this quarter, which tends to be seasonally weak quarter for the packages business, almost 98% of the room nights mix came in from stand-alone hotel within the H&P segment. As a result, the average selling price in constant currency, for the segment dropped by about 13% compared to the previous quarter. However, this was offset partially by about 130 bps improvement in a registered revenue margins largely due to higher performance linked incentives. Big suppliers tend to offer in seasonally week periods to drive up occupancy rates. During the quarter, we launched our celebrity driven marketing campaign on GoStays,…
Operator
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Shyam Patil with SIG.
Shyam Patil
Analyst
Thanks for taking my questions. I had a few. First one, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your loyalty programs? And just how they are influencing repeat rates, retention rates and kind of how you guys are thinking about the ROI?
Rajesh Magow
Management
Yes Shyam, happy to talk about that. So we'll talk about all three. MakeMyTrip Black, which is now close to one million subscriber base. We are seeing, definitely, increase repeat rates in that, I'd like to say significant right now, we are not really sharing those numbers out in public. But it's only trending in the right direction quarter-on-quarter. And therefore, we've been very happy to grow that in a big manner. With Double Black, we are actually, the growth has been more moderated, there are some changes to the program, which are coming up ahead, with which we think will get the big push. And Double Black repeat rates are actually, virtually 70% to 80% higher than actually on the Black as well. So that's – which stands to reason it's a paid program, but people who have been selected, it's an invite-only program, are those who have already been loyal users, repeat users, coming back, spending more. So on the basis of three things, recency, frequency and value. And there is a partnership now with the bank, which should see a further boost to those numbers. On Goibibo, the Go Rewards program is fairly new. Just off the blocks just announced. It's early days, but already we are seeing some good traction, like I mentioned, it's a unique program, it's more around getting more frequent users, usage of the app and people to actually help us build content get more involved. The early signs are the people who are getting more involved are definitely transacting more and there is a higher conversion rate, but that's really launched this quarter, so I think we'd like to see it for another quarter or two before we can give you better kind better kind of numbers on that one.
Shyam Patil
Analyst
Great. And then next question, could you talk a little bit about, for room nights just kind of, where you guys are in terms of optimizing the mix? The business – mix of business kind of within the hotel segment? And then how you're thinking about room nights growth generally going forward?
Mohit Kabra
Management
Yes Shyam, Mohit here. As we've been calling out over the last few quarters, we continue to see good growth, particularly in the medium to premiums pricing segments of hotels. It is largely in the budget segment of hotels, that we have been seeing growth tapering off, over the last few quarters, because we’ve been significantly reducing the promotional expenses, in those price points of hotels. This quarter, is probably the first quarter after almost like three or four quarters in the recent past, that we have seen a little bit of a revival in the budget segment as well. And therefore, you would've seen that our overall growth from standalone online hotels has slightly improved from about 18% in the previous quarter to about 22% in this quarter. Currently in terms of an overall mix, budget pretty much kind of, budget hotels pretty much account for almost 50% of the overall room night mix. So, therefore, it's an important segment for us to revive growth albeit at the right unit economics. And hopefully, we are kind of getting closer to that. And hopefully, we will see growth accelerating for the budget segment in the coming quarters, and thereby, kind of improving overall growth from standalone online hotels as a segment.
Shyam Patil
Analyst
Great. And then just last question on the – just the competitive landscape. Can you just talk about kind of how you'd characterize the competitive landscape right now? Maybe compare it to, say, three months ago? And particularly from domestic players, as well as some of the larger global OTAs?
Rajesh Magow
Management
Yes sure. Sure. So specifically with respect to, let's say, compared to last three months and all, hasn't really materially changed and sometime back maybe if you go back three quarters, quarters, probably it was more intense and the reason for that is that if you would recall, our Paytm wallet getting into hotels, few quarters ago. And that did not take off and they kind of went withdrew their offering on the hotel side. They probably have had a very soft kind of a relaunch, if you will, but nothing big that we've seen. And in terms of just overall other OTAs in the marketplace, whether those are a domestic OTAs or international OTAs, it has been normal. We haven't really seen anything exceptional, in terms of just aggressive investment in the marketplace across the segment. So I would say kind of normal competition as you would typically expect in the market, nothing unusual in the last three months.
Shyam Patil
Analyst
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Kevin Kopelman with Cowen and Company.
Kevin Kopelman
Analyst · Cowen and Company.
Hi, thanks a lot. To start off, could you just give us an update on – over the next year? What's your highest – high-level? How you're thinking about driving growth compared to cash flow? Thanks.
Rajesh Magow
Management
Yes, sure. Just from a long-term perspective. I guess, as we were trying to call out in the script as well. In short term, we might see some headwinds specifically to the air business given the fuel rise – price rise and rupee depreciation. But we are quite optimistic actually about the long-term outlook of the travel business in India. Given the overall macro factors are fairly strong just from a long-term standpoint, specific to the travel industry. And a few of them, specifically took all out this has been general expansion of the infrastructure happening all around. Whether it is road infrastructure or it is air travel infrastructure or it is accommodation related, new hotels that are coming up, and so on. And also the fact that the passenger growth has been fairly, fairly robust, as well as domestic air travels or for that matter outbound air travel is concerned. And as a result of which, just looking at the long-term outlook of the market, most of the airlines in India have actually ordered new planes, they in India have actually ordered new planes, they have added actually capacity recently as well, but adding more in times to come. Plenty of new birds are likely to arrive over the next four, five years. So long-term outlook, we remain quite positive. On pretty much all the segments, and specifically, where the penetration of online is, relatively speaking, lower, which is like outbound market both for hotels, as well as flights. The online penetration is low, as compared to domestic flight specifically. And same is the situation with the domestic bus industry as well. Like we called out in the government sector or government-owned sector of the bus space, the penetration is just about 10%. There's plenty of headroom. So generally, just from an overall growth perspective, we stay quite positive, and we will continue to keep driving in pretty much every segment and keeping in mind as we've also called that one out, and in line with our long-term kind of philosophy as well. That we would, given our stage of life cycle in the company today and the site that we've kind of reached, while we continue to drive the growth, we also would be consciously just to driving the cost efficiencies as well. So that's the kind of balanced strategy that we expect to continue for the – in the next few years, where you will see, while growth on the underpenetrated segment continuing, along with the gross efficiencies and optimization driving through automation and various other things.
Kevin Kopelman
Analyst · Cowen and Company.
Okay, great. And then, one more question on bus ticketing. Can you give us more color on the development there? The latest competitive landscape and also how you see growth playing out for the next couple of quarters? Thanks.
Rajesh Magow
Management
Sure. It’s been actually fairly robust, if you really see, I mean, since the time that we've started declaring the – more data on the segment as part of our segments reporting. You would see that the growth has been fairly robust, fairly robust, I mean, on this quarter, we grew at about 53%, even last quarter the growth was close to 50%. And this growth, like I said, given the fact that there is more headroom available, growth is likely to continue. And in terms of just competitive landscape, redBus is to give you an idea of the market share that we have in the bus segment of the online bus segment, redBus has a market share of close to about 70% of the online bus segment market, so by far the market leader in the segment and irrespective of whatever distant kind of competition that is there in the marketplace. We believe that we will continue to maintain and sustain our market with respect to competition, with respect to our market share in the – in that market. So I think overall actually, we feel quite positive in that space as well. And the growth is likely to continue there as well.
Kevin Kopelman
Analyst · Cowen and Company.
Great, thanks so much.
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Shaleen Kumar with UBS.
Shaleen Kumar
Analyst · UBS.
Yes hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Just two questions. One around airline. So clearly the airline bit is impressive in terms of the transaction growth of 30% definitely much ahead of the industry, so I just wanted to know what exactly is happening? And second bit on hotel and packages, actually this was a little below expectation considering that we are seeing in a market itself, we are seeing decent growth. So what exactly is happening over there as well?
Deep Kalra
Management
Hi Shaleen this is Deep. So Shaleen on the air side of the business, you're right, the growth is healthy, much higher than market. I think fundamentally, what's happening is, the brand strength is definitely playing and getting a large chunk of the users who are already online to do more share of wallet and come back here, and we believe it's because of the experience end-to-end, like I called out. We are seeing a good repeat and our repeat rates on air are steadily improving. As you know, we don't discount on air and much discounting, I mean, people are doing some degree of discounting with cash backs, but despite that, we are able to keep growing and growing faster than market. And market share also continues to grow at a pretty healthy rate. At our best estimate, we're about a quarter between the two grands, we are about a quarter of the entire domestic flyer market, and it's fairly accurate one because you get numbers, flown numbers from DGCA every year. And of the OTA market, if we look at it, then we would be close to about 55% now on last estimates and that, again, has been growing. So we believe it's largely on the back of great product experience, which is essentially why, you really want to grow, not by only discounting. I did call out that and you're probably aware that most of the carriers right now – so results just came out for 2 carriers are not really in the best of health. Simply because the fuel cost has gone up very high, and that right now has not – that burden has not been passed on to the customers, but we can expect some of that to happen. And so I think in…
Shaleen Kumar
Analyst · UBS.
Yes, yes. That really helps. Just a follow-up on your comments. So what I was seeing that, gross booking per transaction, if I'm looking for your hotel and packages, it has kind of come down. Is there a change in strategy of bit because what we were talking from last year, we will focus more on the – less on the budget segment, but more on a mid-tier segment? But is it – are we going back on the budget segment? And second bit is – agree with you on current stress in the airline sector, has any of the airline come back to you and ask you to reduce the commission that they are paying to you or you just haven't seen or heard this thing yet?
Deep Kalra
Management
So no, we'll take the hotel side. I will take the air side first, I think Mohit was actually calling out – sorry, on the hotel, that ASP is lower because the share in this quarter, this is a low season quarter so less holidays, so the share of standalone hotels is much higher. So that has really caused the ASP, which is lower, which actually has been made up significantly by margin increase. So that's kind of got balanced out, but the lower ASP you're seeing is largely due to mix within the H&P segment. Mohit, you want to add to that.
Mohit Kabra
Management
Yes, yes. Absolutely that's the case. And that's what we had called on. So no other significant changes over there, also from a longer-term growth point of view, Shaleen, the idea was to kind of go soft on budget, but the idea was to kind of get the Unit Economics corrected in the budget segment before we start driving growth once again in the low price hotels as well.
Deep Kalra
Management
And on the air question. No I think we are definitely well protected, I mean, of course, you're reading the press there is 1 carrier definitely, facing cash flow issues. But we've managed to stay, we've got our payments all protected. So, so far so good.
Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the Q&A portion of today's conference. I would like to turn the call back over to our host.
Jonathan Huang
Management
Thank you, everyone, for joining our conference call today. We certainly look forward to speaking with each and every one of you pretty soon. Thank you.
Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.