Info Edge’s Q2FY10 revenue is down 15.6% to Rs 55.2 crore versus Rs 65.42 crore on year-on-year basis. Its operating margin (OPM) is at 25.7 % versus 23.7%.  

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Hitesh Oberoi, COO of Info Edge, spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.

Below is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Hitesh Oberoi on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: Quarter two earnings compared to year ago are looking tepid. You did Rs 55 crore in revenues versus Rs 65 crore. But that Rs 55 crore looks good when you compare to the Rs 52 crore you did in Q1. Give us an idea. Are people hiring more pace of hiring you are looking at?

A: What has happened is that we have not performed very well in the naukri business as far as topline goes. That is as per our expectation because hiring did slowdown in two–three quarters after the market melted down in October. However, what we are seeing is some sort of a revival. It’s very early to say whether its full revival of whether it’s going to be slow and sequential climb from here. But definitely hiring outlook is improved, companies have started hiring people, they had completely frozen hiring specially in sectors like IT, business process outsourcing (BPO) and insurance and financial services. But now at least the placement hiring has picked up.

Q: Can you put a number to it when you are saying that it is replacement hiring? Were the hiring in Q1 10–20% better. If you were to divide three quarters of calendar 2009 how is the pace of hiring improving?

A: We have something called Naukri JobSpeak index, which we track on monthly basis and this index tracks hiring activity across sectors on a monthly basis. So this put things in perspective if we were at a base number of about 1,000 in July last year and in the meltdown at the peak we went to about 650 odd, which means hiring was down by about 35% but since then we have recovered to around 750. So we are still down 20–25% from the peak but we are up about 10% from the bottom.

Q: Focusing on your non-recruitment business, two of your space 99acres.com and jeevansathi.com saw some bit of pain. Have you seen any breakeven as far as these businesses are concerned and have you arrested any losses?

A: The good news for us in Q2 was that we did very well in our non-recruitment businesses. Jeevansathi broke even and we made some money in Q2. In 99acres, we cut losses substantially from about 2.5 crore last year and this year to about 90 lakh and while sales are still down in 99acres because the property market has slowed down, we have cut losses substantially. Jeevansathi on the other hand we broke even and we continue to grow, so that’s the good news.

Q: When do you look to breakeven as far as 99acres is concerned?

A: A lot depends on the market. We are seeing the real estate market also recovered slightly though, Q2 was good. Q3 also looks good and we are also cutting cost. It maybe two quarters before we breakeven or could be four quarters, its difficult to say but things are going to look up from here.

Infoedge’s Q2FY10 revenue is down 15.6% to Rs 55.2 crore versus Rs 65.42 crore on year-on-year basis. Its operating margin (OPM) is at 25.7 % versus 23.7%.