Q3 will be better; education biz will recover: Career Point

A change in the engineering entrance exam format led to a drop in enrolments, says Promod Maheshwari, chirman and managing director and chief executive officer, Career Point Infosystems.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 on the company’s Q2 results, Maheshwari says the next quarter is likely to be better owing to the fact that most expenses have been incurred in Q1 and Q2. Also read: Career Point consolidated Sep '13 sales at Rs 16.96 crore
“We have invested in formal education and it has received good traction and it will contribute significantly in the next financial year,” adds Maheshwari. Below is the edited transcript of Maheshwari’s interview to CNBC-TV18.

Q: You had a bad quarter last time. How have things looked up in Q3 so far?
A: Quarter three is slightly better than quarter two. However, as per the nature of our business, most of the enrolments have already taken place and Q3-Q4 will is inline with Q1 and Q2. So this year we have less number of enrolment because of format changing in engineering entrance examination. However, most of the expenses have been incurred in Q1 and Q2 so Q3 and Q4 will be slightly better than Q1 and Q2. Q: Could you give us some numbers because in the first half of the year you managed to do about Rs 32 crore worth of revenues and your profits came in under Rs 5 crore. What kind of target are you hoping to achieve in the second half of the year on both profits and revenues?
A: Revenue on consolidated basis would be close to Rs 70 crore this year and profit would be close to Rs 12-12.5 crore for FY14. Q: In terms of segment wise performance, where do you expect the traction to come from?
A: This year tutorial business got hit significantly because of less number of enrolments due to change in format of examination. However, in the last couple of years we have invested in formal education where we manage university and colleges. That business has received good traction and I believe that from next financial year the formal education will contribute significantly and tutorial business will recover from next financial year onwards.