Zomato Q4 results: New-age company posts cons. profit of Rs 175 crore; stock settles 4% lower

The online food delivery services firm Zomato reported its Q4 earnings on Monday. For the January-March quarter, the company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 175 crore, when compared to a loss of Rs 188 crore during the same period last year. The net profit figure is in-line with Zee Business research estimates. Sequentially, the desk estimated the profit to rise 26.8 per cent. The company's PAT stood at Rs138 crore in the December-ended quarter.

The revenue from operations at the new-age company also climbed sharply by 73 per cent during the reporting quarter to Rs 3,562 crore as against Rs 2,056 crore logged in Q4FY23. The desk estimated a lower revenue for the period under review of Rs 3,350 crore.

EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization also logged a stupendous gain, nevertheless came in lower than estimates at Rs 86 crore in comparison to Rs 226 crore loss reported in the corresponding period of the previous year. Analysts expected EBITDA profit to come in at Rs 120 crore. EBITDA margin, also came in lower as against estimates of 3.6 per cent at 2.41%. 

Amid heightened competition from rival players, the company's expenses zoomed around 50 per cent given the high spend towards marketing and sales promotion. Contribution margin, nevertheless, soared to 7.5 per cent as against 5.8 per cent a year ago after the company started levying a platform fee on all orders. 

The gross order value or GOV- the overall value of all orders placed in the company's main food delivery business logged 28 per cent growth. Blinkit, the company's quick commerce arm posted a jump of 97 per cent in GOV during the quarter under review.

Furthermore, Blinkit hit a milestone and turned adjusted EBITDA positive in March month. 

"One of the key vectors for growth for us right now is store expansion. In Q4FY24, we added 75 net new stores taking our total store count to 526. For comparison, this is more than the number of stores we added in the three preceding quarters cumulatively. Including this cost of expansion, we turned Adjusted EBITDA positive in the month of March 2024. In the current quarter (Q1FY25), we expect to add another 100 stores," added the company's statement. At this point, we are aiming to get to 1,000 stores by the end of FY25, it added.

After the earnings were announced, the stock settled with a cut of nearly 4 per cent at Rs 193.7 per share, while in intra-day trade it marked its fresh 52-week high price of Rs 207.3 on the BSE.