Reports from Infibeam Avenues 43% increase in net earnings; raises investment in subsidiary

• ByStartupStory     |    February 7, 2023

Infibeam Avenues, a payment infrastructure firm, recorded a consolidated net profit of Rs 35.81 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal, up 43.13% from Rs 25.02 crore the previous year. 

The firm stated in an exchange filing that its overall income increased 4.5% to Rs 414.7 crore from Rs 397 crore, with the payment business contributing Rs 372.96 crore. 

The revenue generated by the ecommerce platform segment remained flat at Rs 41.7 crore. The payment business of Infibeam consists of the payment gateway business (CCAvenue brand) and the payment infrastructure business, which offers CPGS to banks and credit and lending-related organizations. 

The ecommerce platform business, on the other hand, comprises a software foundation and infrastructure to enable ecommerce for large organizations, as well as ancillary services such as domains and advertising.

Meanwhile, the company’s costs increased to Rs 383.6 from Rs 372.89 in the preceding quarter ending December 2021. Its EBITDA of Rs 47.6 crore was 25.9% more than the previous year’s EBITDA of Rs 37.8 crore, and the EBITDA margin increased to 11.5% from 9.5% in the previous year’s similar quarter. 

Infibeam Avenue claims to have gained 1.1 million merchants in the third quarter, bringing the total number of merchants to 8.4 million, a 72% increase year on year. Retail was the greatest merchant contribution, followed by groceries, travel and ticketing, education, and information technology. 

Furthermore, its quarterly gross transaction processing value (TPV) was Rs 1 lakh crore, a 27% increase year on year.

“The company’s focus on generating higher profitability per transaction to improve unit economics is starting to produce results. Payments net take rate (NTR) increased to 8.9 basis points (bps), up 63% YoY,” said Vishal Mehta, Managing Director, Infibeam Avenues.

The net take rate is the net earnings from the payment company after payment processing fees are deducted.

“The company is experiencing a quarter-on-quarter increasing trend in net take rate as sectors impacted in the pandemic, and the overall discretionary spends are now increasing,” he added. He continues, “Also, change in payment mix from credit options like credit cards and EMIs to debit options like net banking and debit cards led to favorable net take rate.” He said that payments through debit options are more profitable for the company.

The firm intends to expand its payment infrastructure business in international markets by expanding into offline digital payments via the newly released CCAvenue mobile app with Tappay. It is also considering expanding its merchant pipeline for cross-sell opportunities, as well as providing merchants with working capital loans and invoice discounting to increase profits.

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