Aurum PropTech posted its fourth consecutive profitable quarter as revenue jumped 64%, margins widened and the newly acquired Housing.com brought scale to its growth strategy.
Aurum PropTech reported its fourth straight profitable quarter in the three months to September, as revenue growth, tighter costs and a newly completed Housing.com acquisition reshaped the investment case for the Indian real-estate software group. Total income rose 56% from a year earlier to INR137 crore, while revenue from operations climbed 64% to INR130.2 crore, helped by stronger performance in its distribution and rental businesses. The company also said adjusted EBITDA margin widened by 840 basis points to 11.5%, underscoring better operating leverage as scale improved.
The earnings release showed a sharper turnaround further down the profit and loss account. Profit before tax from continuing operations reached INR6.8 crore, compared with a loss in the same period a year earlier, while profit after tax from continuing operations came in at INR4.3 crore. Basic earnings per share for continuing operations improved to INR0.52 from a loss of INR1.17 a year ago. Aurum also said its first-half operating cash flow from continuing operations rose to INR60.8 crore, up from INR25.4 crore in the same period last year, reflecting stronger cash generation.
Housing.com, acquired on September 29, now sits at the centre of Aurum’s growth plan. According to the company’s presentation, the platform brings more than 58 million monthly visits and roughly 45 million monthly active users, giving Aurum a large consumer audience to feed into its broader transaction and software network. Management has set a target of making Housing.com profitable within 12 to 18 months, and said it had already moved quickly on costs while expecting revenue growth to do most of the work in the next phase.
The distribution business remained the largest contributor, generating INR69.7 crore, or 54% of group revenue, and posting segment profit of INR11.4 crore. Aurum said it sold 170,000 leads in the quarter and had 10,560 active technology licences, while home sales facilitated through the segment reached INR850 crore. Rental revenue rose to INR56.1 crore and the unit returned to profit, with occupancy at 82% across 137 buildings and 16,500 beds. The capital business was still small by comparison, but it moved closer to break-even, with revenue of INR4.3 crore and a small profit.
The balance sheet remained solid. Aurum ended the quarter with INR191.6 crore in cash, bank balances and current investments, up from INR141 crore in March, and said it remained effectively debt-free aside from lease liabilities. Total assets increased to INR1,641 crore, while shareholders’ equity roughly doubled to INR1,020 crore. The company’s cost structure also improved, with employee expenses easing as a share of revenue and other costs lower than a year earlier, although depreciation and finance costs continued to weigh on the bottom line. Market watchers will now be focused on whether Aurum can convert Housing.com’s traffic into higher-value transactions quickly enough to justify the ambitious integration strategy.
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