India's Easy Trip Planners Q1 profit slides 21% as costs rise

BENGALURU, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Indias Easy Trip Planners (EASM.NS), which operates the online travel website EaseMyTrip.com, posted a more than 21% fall in first-quarter profit on Monday, as higher expenses outweighed robust travel demand.

The companys consolidated net profit fell to 260.2 million rupees ($3.14 million) for the quarter ended June 30 from 331.3 million rupees a year earlier.

Easy Trips total expenses surged about 95% in the quarter to 915.6 million rupees, as advertising costs more than doubled, hurting the companys margins.

The company has been battling increased costs for the past few quarters as it spent more on advertising and sales promotion to compete with its U.S.-listed rival MakeMyTrip (MMYT.O).

However, the post-pandemic travel boom, coupled with stronger customer spending in the worlds third-largest aviation market helped boost demand for the New Delhi-based companys services.

Consolidated revenue from operations climbed nearly 42% to 1.24 billion rupees, driven by its mainstay air travel bookings segment, which contributed nearly 90% of the top line.

Ticketing across segments has undergone a change amid greater smartphone affordability and user-friendly online platforms, Easy Trip said in a filing.

Between April-June, the companys gross booking revenue (GBR) soared 42.6% to 23.71 billion rupees, while core profit margins contracted to 29.6% from 49.7% in the year-ago period.

\“Going forward, online air ticketing is expected to grow further as more travelers (retail as well as corporate) migrate from offline to online platforms,\” the company added.

Easy Trips shares closed 0.62% higher after the results.

($1 = 82.9746 Indian rupees)