PropertyGuru cuts Q1 losses by 91.5% to $10.2m

SINGAPORE – New York-listed PropertyGuru slashed net losses by 91.5 per cent for its first quarter ended March 31 to $10.2 million, from $120.3 million in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue for the first quarter rose 15.6 per cent year on year to $32.6 million, from $28.2 million previously.

The company’s marketplaces continued to be the main source of its revenue, bringing in $31.2 million in the first quarter of 2023, a 14.7 per cent increase from the $27.2 million in the same quarter in 2022.

Revenue from the Singapore marketplace grew 25.6 per cent year on year to $18.8 million. This was just ahead of its Malaysia marketplace, which increased 25.5 per cent year on year to $6.8 million.

PropertyGuru said that in Singapore, its average revenue per agent was up 19 per cent from 2022’s first quarter, while the number of overall agents in Singapore was up by more than 200 from the end of 2022 to 15,765.

The company’s first-quarter 2023 revenue in Vietnam, however, shrank 34.2 per cent to $3.3 million, from nearly $5.1 million a year earlier. It said its number of listings in Vietnam was down by nearly a third, decreasing 32 per cent over the same period to 1.1 million – the result of government action to tighten credit.

Meanwhile, its fintech and other data services business raked in $1.4 million in the first quarter – a 40.1 per cent jump from just over $1 million for the first three months of 2022.

Its loss per share for the period was six cents, compared with 90 cents for the same period in 2022. This was on the back of a 73.6 per cent year-on-year drop in expenses to $42.2 million, from $159.9 million previously. A significant portion of its first-quarter 2022 expenses, however, were either share-listing expenses or legal and professional fees incurred for its initial public offering.

The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) tumbled 60.3 per cent to $220,000 for the first quarter of 2023, compared with $554,000 a year earlier. It had cash and cash equivalents of $294 million on hand at the end of the quarter.

PropertyGuru further reiterated its previous forecast for financial year 2023 of revenue between $160 million and $170 million and an adjusted Ebitda of between $11 million and $15 million.

While the group remains bullish on its growth trajectory over the long term, it cautioned that short-term performance could be affected by

stamp-duty increases in Singapore,

residual

political uncertainty in Malaysia,

and “a lack of clarity in global fiscal policy stemming from rising interest rates”.

“Vietnam remains the primary challenge in the near term, as governmental monetary policy has significantly impacted real estate transaction activity. We believe that these pressures will begin to abate in the latter part of 2023 and into 2024,” said Mr Hari V. Krishnan, chief executive and managing director of PropertyGuru.

“We are encouraged by the types of strategic mergers and acquisitions opportunities we are seeing in the marketplace as we continue to explore and evaluate adjacent opportunities to deploy available capital,” noted chief financial officer Joe Dische. THE BUSINESS TIMES