These aren't good days to be rooting for the rupee.
India's monetary currency has taken a beating over the past year, a fact that's readily evident in yesterday's report from MakeMyTrip (Nasdaq: MMYT).
India's leading travel portal posted reasonably healthy results in its latest quarter, though exactly how healthy the report is depends on where you stand in the currency translation.
In its own denomination, revenue soared 67%. However, for stateside investors, MakeMyTrip's ascent to $47 million is only a 50% pop. If we back out the service costs related to bookings -- as analysts prefer to do -- MakeMyTrip's revenue grew just 30% to $22.1 million (as opposed to a 44% uptick in rupees).
At the end of the day, this is still a strong top-line boost. Adjusted earnings nearly tripled to $3 million, or a better-than-expected $0.08 a share. The market still wasn't impressed, sending the stock nearly 8% lower on the report.
MakeMyTrip is definitely one of the faster growing travel website operators out there.
China's Ctrip.com (Nasdaq: CTRP) -- the leading travel website in the only country with a larger population than MakeMyTrip's home turf -- posted just 19% in quarterly revenue growth last week. Even market darling priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) only mustered a 28% top-line spurt during the same period, and that's without having to whip out a currency calculator.
Investors shouldn't interpret this as a sign that India's now a booming market for Internet companies.
Rediff.com (Nasdaq: REDF) -- the Mumbai-based online portal that, according to traffic tracker Alexa.com, is the country's 12th most popular website -- reports next week, but there's little reason to get excited given its slipping popularity rankings on Alexa.
MakeMyTrip is the stronger grower, but is it worth the website operator's nearly $600 million market cap? Fresh guidance calls for revenue (less service costs) growing 30%-32% this year. Is $103 million-$106 million in adjusted revenue enough? The market doesn't seem to think so, but my money's on patient investors realizing that India's long-term outlook is too robust to pass on MakeMyTrip priced in the mid-teens.
I'm going to Bollywood
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