Having lost Rs 4,500 crore, Byju's FY21 report card is filled with errors

• Image Credit: Indiaeducation.net

• Sep 14, 2022 | Kabir Chakraborty

Since Byju's FY21 results were released over 18 months after the coverage period ended in March 2021, they have been the focus of intensive scrutiny and speculative discussion. color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">Digital Desk: Byju's, the most valuable
start-up in India and a provider of educational technology, reported today that
its fiscal year 2020–21 (FY21) sales was Rs 2,428 crore, leading to a loss of
Rs 4,500 crore.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">This is comparable to the Rs 2,434 crore in
sales from the prior year, but the difference is that the 2019–20 fiscal year's
bottom line revealed a profit of Rs 51 crore.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">The company's auditor, Deloitte Haskins &
Sells, issued an unqualified report about the FY21 data.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">Byju Raveendran, the company's founder, and
CEO, stated in an interview with Business Standard that the company experienced
significant business growth in FY 21. Though expenses were not deferred, over
40% of the income was because this was the first year that new revenue
recognition began as a result of changes to the Covid business model.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">"A significant portion of the FY21
revenue was postponed due to changes in revenue recognition over the time of
consumption and collection. Roughly 40% of the revenue was postponed.
Otherwise, the rate of growth would have been between 60 and 65 percent. The
expenses for the revenue that was delayed have already been deducted from the
revenue in FY21, so the loss has grown, according to Raveendran.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">High-voltage purchases that have yet to start
appearing as assets on the balance sheet also had an impact on Byju's. The
number of acquisitions grew this year, Raveendran noted, adding that these were
loss-making, fast-growing additions that were escalating the consolidated
deficit.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">Since Byju's FY21 results were released over
18 months after the coverage period ended in March 2021, they have been the
focus of intensive scrutiny and speculative discussion.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">"There was an 18-month delay, which made
everyone uneasy. For me and everyone else involved, the past six months have
been the hardest. The good thing is that's done with now, said Raveendran.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1"> The corporation published unaudited
figures that show close to Rs 10,000 crore in gross revenues, raising hopes for
the next year, 2021–2022. Its K-12 education division is rapidly expanding. The
company reported that it generated Rs 4,530 crore in revenue in the period
between April and July 2022 alone.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">Due to the pandemic's acceleration of the
adoption of online education, Byju's is currently on an acquisition binge both
in India and beyond. One of these agreements last year involved the $600
million purchase of Singapore-based Great Learning, a major participant in
professional and higher education, and the $1 billion purchase of New
Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">Other notable transactions were the $300
million acquisition of the Mumbai-based coding start-up WhiteHat Jr in 2020 and
the $500 million purchase of the US-based digital reading platform Epic last
year.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">The business asserted that acquisitions in
all categories had increased dramatically during the previous year. Aakash's
exam preparation sector revenues and Great Learning's higher education segment
revenues have both increased twofold since the acquisition.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">The two purchases that are outperforming are
Aakash and Great Learning, according to Raveendran. "We are
underperforming at WhiteHat Jr (acquisition). There is a good market fit, but
we still need to address the acquisition costs.

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