PropertyGuru Group Limited

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Property Guru Group third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, today's program will be recorded. If anyone objects, please disconnect now. Now let me introduce Nat Otis, VP of Investor Relations. Mr. Otis, please go ahead.

Good morning and good evening. Welcome to Property Guru Group's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. On the call today are Hari Krishnan, CEO and Managing Director, and Joe Disch, CFO. Before we get started, a few reminders. Firstly, our results are available in the earnings release that can be found in the investor section of our website. Secondly, today's webcast is being recorded. A replay along with a transcript will also be available in the investor section of our website. Thirdly, we will be making forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements regarding our future results and expectations for the business. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary materially. Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings for more information regarding risk factors. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and the company is not obliged to update them except as required by law. Fourthly, this call will also contain non-IFRS financial measures. For reconciliation of non-IFRS financial measures to the most directly comparable IFRS metric, please see our earnings press release. Lastly, all dollar references are in Singapore dollars unless otherwise stated. With that, let me turn the call over to Hari.

Thank you for joining us today for our third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. PropertyGuru has demonstrated resiliency with another period of double digit revenue growth and the second consecutive quarter of robust double digit adjusted EBITDA margins. This growth is a testament to our focused investments and effective execution against a backdrop of weakened consumer confidence and a slow property market in Vietnam and uncertain economic conditions in Malaysia. We recognize the challenges and uncertainties in predicting market trends. Our focus, however, remains on creating value for our consumers and customers and helping them make confident property decisions. We will continue to execute our operating strategy, delivering results that underscore the value of our business to all stakeholders and positioning ourselves to capitalize when markets stabilize. Let me walk you through some of the highlights from this quarter, starting with our business in Singapore. In Singapore, we are seeing steady adoption of our new products, even as the demand for property moderates due to rising interest rates and cost of living challenges, which are impacting the speed of decision-making for buyers. Our Singapore demand index showed a 14% decrease from the second quarter, while both supply and transaction activities remained consistent with the previous quarter. Continuing a trend observed over the past several quarters, construction and real estate services were the top performing sub-sectors in the Singapore economy in the third quarter according to preliminary GDP results released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry last month. The sustained level of construction activity is a positive indicator for the coming quarters. Finally, it is important to highlight that despite various cooling measures implemented by the government, the Singaporean property market has maintained its stability. In Malaysia, the quarter experienced a slowdown in consumer demand primarily due to higher interest rates and a lack of healthy wage inflation. The Malaysian Sales Demand Index witnessed a 6% decline compared to the previous quarter, attributed to the highest interest rates since 2020. Interestingly, our property price index still saw a 1.5% increase from the second quarter even as more supply entered the market. These factors collectively led to a reduction in consumer buying. Additionally, Malaysia faced significant challenges from local currency depreciation. In response, the government is proactively exploring strategies to stimulate GDP growth to the 4-5% range in 2024 and mitigate further currency volatility. Despite these challenges, our optimism about Malaysia's long-term prospects remains strong due to the success of both the Property Guru and iProperty brands and the fundamental desire for housing in the country. we will continue to build out our suite of market-defining offerings and navigate near-term market issues. In Vietnam, the near-term outlook remains unchanged, as the government's efforts to boost consumer confidence and stimulate the market are showing limited immediate impact. However, last week, the Vietnamese government highlighted the importance of lowering interest rates in 2024 to enhance credit accessibility for individuals and businesses alike. Additionally, the government is committed to focus resources to achieve GDP growth of 6% to 6.5% in 2024 while also keeping inflation in check. Early signs are encouraging as GDP growth did accelerate from Q2 to Q3 2023. At PropertyGuru, we are actively adapting our strategy for the Vietnam market in anticipation of these evolving conditions. Our recent initiatives include the appointment of a new country manager, restructuring the team, and implementation of a sales transformation strategy. This strategy is designed to enhance customer service and drive revenue growth through innovative measures like dynamic pricing and reduced product discounting. Lastly, it's important to recognize Vietnam's enduring long-term prospects. These include a youthful demographic, increasing urbanization, significant investments in infrastructure, and an economy poised to benefit from the country's stature as an emerging alternative base for global manufacturing output. We navigate the changing economic landscape of Southeast Asia while continuously innovating and leveraging technology. This approach is designed to create value for our stakeholders and enhance operational efficiency. Central to our strategy is the use of generative AI and machine learning. Internally, the adoption of GitHub Copilot by our engineering team has been remarkable, with over 95% of engineers at PropertyGuru actively utilizing Copilot to increase individual productivity and enhance code writing. Last quarter, we introduced GuruPix, a personalized feed of property listings that employs machine learning to constantly improve its algorithms. This quarter, we saw early benefits as consumer click-through rates significantly increased following further refinement of the algorithm relevancy. Furthermore, machine learning powers PropertyGuru's Listing Description Generator, aiding agents in creating more effective property listings. We have also made advancements in lead management, introduced in Singapore last quarter. By the end of the third quarter, over 60% of active Singapore agents had engaged with lead management, with nearly half utilising it for direct lead contact. Moving to fintech, in July we launched our in-principle approval or IPA service. We are now the first in the market to provide a solution that helps users with their digital mortgage pre-approval process. This self-serve product is bank agnostic and enables consumers to directly select their preferred bank, fill an application form online and upload the necessary forms and documents. Once finished, we complete a simple check before sending them to the financial institution. This is the type of smart digital experience that people are asking for. And as a testament to its value, since its launch, the IPA option has been chosen by 80% of online consumers on our mortgage platform, Property Guru Finance. In other exciting developments, our data and software solutions business has made significant strides. In September, we rolled out five modules in our agent CRM system, AgentNet, that combine transaction information and proprietary supply and demand data from data sets. The modules are available to all Singaporean property agents as a part of their subscriptions and will help strengthen our agents' market intelligence capabilities as well as provide an additional upsell opportunity for PropertyGuru. Also in DataSense this quarter, we launched the Foreign Demand Analytics module. This tool provides customers with detailed insights into property demand trends by country of origin. In effect, it helps agents more efficiently and effectively service foreign buyers, while also giving our developer, institutional investor and governmental customers a window into key marketplace trends. This quarter marked significant progress for our group, showcasing solid strides in various business segments, product launches and adoption, along with an increase in operating leverage and solid revenue growth. While we faced challenges in Vietnam and Malaysia, the overall performance this quarter has been encouraging, fueling our optimism for the future. Let me conclude by emphasizing our pride in resiliently navigating through variable market conditions. We are well positioned in what is expected to be one of the fastest growing regions over the next decade and beyond. We continue to believe in the fundamental opportunities in our core markets and are committed to future growth and profitability anchored around our vision to power communities to live, work and thrive in tomorrow's cities. I will now hand the call over to Joe to walk you through our financials.