CandyDate Jobs delays job portal launch, valuation dips 23%

May 14, 2012 - PRLog -- CandyDate Jobs, India’s one of the best human resource consultants has delayed the launch of its job portal candydatejobs.com till June 7, 2012. The Exhilway private capital market listed company took a beating of 23% in valuation which eroded its net worth to US $119 million or INR 675 crore from US $152 million or INR 795 crore on May 11, 2012.

Private equity investors dumped their membership units in the firm when its CEO Rahul Malhotra in an open letter criticized investors for pressurizing the management to launch the project even if they are not fully prepared. The CEO expressed his concern about jobless people in India and assured that CandyDate Jobs will work for them first and will put investors second.

Rahul Malhotra in his open letter also thanked Indian business tycoon Anil Ambani who according to him was the first person to wish him luck when he started his professional journey in the year 2005.

“There was no need of openly criticizing investors, we can understand there is a great expectation from this firm. The firm has already generated 70% returns for its early investors since its private market listing on April 9 this year. Investors should mind their greed. CandyDate Jobs is one of the important company in the portfolio of the Exhilway Milestone Emerging Fund and if the downfall continues we may see some solid buying to support the price,” said Anju Thomas of New Delhi, India based Newman Private Wealth.

CandyDate Jobs on April 28, 2012 announced that it will go slow on providing free job search services and will focus more on paid job search ahead of its listing on BSE SME Exchange. CandyDate Jobs is in deep red loss however there is good amount member addition on a daily basis.

Out of its 10 users surveyed by a third party company 8 was found happy with the service. The net profit margins stands at 30% though investment in technology and infrastructure is digging in the firm in losses.

CandyDate Jobs will foray into other business segments like online retail in partnership with India’s biggest upcoming online shopping mall styleadda.com.

In response to the email questionnaire sent to Rahul Malhotra, we received the following response “My open letter is blown out of context, there is no need to panic if the project is delayed. We are working hard to monetize every bit and byte of candydatejobs.com and we do not want to committ drastic mistake. If my users are not my first priority it's hard for my investors to make money by investing in us. We are serious about the recruitment business and we will remain in the market for a long long time”.