Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is Aaditya Mulani from the HT Media Group. I would like to welcome you all to our Q1 FY 2026-2027 earnings webinar. As a reminder, all the participants will be in listen-only mode. After we are through with the presentation, there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions. I now hand over to Ms. Anna Abraham, HT Media Group's Deputy CFO, Chief Financial Officer, HMVL, and Head Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, Anna.
Thank you, Aaditya. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this webinar. Today on the call with me is Mr. Piyush Gupta, Group CFO; Mr. Pervez Bajan, Head, Financial Controllership and Taxation; and members of the Investor Relations team. We hope you've had an opportunity to review the results of the Hindustan Media Ventures Limited and those of HT Media Limited. We will be discussing the same at the webinar today. Please note that our discussion will follow the presentation slides, which along with the financial statements are available on the stock exchanges and in the Investor Relations section of our website. Before we start the presentation, kindly keep in mind the cautionary statement on this slide. We would not, as per usual practice, be giving any specific guidance on revenue or earnings projections. Moving on to slide three.
This provides the chairperson's message on the company's performance for the concluded fiscal quarter, and I quote: We began the financial year on a steady note with consolidated revenue growing year-on-year and profitability improving in tandem. Print remained the anchor of the business, with advertising revenue continuing to grow year-on-year and circulation revenue remaining resilient. The growth in profitability was achieved on the back of steady advertising revenue and disciplined cost management. However, elevated newsprint prices, a weaker rupee, and global supply chain uncertainties are causes for concern going forward. Radio revenue remained broadly steady year-on-year. The segment is now operating on a leaner and more sustainable footprint following the surrender of licenses for certain non-viable stations. Digital revenue moderated during the quarter as we deliberately reset the portfolio around leaner, more focused offerings with the intent of driving sustainable and profitable growth.
Beyond the quarter's operating performance, the board approved a preferential issue last month, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The proposed issue is a proactive step towards strengthening the company's capital structure, streamlining its debt profile, and providing capital for general business requirements. As we begin the financial year, your continued confidence and support remain central to our purpose. We remain focused on strengthening our core businesses, delivering trusted journalism and quality content, and creating sustainable long-term value for all our stakeholders. Moving on today's agenda, we'll begin with a performance update focusing on consolidated financial results, followed by an overview of our print, radio, and digital business segments. After the presentation, we will open for Q&A session. With this, I now hand over the call to Piyush for the main presentation.
Thanks, Aaditya. Thanks, Anna. You will be tracking the webinar. On your screen, you can see the consolidated financial summary. I recap, operating revenue, the year-on-year top- line growth. Same cost discipline preserved with margin expansion and cash position remained robust. To quickly deep dive into the numbers, as you can see, total revenue grew by 15%, coming at INR 497 crores, with EBITDA going up nearly 3x to INR 90 crores, with a margin expansion of 12 points. PAT improved substantially to INR 47 crores, and PAT margin also improved to 9%. Our net cash position remains a very healthy INR 922 crores. Now, going into the business unit performance. Print, the segment revenue grew on the back of advertising performance.
Circulation remained steady, both annually and sequentially, and margins for the quarter at 13%, despite high commodity rates. As you can see, the ad revenue grew 15% to INR 295 crores. Circ revenue was virtually flat at INR 52 crores. Operating revenue, therefore, at INR 376 crores, which is a 16% increase, and operating EBITDA improved substantially to INR 50 crores with a margin at 13%. Deep diving a little into the print segment, as you can see, the advertising revenue grew 12% to INR 156 crores versus the same quarter last year, and sequentially there was a decline, but that is barely sitting there. Circulation revenue grew 14% to INR 13 crores. On Hindi Print, again, we saw an increase, on a year-on-year basis, revenue coming to INR 139 crores and circulation revenue remaining flat.
Radio, again, the top line was flat, with operating EBITDA coming at INR -3 crores. Digital segment operating revenue were down by about 28%, and operating EBITDA was INR -3 crores with a margin at - 12%. With that, we come to the end of the presentation.
Thank you, Piyush. We will now begin the Q&A session. You can click on the Raise Hand option, which will enable the moderator to unmute you for posing your query. Please introduce yourself before posing your query, and kindly restrict to a maximum of two to three questions per participant so that we may be able to address questions from all participants.
Also, as is the ambit of this call, please be mindful to pose questions pertaining to the listed entity, HT Media Limited, and those within its consolidated structure. We will wait for a few moments while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Ranga Prasad. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Good afternoon, Mr. Prasad.
It is indeed heartening to note that the management's decision to shut down loss-making verticals is bearing fruit. The losses from the discontinued operations have come down substantially. If the present trend is indicated, our company is on a road to sustained profitability. However, in this regard, I find one thing quite puzzling. The management's decision to go for a preferential offer of equity shares, conceivably to reduce debt. You had just indicated that our net cash position is very healthy at INR 922 crore. Even until the last quarter, the shareholders were in fact wondering if the company plans to return some cash on hand to the shareholders. Now, suddenly, the management has felt the need to raise additional equity capital. That too, through a preferential offer equity share at a lower rate of around INR 24, while the book value of per share is around INR 70.
This will result in a sharp fall in the book value per share. In addition to diluting the share of the existing public shareholders by 15%. Just at the time when the company is showing indications of getting into sustained profitability, the shareholders who had held on to their stake in the company through thick and thin are being diluted. If the company wanted to raise additional funds, the shareholder interest would be better served if this were done through a rights issue. That way, the stake in the company would not get diluted. I request the management to clarify as to why they preferred to raise additional funds through a preferential offer rather than through a rights issue. If at all possible, the ongoing preferential offer of equity warrants should be withdrawn in interest of the public shareholders. Thank you. Some comment, please.
Thank you for your comments, Mr. Prasad. The first point where you commended the company for a wonderful performance, we thank you. As we have been continuously every quarter indicating to the investors that we are carefully monitoring all our incubating businesses, and if they do not turn profitable, indeed the company and the management will take a call and hence we have taken a call. You have already seen the profitability numbers improving in this quarter. Again, on a sustainable basis, we believe that they will go from strength to strength. That is on point number one. On point number two, let me just lay out a couple of big points and then I will request my colleagues to also jump in into this one. We have a very substantially healthy balance sheet position with cash at INR 922 crore.
You have to understand that all that cash is parked in HMVL, HT Media and Digicontent Limited, which is not here. Where the preferential issue is being done are both integrated companies are running a net debt position. At this point in time, though money can be given to HMVL shareholders in the way of dividend or buybacks and so on, so forth, t here is no free cash or surplus cash sitting in either HT Media or Digicontent Limited. As you can see, those preferential issue has been only called for in HT Media and DCL. They have not been done in HMVL, which is already sitting on a surplus cash. That is the point I would like you to consider, because what we are showing you, INR 922 crore, is at a consolidated HT Media level, and this is not bifurcating between HT Media separately and HMVL separately.
Coming on to the pricing and dilution, we do not believe that is the case because you have to understand that currently the price-to-book ratio is less than 0.5, and the pricing of the preferential issue has been done strictly on the basis of a SEBI formula and the higher of 10- day or 90- day VWAP prices. We have not put it onto any premium on that number. Being the least controversial, we have just stuck ourselves to the SEBI formula, and that is how it is being priced. Once the preferential capital come in, this money will be used to retire the debt. At least one-third of the debt or 30%-50% of the debt will be retired, which will definitely be accretive to the EPS and long-term interest coverage ratio, our credit rating and so on and so forth.
All the cash that is sitting in HMVL will be deployed as per the board directions of HMVL. That's a separate listed company with a separate board and separate set of shareholders, minority and majority. Those guys will take call. HT Media, for all the business plans that it has, can definitely do with a lesser debt profile and so can DCL. I would stop here. If there are any other questions, we can take that. If my colleagues would like to jump in on any point, happy if they want to contribute.
There was a question about rights issue also. T he rights issue would have meant a longer process. Preferential issue is a slightly shorter process. There is greater certainty of fundraising because there was a quantum that was being targeted to reduce the debt. It is not necessary that the same quantum could get put in through a rights issue. In case of an under-subscription, the process works where the unsubscribed shares are given to an underwriter, which itself becomes a quasi-preferential allotment with inferior pricing guidelines, actually, vis-à-vis with the pricing guidelines of the preferential issue. As a company, it was felt that the preferential issue will deliver the requirements of-
Mr. Prasad, I think it's a faster process, preferential issue. You are at least two to three months faster. It gives you a greater certainty of fundraising. There is no risk of under-subscription, because you've already done an outreach and engaged with the investors and are pricing the issue on the basis of a SEBI formula. I think those are the clear high notes or the points that my colleague has referred to. I hope that answers your question.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mehul Pathak. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.
Can you hear me?
Yes. Hi. Good afternoon, Mehul.
Hello, Piyush and congratulations on a good set of numbers after such a long time. At least this call has something positive to look forward to. I hope you will be able to keep up these numbers for the next three quarters also of this year.
Yes, Mehul, thanks for the kind words. Obviously, we do some forward planning. We don’t give any forward guidance, but looking at various scenarios, we are very hopeful that we will be able to keep up a good set of numbers going into the future as well.
Piyush, even if you keep these numbers for the next three quarters, we might end up with an earning per share of INR 6 and a book value of INR 70, the return on equity is still lesser than 10%. It is lesser than the cost of capital in our country. Even then, I would say that we are not doing justice to capital in the company, even at these profits that we are earning. That is something for you all in the group to look at. Now, coming to what Mr. Ranga Prasad said, I had given some thought to the preferential issue that you are raising. Now, the preferential issue pricing, w hile you might say that you have followed the SEBI guideline, legally, technically, you are right. I would say there’s a moral dimension to it.
An ethical dimension to the whole thing. Now, in HT Media, if I just value the stake in HMVL, that itself is INR 51 a share. It has INR 1,587 crore of net worth. If I divide that by 23 crore shares outstanding, INR 51.75 is what I’m getting. You add all the businesses of HT Media also, and if you calculate the intrinsic worth of our company, it should be around INR 140 or INR 150 a share. Now, the promoters are issuing preferential issue at INR 24.7. It’s, according to me, just ludicrous. How can you value? You are basically telling that my company is valued at INR 24 a share. At INR 24 a share, we are less than INR 1,000 crore. When HMVL itself is INR 1,500- INR 1,600 crore. The whole thing is totally out of whack.
Now, the voting has opened, and I have voted against the resolution for self and family members. I would say seriously, preferential issue, even if SEBI is right, it is a reputation issue, and we should withdraw the preferential issue. Or at least I would say the preferential issue has to be priced above INR 100. You have to show that the promoters are following the highest standards of corporate governance. Look, this is not meant to be a question . But I would request the board and the promoters to withdraw the preferential issue and listen to us shareholders.
Please consider my feedback. Piyush, one more thing. There are many ways in which you can raise capital. There are so many loss-making businesses. There is Shine, and there is a whole lot of options available. I would say that I’m not seeing any justification to Mr. Ranga Prasad also that you all have considered other options. If other options are making losses or not giving adequate return on capital, I am telling those businesses should be sold, and we should remain in media.
I think that’s a very fair point. So Mehul, let me attempt to engage with your question at two or three different levels. One is, why is this preferential issue good or not, or the antithesis of that from a company point of view. Secondly, you’ve raised a question about moral dilemma or moral ethics, et cetera, at the promoter level. And third, other ways of unlocking capital, so to say. Look, I totally take your point that HMVL, basically dividing the net worth by total number of outstanding shares comes to a certain number. But the market is valuing at one-third that number, and that's been a perpetual challenge. On various calls, even before this call, I think the company's frustration, but we don't react to short-term share prices, but for the longest time, it has been less than 0.5x the book value.
So we all understand the share has been priced at that, but really, there's nothing that we can do with it. The second point that you have to consider, and you have to read it in conjunction with this whole stuff is, why are we doing this preferential issue in those companies? So things which are in our control is we can retire the debt. What the promoters are bringing in at exactly the same terms and conditions, capital, till their regulatory max in the company, which means they are wholeheartedly subscribing to the same formula in which all the third-party shareholders are bringing in capital, and this will help the company improve their EPS in the short term and of course, give it more flexibility to deploy capital on various other ventures that they want to do going forward.
Now, coming into this whole thing of various other ways of unlocking capital, I think Mr. Ranga Prasad did mention, and I'm just reiterating. On OTTplay, we have been directing all the investors that we will sooner rather than later take a call, and we took all stakeholders along with this. And you've seen circa 31st March 2026, we have taken that decision, and hence you are seeing the improvement in the financial position in the first quarter results, which is sustainable, which will go forward. All the other things that you are saying, we don't give any forward statements, but I think you should not presume that the company is not looking at all other options available to maximize the capital or cut losses on increased EPS, et cetera. All those options are on the table, and they are being discussed right up till the board level.
Saying that from a highest level of morality or ethics, et cetera, someone is short-changing, I think the only way that you can talk about a share price is the existing share price in the stock market. We all understand it is an undervalued share, but really, I cannot do much because that is not where the market is valuing us. We are doing whatever is in the best possible interest of the company and within our means, raising fresh capital to retire debt, give us capital flexibility to invest in businesses which can create long-term sustainable value for all shareholders, majority or minority. I will stop there. If you have got any questions, happy to take those.
Can I seek a clarification question on this? Can I ask one more question, please?
Sure.
Piyush, I asked whenever we have discussed share price, you have always reiterated that we are not bothered about the share price. We are not looking at the share price. We just want to keep on doing the right things in this business. I am saying that where convenient, you are then moving to the share price as per SEBI regulations. I am saying, there is no consistency in the statements. The second thing is that a couple of years ago, I had asked this question in the AGM on debt, that why are we taking debt? And I was told that we are not using debt in the business. And we are using debt only for treasury purposes. If we are taking money on treasury, why should we not show that treasury operation on the debt side?
This is the first time I am coming to know that you are using debt in the business. And the chairperson herself has said that we are debt-free, and we are not using debt for any business purpose.
Mehul, l et me answer that. I think we publish our balance sheet every year for HT Media, HMVL, Digicontent Limited, all the companies. I think is there debt sitting in HT Media? It has been now sitting for the last three to four years. It is not a fresh information that I am giving here. In this particular call, we are showing a combined net cash position, hence you see the numbers that you see. This is not fresh information. Debt has been building in HT Media for the last four, five years, post-COVID, because of the English operations and radio operations, et cetera. This is not any fresh information, and we are just trying to retire the debt, so I stop here.
Piyush, you have said that we are not using debt for business. It is only for treasury. I am just saying that consistency is not there. The chairperson herself has said, you go back to the minutes of the AGM . She has herself made the statement.
That is a comment either from a HMVL perspective or a consolidated number perspective. In HT Media Limited, that argument cannot hold, and I will look at the results. I will look at the transcript. Please, you also have a look at the transcript.
When our shareholders message to the board, even if we are a minority, our voting against the resolution should at least be introspected.
We respect that, Mehul. L ook, I can only tell you this. We are raising capital to retire debt, improve EPS, which will be helpful to everyone. We have priced the issue on SEBI. The only other thing we could have done is priced it at a premium, which would have meant a dilution [inaudible] . We have not gone down that route. I think I stop there, and that's basically the only objective. In the company which have a net debt position, t he company which has cash, we're obviously not raising any capital fresh.
Moving on. The next question is from the line of Rohan Agarwal. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Hi, Piyush. Can you hear me?
Yes, Rohan, we are hearing.
Hi, this is Rohan from Wave Asset PMS. Sorry, I joined the call a little late, so I am not sure if this was covered before. I just wanted to speak regarding the other income jump that we have had in HMVL. I just wanted to know what is the nature of the income. Is it treasury gains or is it one-off MTMs on our investments? It will be helpful to know what it is and what can we expect other income to be going forward, because it is a significant part of the P&L.
In HMVL, the other income, there is a substantial portion which is on treasury, and this time there is also profit on sale of assets which we have got. Both are a reflection. The treasury gains is a function of the yield curve movement towards the end of the quarter, which has helped us have substantial gain. There is volatility in the market as you know, Rohan, so we cannot predict it because the adverse global situation and the market in U.S. also tends to have a dependency on how we move in Indian markets as well. But we are positioned well to make the best of the situations as these stabilize.
Got it. This current quarter's other income gain, a significant part of that, you are saying also, is MTM gains on our investments.
The treasury gains is basically mutual funds and they enter an NAV-based process and not an MTM valuation-based process.
I got that. But what about our investments? The investments that we hold, is that what's of-
No, it is treasury and it is actual realized profit on sale of our assets.
Got it. Cool. My other question is, on our print EBITDA margins, I see that that's come down quarter-on-quarter, I assume because of high newsprint costs. I just wondered if you could give us a little more color on how you see newsprint costs going forward. How would it affect the EBITDA margin for the rest of the year, say if newsprint costs remain the same? Do we hedge or is there some sort of cost mitigation measure that will take place? Or maybe any newspaper cost increases, price increases on circulation that we do. It will be helpful to know that.
Rohan, let me give you a slightly high-level question. See if that answers your question. The newsprint for our print business is really the single biggest cost line item. Depending on the price, it vary anywhere between 25% - 40% of the entire bill of material, including direct and indirect cost. At this point in time, post-COVID, and why I'm saying post-COVID, because you know, COVID was a time when the newsprint prices per metric ton had reached the highest because of supply chain disruptions also. After that, it has come down very substantially, but after that, this is the highest that we have seen at about $650- $700 a metric ton. We believe that the prices should plateau at this level before they start coming down. But obviously, as a commodity, no one can predict that. That's our best estimate.
We believe if the prices don't go any further adverse from here on, we should be able to maintain our margins on the print business on the operating side very clearly. But newsprint, and I have always pointed or directed the investor community that print, unlike other commodity, it doesn't have a forward market. There's no way that you can with certainty predict the forward prices. It is what it is. What is also not helping is dollar is also at a lifetime high. And all the newsprint is priced in U.S. dollars, so that effectively a double whammy on that cost line item. But hopefully, we believe it's already peaked and should at some point in time start coming down, which will only help the margins. I hope that answers your question.
Sure. I mean, the EBITDA margin that we had this quarter for print, which is around 13%, should we expect that as sort of the baseline for the-
By and large, I think you can use it, but I told you what the variables are. Let's say theoretically, if the dollar goes to 100 and the commodity goes to 700 then suddenly we will have a margin dilution. From a modeling exercise perspective, I think that's a fair assumption to take.
And Q2 per se, as we look at it, there is a slightly higher newsprint price vis-à-vis Q1. Exact margins will be a function of the categories which advertise, the pricing we get also which may or may not offset that to some extent.
Sure. Would you consider taking the cover price hike if warrants it to-
See, Rohan, I think over time, it is difficult to kind of— The Hindi papers, for example, are well-priced right now. Over time, as the commodity prices increase, everybody has taken a price increase. A further price increase would be a little difficult. We do take actions on the volume side to the extent possible without compromising on the product, on the reach when there are such situations. But pricing per se, we may not have much maneuver.
Got it. Understood. Thank you. Appreciate your answers.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of [Yash R]. Please introduce yourself and ask your questions.
Am I audible?
Yes. Hi, [Yash]. Can you hear us?
Yes, I can.
Please, go ahead.
Congratulations on a good set of numbers. Ad revenue has grown by around 15%- odd at the print level. English and HT Media. So what has driven the business this time? Because what we are hearing is that this was a difficult quarter, but in spite of that, we are still showing a mid-double-digit growth. So what is contributed? Is it on account of volume, or is it on account of pricing that we have increased?
I think difficult quarter is more from a cost side pressure. Otherwise, it has been a reasonable quarter actually, from a revenue perspective. We have seen commercial revenues holding from a volume perspective. We have had a benefit of yield improvement there. With respect to government revenues, we have a combination of both volume and pricing. But as you know that the government had increased the rates for all the publications towards November of last year. And, of course, for the next two quarters, we will have that. We are cycling lower pricing from a government revenue perspective. That also has helped. So a combination of volume and pricing, but both commercial and government revenues have grown.
[Yash], if I may just add to what Anna said. We have been consistently saying that we are focusing a lot on field improvement. This quarter, I think it is substantially standing out that all our efforts have paid heed here. So a substantial part of that revenue growth of 15% is driven by our pricing. Of course, government gave us a price increase in November last year, but that was after seven years. Please remember, the world has changed in seven years. But our yield improvement program is definitely helping us. So I think it is a good set of numbers. We hope that this continues, but let us see. Time will tell.
So for commercial, if I can summarize, it was the pricing that got us higher, right?
Yeah.
But volumes have also helped.
But majorly it is on account of the pricing increase.
Yes.
And if I may ask, what is the government share to the overall ratio? Because that might not be much.
Well, we do not exactly share that number, but it is substantial. When I say substantial, it is definitely a reasonably good number. But commercial is infinitely a bigger block of revenue.
Government has always been a decent component of revenues for all print publishing.
And what has happened on the circulation front for HT English? I can see that it has grown by around 14%. Is it on the back of copies or have we increased any prices in the past quarter?
Well, actually on the circulation, I think it is a steady state circulation. I think those numbers that you are seeing are statistically looking like bigger percentages, but we are market by market holding onto a copy share that we want to keep in major English markets because the question is on HT Media. But personally, it might be appreciating here and there, but copy, I think no drastic action on pricing up, pricing down, cutting copies, introducing copies has been taken. It is a pretty steady state circulation and likely to be like that in the current competitive sphere.
Sorry, I did not get that. Basically, have the copies gone up or has the price increased? Because 14%, I know the number is pretty small, INR 13 crore versus INR 12 crore.
It is mostly pricing, but it is a function of a mix replay, line versus subscription, and also the discounting that happens.
[Yash], my only point is 14% might look big, but absolute number, as you yourself said, is pretty inconsequential. Which can have multiple levers, which can swing either way, subscription copy mix to line copy mix, overweighing little copies in a particular market versus underweighing. But this is more or less by and large, a steady state copy level that we are maintaining, which we are likely to maintain for some time.
About INR 13 crore at this point . 14% sounds large, but it is only about that much .
In HMVL, there seems to be a spike in the other operating income. I believe it was around INR 10 crore last year, first quarter, and this time it is INR 20 crore.
That is through some amount of job work income, and scrap sales and all of that. There is an increase in all of those this year as well.
So almost double?
Well, as I was saying earlier, those things— Just hold on.
Sorry, I did not get that. Hello?
There is increase in other operating income in HMVL from the other lines.
Job work and the other business.
Yeah.
Just one last question. I believe there has been some reduction in this average employee cost versus previous year and slightly against previous quarter.
Sorry, your voice broke. Can you repeat that, please?
I am saying there has been some reduction in the employee cost that I am seeing.
This is HMVL or console level that you are talking?
I am talking about the console first. I can see it has gone to INR 99 crore approximately from INR 111 core in the last year, c onsolidate.
We have been driving efficiencies. I think that is something that we have been saying for the past. I think we have been rightsizing the organization, and that is basically what it is.
That is across HT and HMVL both, right? Because both are showing some reduction.
Yes.
Thank you.
Next question is from the line of Mahima. Please introduce yourself and ask your question. Mahima, you will have to unmute yourself first.
Hello, am I audible?
Yeah.
Yes.
Hello. Congratulations for your results, sir. I was referring to the previous question, and there seem to be some ambiguity regarding the financials of HT Media and HMVL. Sir, I was wondering if it would be more appropriate for the shareholders to receive the financial information of two listed companies separately, as it could provide some greater clarity and transparency.
Mahima, if I am not mistaken, we do provide it separately. HMVL results were published yesterday, and HT Media standalone and consolidated results have been published today. All the three different financial statements are separately published.
Sir, I was talking about the con call. It is getting-
Look, we much prefer to do it the way that we are doing it right now. Feel free to ask a question either on HMVL or HT Media, but we would rather have one con call addressing the shareholders of both the companies, if that is okay with you.
All right, sir.
Thank you all. With this, we come to the end of the Q&A session. If you have any further queries, please reach out to the investor relations team. Our contact details are given in the investor presentation and are also mentioned on our websites. I now hand over to Piyush for closing remarks.
Thank you, Aaditya. Thank you, dear friends, for joining our Q1 FY 2027 earnings call. We are very happy with the set of numbers that we have put down for this quarter. We hope that we repeat this performance going forward. With this, I look forward to seeing you next quarter, and thank you very much.