HT Media Limited (NSE:HTMEDIA)
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Sep 11, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
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Q3 23/24

Jan 19, 2024

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is Aaditya Mulani from the HT Media Group. I would like to welcome you all to our quarter three financial year 2023-2024 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, Head, Investor Relations, HT Media Group and Chief Financial Officer, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Anna.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Thank you, Aaditya. A very good afternoon to everyone. Welcome to the earnings webinar to discuss the financial results of HT Media Group for the third quarter of financial year 2023-2024. Mr. Piyush Gupta, Group CFO, Mr. Pervez Bajan, Group Controller, and members of our investor relationship team have joined me on the call today. The financial results of Hindustan Media Ventures Limited was declared on Wednesday, 17 January . Results of HT Media Limited was released earlier today. We have captured the highlights of these results in the presentation on this Zoom webinar. This presentation, along with the financial statements, is available on the stock exchanges and the investor relations section of our websites. We will now start the presentation. Slide two captures the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements.

We do not, as per practice, provide specific revenue or earnings guidance. Kindly keep that in mind as we have our discussions. This slide gives our chairperson's comments on the performance of the company in the quarter, and I quote, the third quarter of the current fiscal year saw the festive season across the country, the Cricket World Cup, and also assembly elections in several states. As a result, overall business sentiment remained upbeat, supported by a moderating trend in general inflation and continuing rationalization in the prices of key commodities.

Your company saw sequential revenue growth and an increase in profitability across all primary verticals. On the back of stronger advertising revenues, our print business posted a sequential growth, while margins improved on both YoY and Q-on-Q, with newsprint prices normalizing further. Radio saw better traction in the FMCG segment, which resulted in sequential revenue and margin improvement. The digital business reported strong revenue growth, although investments in new business impact that vertical's margins. With the national elections around the corner and the infra push, we believe consumer spending will pick up, and we are hopeful of capitalizing on the same.

We remain cognizant of the ongoing global conflict and of sporadic attacks on global supply lines that could impact the overall business environment. As always, we remain committed to our journalistic ethos and to bring a singular destination for our audiences for credible and engaging news and entertainment . This slide gives the key areas that we will cover today. We will begin the performance update with comments on our consolidated financials. This will be followed by performance highlights of each of the business verticals, our print, radio and digital businesses. We will open for a Q&A session after the presentation concludes. With this, I hand over the call to Mr. Piyush Gupta, Group CFO.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Thank you, Anna. We will be tracking the presentation here. First, let us go to the consolidated performance. As you can see on your charts, total revenue for the quarter came at INR 486 crore, which is flat versus the same period last year. Sequentially, however, there is a 14% growth at second quarter being INR 427. This is primarily due to the shift in the festive season. If you look at the EBITDA lines, again, a flat number of INR 29 crore versus the same period last year, with margins at 6%. PBT came in at a - INR 22 crore, which is an improvement of INR 8 crore versus the same period last year, and net cash remains at a robust INR 754 crore. In the key highlights, we have tracked that operating revenue saw uplift in the third quarter due to the festive season.

However, advertisement spends in festive was muted as compared to the previous year and to our expectations. EBITDA continues to improve given softening of newsprint rates and despite higher investment in our new business, which is OTTplay. Moving on to business unit performance. If you look at the print performance, revenues were flat at INR 283 crore and a 16% growth sequentially over the prior quarter. Circulation revenue, however, saw a marginal decline of 2%, which is predicated on the number of copies. The RPC still remains strong. Operating revenues therefore, came at INR 363 crore, which is down 2% and versus the prior quarter they are up 12% at INR 324, which was second quarter. Operating EBITDA came to INR 226 crore against a -INR 4 crore last year, with margins at 7%.

In the key highlights, good sequential growth in ad revenue given the festive quarter and significant improvement in operating EBITDA and margins. Drilling down a level further, if we look at our English print business, on the left side of your chart is the ad revenue. If we look at YoY growth at INR 158 crore, which is virtually flat versus the same period last year. Sequentially, it is up 20% at INR 158 crore. Circulation revenue on a YoY basis is 14% high. Sequentially, it is flat. If you look at Hindi, on the left-hand side, ad revenues on a YoY basis, again, flat, a growth of 1%. Quarter-on-quarter, it is 11% growth. Circulation revenue, however, both YoY and quarter-on-quarter is a decline of 7% and 6%, primarily due to reduction of copies.

Radio has been a bit of a challenge, and in spite of our best effort, radio revenue has not come up to speed as much as we would have liked to. There is a marginal decline of 4%, with revenue strapping to INR 40 crore and operating EBITDA at INR 3 crore with a 7% margin as against a 17% margin last year. Sequentially, of course, they were up 12%. Finally, digital. This is not the Digicontent Limited, which is a separate company. This is the digital, which all the logos are on the top of the chart. If we see the operating revenue came at INR 39 crore, which is a 34% increase versus same period last year. However, operating EBITDA also expanded the loss by about INR 11 crore at -INR 34 crore. These are the investments in OTTplay that we are having.

With that, we come to the end of the presentation. Over to you, Aaditya.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

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 questions per participant so that we may be able to address questions from all participants. We will wait for a few moments while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mehul Parekh. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Hello, can you hear me?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yes. Good afternoon.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Good afternoon. My name is Mehul Parekh. I am individual shareholder of Hindustan Media Ventures Limited. My first question is that this INR 4 crore revenue that we are showing in digital section of HMVL results, the package generally is around at an average of say, INR 1,000 per annum. Is this the full amount recorded or is it proportioned on a Q-on-Q basis?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

It is a proportionate revenue. The recognition of revenue will be basis the duration of the package, and then only as and when it gets utilized, we recognize, while we, of course, collect the money upfront and then it will be sitting as part of deferred revenue.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Okay. So, if we estimate the expenses to be, say, around INR 16 crore odd towards marketing and all, we are practically spending 100% of the first year's revenue as marketing cost. Is that right to assume?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

The substantial portion of the cost would actually be in securing the arrangements on the content side.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Hello?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Hello, am I audible?

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Yeah, I missed it. Yeah. Tell me.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

The substantial cost would be in securing the content that we are offering.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Okay.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

There will be also some acquisition cost. Marketing cost is very limited, actually.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Yes. This figure has jumped substantially. I just wanted to understand that this jump is essentially the acquisition cost, right?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

This jump is essentially the content cost. As you see, we already have 3030 platforms.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Right

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

The cost for the content is what has gone up.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Similar to the revenue recognition, the content cost recognition also happens as we sell the packages, and it is not a flat line cost.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Okay. So it is on a per subscription basis.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah.

Mehul Parekh
Shareholder, Hindustan Media Ventures Limited

Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. That was all from my side.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

The next question is from the line of Sakshi Chhabra. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Hi, this is Sakshi here from Swan Investments. My first question was I wanted to understand that the newsprint prices have already corrected significantly. Just wanted to understand what is the trajectory going forward on the newsprint prices?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Sakshi, hi. This is Piyush this side. Newsprint prices, if you look on a YoY basis, have already corrected close to about 19%-20%. We believe that for the next couple of quarters, we will still see them sliding downwards. Of course, the wild card at this point is the shipping cost, which my colleague was highlighting earlier on in the presentation. Given the given the complication in the Red Sea and the shipping lines, et cetera, that cost has escalated and that might impact adversely. But of course, shipping cost, though it is a substantial cost, but not a very substantial cost, that might have some short-term implication. But I think as far as the commodity is concerned, the prices will remain soft and probably go down a little from here on in the next couple of quarters before this stabilizes for good.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay. So another 2 to 3 quarters, you see it decreasing further?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah. I am not predicting that how much the decrease will be, but we believe the trajectory will continue. Whether it will be 1% or 5% or 10%, only time will tell. I think they are still to come down before they stabilize.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

What would be our quantum of imported newsprint?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

On a consolidated basis, it is about 30%. I mean, on a consolidated basis.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah. Sakshi, that really does not make a difference.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Indian domestic newsprint is priced in accordance with international newsprint.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Think of it as a pure commodity.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay. I was asking because you said that the shipping cost would increase.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

For domestic newsprint, the shipping cost would not be applicable, right?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

No, it doesn't work like that.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

You have to compare the landed cost of imported, and that's how the domestic

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

newsprint supplier mark their output too.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

All right. Got it. Thank you so much. My second question was on the digital side, if you could throw some light as to what we are going to be doing in the coming year.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Our main investment in the digital space from an HT Media Group consolidated business is the OTTplay, which we have now taken to the market

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Right

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

since beginning of this year. It is an aggregation play, where we have a single user interface for the customer, which gives them access to over 30 platforms at a very affordable pricing as well as with recommendation engines and user interface plan by the customer's preference. That is the proposition and that is our biggest bet in digital at this point of time. But it is the first year of scale-up of this business.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

If I may just add to what Anna said. Given that we already have a big go-to market in our newspaper business.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Yes.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

The go-to market in this whole business is a, what you call, a physical and digital combined. This is a phygital. So acquisition cost to that extent should hopefully be not out of whack. And given that there is a market for consolidating OTTs and serving it to the end consumer at a very affordable price and not having a very big acquisition cost is the proposition. We have seen some early successes in the first year. Of course, that is where all our digital investments are going.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay. So you are trying to say that your customer base is the same for your print and digital?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

No, not exactly. It is one of the various channels. We are of course going through the digital channel, we are going through the OEM channels, et cetera, but we have an inherent advantage of also having a newspaper channel. Which is an add-on.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay. All right. But you do not see any sort of cannibalization in this aspect?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

OTTplay is nothing to do with ad dollars. It is more of a subscription business for people wanting to consume a certain extent of content.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Right. All right. Thank you so much.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder to all participants that you may use the raise hand option on your screen if you wish to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Hari S. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Hello?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah, hi.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Hello. Am I audible?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yes, you are audible. Please go ahead.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

This is Hari, I am an individual investor. Regarding this other expenditure, what is the reason for Can you throw some light on that, sir? Increase in other expenditure. Our raw material cost has come down, but why is not that shown up in the net profit figures, sir? That is all, sir. Thank you.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

We have been talking about the investment in the new business, and that is really taken. If you look at the segment results, you will see that there is a considerable investment in the new business, which has impacted the operating EBITDA when you look at an overall. But if you look at the segment results and look at the core business, you will see there is substantial improvement in the EBITDA margins, which we called out in our investor presentation also. The cost of that new business largely gets reported in the other expense line, with some components sitting in employee cost as well. Therefore, the entire increase that you are largely seeing is on account of the investments that is going into new business from an expense point of view. Otherwise, for all core business, the expenses are well under control.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Oh, fine, ma'am. Continuing on that, ma'am, by which year we can say the investment phase is completed for this new business? Like what is the deadline or anything?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

This is the first year of having launched a new business. It is very early to kind of put a deadline on this. Having said that, it will have to be scaled up a lot more before it gets profitable. But we are hopeful, as the revenue scale up, to start reducing the losses of this business quite a bit.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. Maybe you are expecting it to be one year or two years, ma'am?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

At this point of time, cannot give a specific date. But yes, it will have to start showing the ROI sooner than later.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

That is all. Okay. Thank you very much.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Tokas. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Speaker 7

Hello, I hope-

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Hi, Kunal.

Speaker 7

I hope I'm audible.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yes, please. You are. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you, sir. My first question was, this new business, OTTplay. Can you put a quantum of how much investment you have put behind this business till date?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

It is there as part of our segment results reporting, because in HMVL, the digital segment that gets reported is of OTTplay. So it is about around INR 70 crores of investment that is gone.

Speaker 7

INR 70 crores. And another question was about accounting. In response to the previous question, you said that the reason why the lower newsprint prices. Oh, sorry, forget that. You said that the major costs in the digital segment were content related. So are you expensing these costs or are you capitalizing these?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Let me answer this. All the costs on content and acquisition is always expensed.

Speaker 7

Yes.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Nothing is capitalized here. There's a certain accounting whereby it is expensed and trued up every quarter, depending upon the number of subscriptions sold. In a one full year cycle, of course, the entire cost will run through the P&L, but will be trued up-

Speaker 7

Okay

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

in all the four quarters. Nothing is capitalized, everything is expensed. The simple answer is that.

Speaker 7

All right, sir. Thank you, sir. Those were my two questions. Thank you.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hrishikesh Oza. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Hrishikesh here from Novo Capital. My first question is with respect to the print business. Our print business has posted 10% approx. EBIT margins after very long. Just wanted to get a sense, is this sustainable and what's the room for improvement here?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

The fact is the print business margins was impacted by the escalated newsprint price, which we actually saw for a sustained period of time, given quite a few of global incidents. That has now come down, which is prime face, the reason why the margins have improved. Unless there is any such unexpected global events, we are not expecting newsprint to go back to any such levels that we saw in the last 1.5 years. Therefore, it is definitely sustainable. As Piyush Gupta was responding to one of the earlier queries, and for another one, two quarters, we are expecting the newsprint rates to further soften before it stabilizes. There is no expectation that it will really escalate like it did. So definitely it is sustainable. In fact, if the revenue kicks in and growth coming in, margin should improve further from here on.

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Okay. Also regarding the OTTplay, you have said you have invested around INR 70 crores. How much more are we looking to invest, and what cash burn are we looking at in future years?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

So hi, Hrishikesh. This is Piyush this side. Hrishikesh, as my colleague was articulating, this is the first full year of OTT operation. Of course, we had launched the product in the year prior. Now we are tracking the various key metrics, including the users, the activation, the content, the NPS scores, and so on so forth. But given the fact that we are tracking it very closely, we will give it some more time. We have not put an absolute INR number at this point in time, that this will be the absolute outside level of investment. But if we see that the traction is coming and there is that real demand in the market, we will play it accordingly. At this point in time, I am happy to say that we have seen those earlier thesis play out.

But of course, is it as good as we thought? It is not. So we are fine-tuning the engine. The product is complete. There are 30 platforms on our OTTplay. The sum of part of the pricing is not even half of what it would if you were to take them separately, and the customers are liking it. Now, we will see in the next year how it plays out before we take a further call whether to scale it or the antithesis to that.

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Okay. And one more question. We have a lot of liquidity investments on our balance sheet. What is the plan with the liquid investments that we have?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

This exactly is what is happening. All the cash which is sitting in the balance sheet is being utilized for incubating our new businesses and supporting our existing business. As long as we can create a long-term sustainable value for the shareholders, we will utilize the cash prudently.

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Okay. I think that's around more than 1,000 crores of liquid investments that we have on balance sheet.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

No. Yeah. If you look at HMVL on a standalone, you are absolutely right. But the best

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Yes, I am sorry. I was talking about HMVL.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah. You are talking about HMVL. Yes, we have. OTTplay is also sitting in HMVL. As Anna highlighted, that INR 70 crores we have already expensed in the first nine months. Then, of course, we also have to do further investment. Cash is being utilized there. That's basically what the plan is.

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Okay, but still that is a lot of cash that we have. Do we have any other plans? Because not all would be going for OTTplay, right?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Just because we spend cash, it does not immediately ensure returns. We, of course, have to be cautious in how we deploy cash. We have taken a big bite in form of the investment in OTT, and therefore, we will not want to open multiple fronts like that. We will, however, be cognisant of having to build businesses and verticals which give appropriate rate of interest.

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Okay. Got it. No problem.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

No.

Hrishikesh Oza
Analyst, Novo Capital

Thank you very much.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hari S. Please reintroduce yourself and ask your question.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Yes, this is Hari again, sir. Individual investor.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Hi, Hari.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Regarding this radio, sir, there was expected to be a positive government policy change regarding our radio segment. Has this come out, sir?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Hari, we are all expecting that to come out soon. But not that we can state with any certainty, but I think given the elections are around the corner, I think it will be only after the national elections are done. But I believe the final policy is with the government for final notification. I think that is going to take some time. We believe it will be after election, but if it happens before that will be wonderful.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

It will be a wonderful policy for us, sir, or a borderline policy?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

No, it will be a wonderful policy for us.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Because you have to understand, at the time of auctioning, right from 2007, when they did the phase one, they have charged NOTF on the basis of 2.5% of the final auction or 4% of revenue, which incidentally, probably was the right thing to do at that point in time. But given that the sector has turned, and specifically after COVID, obviously the government needs to understand that they need to support the sector.

Hari S.
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. Understood. Thank you, sir.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Tokas. Please reintroduce yourself and ask your question.

Speaker 7

Hello, Kunal again.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Hi, Kunal.

Speaker 7

Yeah. I just forgot one question. It was about the OTTplay again. What I understand, you started as an aggregator, and you said that it is a very good proposition for the customers because it will provide access to various platforms at less than half the price.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yes.

Speaker 7

My question was, while it might be a very good proposition for the customer, will it be an equally good proposition for the business? Because it seems like there is no differentiating factor stopping someone else from providing the same service. Is there?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

We are not just buying various packages and just selling it as a bundle. There are other players in the markets doing that. However, what we are doing is it is a unified platform. What that means is it is a single login. It is not like any customer who buys OTTplay has to go to the individual 30 platform to log in. It is a single login to an OTTplay, which offers them content by genre, by across platforms according to their preference. It is not that they need to It will be by their preference, so it is not that they need to engage with one of the provider versus the other. This proposition, incidentally, is not offered by anybody else. There is only one other player in the space.

We are also looking at, from a customer base, we believe there are a lot of people who are still being serviced by cable and ISP providers who are beyond the big players in the market. That is also the customer target that we are going after in terms of servicing. Yes, we believe that we have a unique proposition. Bundling is easy, but it has taken a lot of technological as well as product development to offer this. There is convenience, there is affordability, there is abundance of content, and there is personalization that happens across the platforms and packages that is available.

Speaker 7

Any unique content released on any of these platforms will be immediately available on OTTplay?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Yeah.

Speaker 7

All right. Anything stopping someone else from doing this aggregation as well, providing all of the content on a single-

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

One is the aggregation part, and the other part is the distribution and the execution of reaching it to the customer. That also, as Piyush earlier explained, we believe our ability to access the phygital go-to-market model gives us a unique proposition. So, it is not just about aggregating, it is getting to the right customers in the right manner, in the right acquisition cost, which makes this business profitable.

Speaker 7

Okay. Just a hypothetical question. Have you looked at, maybe done some preliminary calculations about the NPV of each customer you get?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

NPV is a concept.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Sorry, come again. What are you talking about? The lifetime value?

Speaker 7

Yes, sir. For each customer.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Look, we can do a theoretical calculation of lifetime value at this point in time, but as you would appreciate that.

Speaker 7

It is the first year.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah, exactly. We need to get a few more readings before we put a finger on that number. I understand most of these businesses are calculated on the lifetime value, but we do not want to mislead by picking up a number and saying the lifetime value is 5x of the cost of acquisition. At this point in time, we do not know. At this point in time, we have been finessing the product so that the product is delighting the customer. At this time, we are trying to get the relevant content, therefore, 30 platforms are there. At this time, we are trying to get the customer at the least possible cost, hence the newspaper circulation channel is empty. At this point in time, we are basically creating the product.

Now that we have certain readings, I think the next year will give us a lot of readings, basis which all your questions will be answered.

Speaker 7

Understood, sir. I appreciate your candor. That was all.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Thank you.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash R. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Speaker 9

Hi, this is Yash R. I am an analyst. Just wanted to know, the net cash, Piyush, has gone down from Q2 INR 821 crore to INR 754 crore, while our EBITDA has grown by INR 29 crore. That means we should have around INR 850 crore while we are at INR 750 crore. So we have invested some INR 100 crore in cash?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yeah. So look, I think as Anna was articulating earlier, the OTT investment so far is around INR 70 crore, and given that the newsprint prices are on a certain thing, there is a certain amount of cash which is tied up in working capital, which will unwind itself as we close in on 31st March . Because right now that the prices are coming down, we are more on the spot market rather than a forward market. Though there is not technically a forward market, but other cash is in working capital, which will unwind itself. So come 31st of March , this number is only going to improve in spite of us financing the investment in OTTplay.

Speaker 9

Yeah, but OTTplay is already factored in the EBITDA, right?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yes. OTTplay.

Speaker 9

You said you are not capitalizing. It is all expense.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Everything is expensed.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

However, you are comparing it Quarter-on-Quarter when the incremental spends on OTT is also increasing, and there is working capital investment, which is both on the newsprint side and I would also say receivables to some extent because quarter three is a high quarter from a revenue perspective, while the collections will happen over quarter four.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

So actually, Yash, most of the money is tied up in working capital, be it receivable or inventory. And it will give a flip from now to 31st March, and that cash will come back to the company.

Speaker 9

All right. Okay. Thank you.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Welcome.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Samir Bhandari. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Samir Bhandari
Shareholder, Private Investor

Good afternoon. I am Samir Bhandari. I am an individual investor. My question is regarding AFE. I believe there were some real estate investments in the Noida NCR region through AFE. What would be the quantum of those investments, and are those investments now bearing fruit?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Well, Samir, thank you for your question. Not just in Noida, Greater Noida, Indirapuram, but we have a lot of investment in terms of line item. These will be adding to more than 100, 150 investment. I do not know which you are talking about because that is the business of AFE, and we have various investments in Noida and Greater Noida area.

Samir Bhandari
Shareholder, Private Investor

What will be the total quantum amount of AFE and within that, the real estate investments?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Yeah. The total quantum will be over INR 650 crore, of which about 60% is in real estate.

Samir Bhandari
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. Are we monetizing the real estate investments?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

On a regular basis, last three years, we have been constantly monetizing quite a bit of our assets. It is reflecting in our cash flows also.

Samir Bhandari
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. You said 100 to. Come again on the real estate investments.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

We are about 60% of 645, so roughly about INR 370 crore in real estate. Piyush with the 100 number he said is in terms of the number of investment that we have.

Samir Bhandari
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. How much of it is sitting in HMVL and how much of it is in HT Media?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

About half of this INR 650 crore is sitting in HMVL.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

I would say slightly more than half. Let's say 60% in HMVL.

Samir Bhandari
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. All right. Ideally, this should be considered as a part of financial investments, right?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Well, it is. Look, it's nothing strategic in nature. These are financial investments. As Anna was saying, in the last three years, our monetization has increased, and that's clearly indication of what the market has been. If you're talking about real estate, you know where the real estate markets are. Given that opportunity, of course, we are making the best use of. We are getting the best IRR by using these assets, and I think it's a phenomenal space to be in. Given that we still have a substantial amount of book, I would say some of these investments are as close to cash or cash equivalent as they can be.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

However, there is, of course, the operating revenue, the things that it brings in, which, of course, is why we do AFE.

Samir Bhandari
Shareholder, Private Investor

Okay. Got it. Thank you. That's it.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kaustubh Babna. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Kaustubh Babna
Analyst, VMSPL

Hello.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Hey, Kaustubh.

Kaustubh Babna
Analyst, VMSPL

Hi, how are you?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Doing well. Happy New Year to you.

Kaustubh Babna
Analyst, VMSPL

Happy New Year. I am from VMSPL, and I have two questions. Firstly, your advertisement revenues have been flat. Just wanted to understand, on the print side. Just wanted to understand, as general elections come, what are your aspirations on this front? Do you see growth coming over the next two, three quarters year-on-year basis?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

So, will elections give a flip? The answer is yes. We are hopeful that between quarter four and quarter one of this year, we will possibly do some better revenues than we typically see in such quarters. Otherwise, quarter three is always your highest revenue quarter. Having said that, as and when, while there will be a flip side on that spend, there is also the fact that government spends through DAVP comes under code of conduct and for 2.5 months or roughly that, the spends on that front reduces. There is a net trade-off, et cetera, that happens as well. But if the results are to the market interest, the general markets and the buoyancy and the business sentiment being upbeat, we are hopeful that the revenue traction will be good.

Kaustubh Babna
Analyst, VMSPL

Okay, great. My second question was on this digital business, the new venture. Right now I understand you are investing money into it and it will take some time for it to show results. But, when it matures, what type of margin business should this be at maturity?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

At a gross, at EBITDA?

Kaustubh Babna
Analyst, VMSPL

EBITDA.

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Yeah. 15%-20% margin business, ideally.

Kaustubh Babna
Analyst, VMSPL

Okay. Great. Thank you so much.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sakshi Chhabra. Please reintroduce yourself and ask your question.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Thank you for the follow-up question. On the OTTplay, I just wanted to understand what is our current subscriber base?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

This is slightly competitive sensitive info, so we won't be able to share that at this point of time.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

Okay. My second question on OTTplay was that, when someone takes a subscription of this, can they view it on multiple screens, like on the TV as well as on their mobile?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Yes.

Sakshi Chhabra
Analyst, Swan Investments

They can. Right. Okay. Thank you. That's all from my side.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash R. Please reintroduce yourself and ask your question. Mr. Yash, please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Speaker 9

Hello. Are you able to hear me?

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Yes. Hi. Yes, we can. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Sorry for that inconvenience. My question was regarding the ad against equity and property. What ratio of the ad revenue comes from this stream?

Anna Abraham
Head of Investor Relations, HT Media Group

Yash, sorry, this is again competitive sensitive info, so we won't be able to share the exact percentage.

Speaker 9

Okay. That's it. Thank you.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Thank you.

Aaditya Mulani
Investor Relations Representative, HT Media Group

Thank you. 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.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO, HT Media Group

Thank you, Aaditya. Thank you everyone for joining us today for our investors call. As you've seen that, given the commodity prices and the festive season, we've had some traction which has come to the P&L. We sincerely believe that this journey will from here on continue, given the elections, given the year-end, and given the commodity price softening. With that, we hope to get even better results in the coming quarter, and we look forward to seeing you soon. Stay safe, and a happy new year once again to all of you.