Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is Aaditya Mulani from HT Media Group.

I would like to welcome you all to our Quarter 3 Financial Year 25-26 earnings webinar. As a reminder, all 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.

Warm welcome to our earnings webinar for the third quarter of financial year 25-26. Joining me on today's call is Head of Financial Controllership and Taxation, Mr.

Pervez Batta, and members of our Investor Relations team. We will start the call with a brief presentation on the results of HT Media and Hindustan Media Ventures Limited, following which we will take any questions that may be there.

Before we start, just a quick reminder that we do not provide specific guidance on revenue projections, and there is a disclaimer regarding any forward-looking statements. Coming to our Chairperson's message on the results for the quarter, and I quote, "The third quarter of the financial year saw the company make consistent operational progress, characterized by stable top-line performance and a steady growth in overall profitability.

These results reinforce the effectiveness of our ongoing operational initiatives to strengthen our businesses. Our core print segment continues to demonstrate resilience, posting growth on both an annual and sequential basis.

This performance was largely driven by strong growth in advertising, particularly in our English language titles, alongside steady circulation revenues. The combination of these gains and a disciplined approach to cost has translated into meaningful growth in profitability.

The radio business continues to navigate a challenging market environment, where revenues and margins remain under pressure. Performance has remained stable on a sequential basis.

The year-on-year revenue contraction is primarily a reflection of the high base effect from the previous year's event-led business. We are proactively recalibrating our business operations within radio to ensure the segment is better aligned with the current industry dynamics.

Our digital business delivered a strong performance during the quarter, with revenues rising and margins improving. This trajectory validates our commitment to scaling our digital-first offerings while maintaining a clear path towards profitability.

Looking ahead, we remain focused on sustaining the momentum seen this quarter across our business portfolio. By leveraging the enduring strength of our established print mastheads, recalibrating our radio offerings, and further scaling up our new-age digital platforms, we continue to reinforce our commitment to delivering trusted journalism and high-quality content to our diverse audience."

End of quote. This slide covers the agenda for the day.

We'll start with a quick overview of the consolidated performance, followed by the business unit performance on print, radio, and digital. Coming to the consolidated performance.

Revenue was stable on an annual basis and improved sequentially. There has been improvement in margins, and the cash position continues to remain robust.

We reported a total revenue of 532 crores, which was flat versus last year and 7% growth sequentially. EBITDA came in at 51 crores and a margin of 10%, which saw an EBITDA improvement of 9%.

PAT before exceptionals is at 17 crores with a margin of 3%, and net cash remains robust at 945 crores, similar number as was reported last quarter. Coming to business unit performance and starting with print, and print English.

Print overall saw positive momentum with sequential gains led by the uptick in ad revenue, coupled with resilient circulation base. There's also quite healthy margin expansion seen for this segment.

Ad revenue came in at 301 crores, which is an 8% growth versus last quarter and a marginal decline versus the previous year, basically because of festive shift; otherwise, it's been a healthy revenue numbers for the quarter. Circulation numbers came in at 53 crores, which is holding steady, putting the overall operating revenue at 395 crores, which is about 2% growth.

Operating EBITDA for the print business came in at 60 crores, which is a 15% margin versus the 11% margin we had the previous year. Coming to print English.

Advertising revenue on a y-o-y basis was almost flat for English print. As I mentioned, this is despite the change in festive days this year versus last year.

Last year, all the festive was in Quarter 3; this year, it got split between Quarter 2 and Quarter 3. Despite that, English came with a good advertising revenue number of about 179 crores, which is also a sequential growth of 16%.

Circulation revenue remains steady on a sequential basis and on an 8% growth on a y-o-y basis. Coming to print Hindi.

Hindi saw a marginal decline of 4%. Again, this is basically base effect; otherwise, revenues have been strong.

Even on a sequential basis, it's kind of flat. Circulation revenue at 38 crores is holding steady even for Hindi.

Coming to radio. Radio is seeing a big drop in revenue to 34 crores, which is primarily driven by the high base effect from a big event that we had in the base.

Sequentially, you can see it's a 5% revenue movement, with operating EBITDA holding at about a 5 crore loss number. Digital, there is significant growth on a y-o-y basis, with operating revenue coming at 67 crores and 30% growth.

Sequentially also, there's a 9% growth. The segment is reporting losses at 23 crores, but margins have significantly improved both on a sequential as well as on a y-o-y basis.

We can now open the floor for questions. Over to you, Aaditya.

Thank you, Anna. 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 2 to 3 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 Yash R. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.

Hi. Yes.

Yes, Yash, now you are audible. Yeah.

I was just trying to make a sense of the numbers, particularly for the print segment. Hello?

Yes, you are audible. Okay.

My first question is with regards to the revenue. Now on a consolidated basis for the print segment there has been an uptick in other operating income because circulation and your ad revenues are relatively flat.

What has happened over there for both, for English, and there seems to be an uptick in HMVL as well?

See, other operating revenue has been some uptick while the ad revenues and circulation revenue remain flat. Of course, there are a quite a few components of that: job work, scrap sales, all that which comes in there.

Additionally, there's also a forfeiture that we get from our AFP benefits as well.

Okay. Which has contributed more?

Is it the outside work, or is it the forfeiture, which might be a one-time thing?

Forfeiture tends to be a little bit consistent. Of course, quarter-to-quarter there could be a very [various thing?]

, but it's a standard part of our standard operating arrangement with regard to that particular business. It tends to be consistent.

We've seen marginal upside across lines like

that. I'm sorry.

It's still not clear. What has led to this uptick?

Is it more of outside printing? Because, since you're saying that the forfeiture is more or less consistent.

Both outside printing and forfeiture has seen uptake. I was reacting to your comment saying that forfeiture is one-time.

I said some level tends to happen every quarter. Sometimes it could be a little plus or minus, but it's a consistent [unclear].

Okay. Now coming to the HT English part, the revenue, I believe, has gone up by around 7 crores, but the operating profit has gone up by around 17-odd crores.

The savings in DVC, I think, are around hardly any 2 or 3 crores. What has led to the reduction in costs which has driven up the profitability of HT English?

English, there's pricing growth, and therefore, that automatically improves margins. Newsprint continues to be lower than last year.

That also helps in margins. We've been very tight on all discretionary spends as well.

Discretionary spends, so that would be like promotion and all that?

Yes. Marketing events cost.

Okay.

And Participants

Just one last question. The HMVL staff cost, I believe salary costs have gone lower as compared to previous year by around 3-odd crores.

What is the reason behind it, though it is in line with what we had in Q2?

You're seeing Q3 versus Q3, right? Just give me a minute.

There is some reversal which was there with regard to variable payout, that is partially the reason. Some savings in certain other lines of business apart from print, which is digital.

Apart from print. Okay.

All right. That's about it from mine.

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. Yeah.

Good afternoon, Anna. I don't know if Piyush is there or not.

He's not there on the call today.

Okay. No problem.

I have a couple of questions. The first is, how are we using AI in all our businesses today?

What is the future impact of AI that we assess in our business? Is it going to be positive?

Is it going to be negative? Financially, what will be the impact if you can share some perspective?

Mehul, I might not be the right person to share a broader perspective, but I will just touch on couple of points as we are sharing. It is a very wide subject to discuss.

Anna, your voice is jarring a bit. No, I don't know whether it's my problem or problem at your end.

I believe there is no problem that others are facing. It could be at your end, Mehul, because we just got a confirmation from the other

Fine.

I said, I'll try and touch upon it briefly, because this is a very large conversation, and I may not be the most competent person to address it completely. Multiple aspects, of course, there is a standard element of efficiency, productivity that is applicable to all industries.

On the content side, it can be a tool for our editorial setup, which we are utilizing very strongly. From an impact perspective, we've seen there's a lot of AI being used, and one view is that that could also put a high importance on credibility and trustworthiness of content, which puts us in a good position if that is the case, because then we are a trusted source of news and content.

That's one perspective that's emerging. There's also certain regulatory framework that's been proposed by the government, which suggests that partners using AI will have to remunerate the original content providers in some manner, which also seems to be on the positive side.

From a core newsprint business, we are seeing it as an enabler, which should help us expand into doing better on offerings. Our credibility and trust factor puts us in a good position.

As regulatory environment evolve, we should see a lot more structure and structure around this as well.

Will it lead to massive productivity improvements and cost savings for us?

See, there is an element which every industry will see it. I think the smarter ones are seeing about how do you kind of make it a revenue opportunity and not just a cost efficiency.

As with any automation, there will be some element which comes through as we have seen in past cycles of any major technological change as well. I think the larger opportunity is to see what can be done on the business and revenue [side?]

.

Okay. No, as an investor, I expect that at least the editorial part entirely can be done by AI, and massively the people cost should come down.

Anyway, but that's not my question. It's just a judgement call that I have.

That is subjective, because then what differentiates you? You have to stand for some differentiated proposition, otherwise there is nothing.

We have seen many waves of it. There was a time when aggregation of content was also positioned as a new wave.

Post-COVID, we have seen that also go through its own cycle. Those are very subjective thoughts.

My second question is, is my understanding right that entire 39.9 crores of gratuity you have booked in the P&L for Quarter 3?

There's an exceptional item of about 41.4 crores which has been booked, and there is a note given in the results also to that extent, which is an impact of the new Labor Code.

Right. Now, is it reasonable to expect that this will get adjusted in CTC next year for all the employees?

Because at the end of it, the money has to come out from the business only, is that a reasonable expectation?

I think Mehul, this Labor Code is a whole subject on its own, difficult to kind of address it over this call. As you may know, what has been done as of now is a true-up of the carrying liability based on the new laws, which is what the regulation requires us to do.

Going forward, whatever is the this thing is something which we will see how to absorb in the overall cost of the business, keeping all perspectives of employees and stakeholders and the company's perspective. This is an evolving regulation, and all companies are currently grappling with it.

Our request to the board is that it should get adjusted next year. Otherwise, business is in no position to absorb additionally cost like this.

This is not an annual cost. This is a aggregated cost across the years for this thing.

This is nowhere indicative of the future cost increase for any business. These exceptional items have been reported by all the companies are of a historical one.

Yes, but my expectation is that we

Sorry to interrupt, but may we request you to please fall back in queue for any follow-up questions?

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder to all participants that you may use the raise hand option given on your screen if you wish to ask a question.

The next question is from the line of Kirit Shah. Please unmute yourself, introduce yourself, and ask your question.

Yes, Mr. Kirit, you'll have to unmute yourself.

Yes. We'll move on to the next caller.

The next question is from the line of Yash R. Please unmute yourself.

My question is with regards to, are we seeing an uptick in the pricing compared to previous year? How has it fared sequentially?

You are talking about ad pricing?

Ad pricing, yes. Yes, sorry, I wasn't specific.

Both y-o-y and sequentially, we are seeing that.

In the pricing, okay. What about the copies?

I see that the circulation revenue has gone down versus previous year for Hindi, and I believe there has been a slight uptick in the English part. What is the drivers behind it?

It's very marginal, that thing that you are seeing. In the last year similar time, there was competitive pressure, and there was therefore a lot in certain markets, and therefore, across publications, there were a few more copies of circulation.

It did have its impact on pricing. This time, it's now at a more reasonable level.

If you see, sequentially it's holding flat as well. There is marginal shifts.

These keep happening as in market to market, there are some attempts to increase copies, etc. Overall, no issues.

Pricing is holding. Copies are holding, and circulation revenue has been steady.

Okay. All right.

What about the newsprint rates? Do we have any update on that?

Because there has been news in the market saying that prices are going to increase in the coming quarters, especially given the current geopolitical scenario.

The market is indicating that there could be a potential shift in the newsprint, that the price could increase. Anyway, this commodity does see moves in cycles, and we've been at the bottom of the cycle for some time.

Currently, we are still below last year for the quarter, as well as on a y-o-y basis. I think pretty much next quarter also, we are not expecting any major shift.

We are reasonably covered till the first quarter of next year. Thereafter, we might see some upward movement.

Do we have any plans to mitigate or shift this impact, be it increase in cover prices or probably mitigate it by increasing our ad pricing?

Yash, like I said, it is a cycle. We have seen many cycles.

Everything that happens on that particular cycle, we will attempt to do consistently, including optimizing buying, optimizing mix of newsprint, controlling consumption, etc., etc. Pricing will be a tougher part when priced in the Indian market for sure.

Ad pricing historically never moved in that manner. Everything else that's possible will be done, because this industry does see these cycles in a certain periodic sit.

Okay. All right.

Thank you.

Thank you. We will try Mr.

Kirit again. He has raised his hand, and then move on to the next participant.

Mr. Kirit, please unmute yourself and ask your question.

We are trying it one more time, Mr. Kirit.

You can unmute yourself and ask your question. Moving on to the next participant.

The next question is from the line of Shubham Jajodia. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Hello. Am I audible?

Yes, you are.

Good afternoon. Last year in December, there was this deal that Meta did with some news publishers in the US.

Are we expecting such kind of deals happen here as well? Have been approached by Meta, any kind of AI companies?

Or are you guys seeing it as a viable and material potential revenue source for future? If that kind of opportunity do arise, do you guys see to negotiate, as we're seeing kind of a change in the way traditional platform is evolving in this AI landscape?

I did try to mention in my response to an earlier participant's question that government itself has today floated a proposal, which requires platforms to compensate the original content creator for data used by them, and which includes the AI platforms.

Are you guys actively pursuing such kind of deals yourself? See, we are not seeing much uptick in our revenue growth.

The stock performance has been very dismal. Post-COVID, if you see, there's not much growth that is coming.

AI looks like a very good way to boost our revenues. What are you guys actively doing to boost some bottom line there?

We have conversations that I am really not at liberty to share anything on this call.

Thank you.

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 Anna for closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you for participating in the webinar.

It's been a good 9 months from an overall HT Media Group perspective, and we hope to continue this momentum and we come back to you with a good set of numbers for the next quarter as well. Thank you once again.

Have a good evening.