HT Media Ltd (NSE: HTMEDIA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Aug. 05, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Anna Abraham — Chief Financial Officer, Head of Investor Relation
Piyush Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Aaditya Mulani — Analyst
Gaurav Agarwal — Analyst
Yash R — Analyst
Deepak Sharma — Analyst
Presentation:
Aaditya Mulani — Analyst
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. This is Aditya Malani from the HD Media Room. I would like to welcome you all to our quarter one financial year 2526 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 Ms. Anna Abraham, CFO Hindustan Media Ventures Limited and Head Investor Relations, HD Media Group. Thank you. And over to you.
Anna Abraham — Chief Financial Officer, Head of Investor Relation
Thank you, Aditya. Good evening everyone. On behalf of HD Media Group, I. Would like to extend a warm welcome to our earnings webinar for the first quarter of financial year 2526. Joining me on today’s call are Mr. Piyush Gupta Group, CFO Mr. Bhavesh Banyan, Head of Financial Controllership and Taxation members. Of the investments team. We hope you’ve had an opportunity to review the financial results of Hindustan Media. Ventures Limited which was announced yesterday as. Well as those of HD Media Limited. Released earlier this afternoon. Please note that our discussion today will. Follow the presentation slides. This presentation along with the financial statements are available on the stock exchanges and. And in the Investor Relations section of our respective websites. Coming on to slide two, as per our usual practice, we would not be. Providing any specific guidance on revenue or earnings projections. So kindly keep in mind the disclaimer. That is on the slide regarding forward looking statements. This slide features comments from our chairperson. On the company’s performance on the fiscal. Quarter and I quote Building up from a successfully concluded last fiscal year, the first quarter in the current fiscal has also been on a strong growth with. Both operating revenue and profitability showing growth as compared to the previous year. The print business has seen strong growth. In advertising revenue reflecting our leading market. Presence and the continued relevance of print. As an effective media. Our targeted efforts to grow circulation have. Delivered steady state sequential wins from further enhancing our niche. Growth in our radio business has been. Deepened with the larger industry still facing challenges. However, we are developing the business with. A renewed focus on growing non free commercial time radio. Meanwhile, our digital businesses continue to show. Steady momentum with our platforms Mosaic, Shine. And ODPK driving growth to differentiate in future ready offer. We are working towards accelerating growth of. Our digital business while deepening the impact of our print offerings and reimagining the. Radio business with experiential and integrated format. As always, your trust powers our journey. With a relentless focus on quality journalism and immersive entity, we are creating richer. More relevant experiences for our diverse and evolving audiences. And the fourth. This is the agenda. That we will be covering during the call today. We will first cover the consolidated financial. Results followed by a detailed overview of. Our print, radio and digital businesses. After the presentation we will open the. Floor for a Q and A session. With that I now hand ov er the call to continue.
Piyush Gupta — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Anna. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining Q1FY26 earnings call. We will just track the presentation on your screens. So the first chart is on the consolidated financial summary. As you can see in the first quarter FY26 our total revenues have grown by 6% on a wifi basis at 451 crores and PAT is the negative 11 crores which is the equivalent of 59%. On a sequential basis the revenue is at minus 23% with path minus 120. Net cash remains very very healthy at close to 101,000 crores. Coming on to the business unit performance and deep diving right away into print we can see improvement in print operating revenues compared to the last year.
This is led by a significant growth in advertising revenues circulation showing sequential improvements as well. So our ad revenues have come to 255. 255 crores which is 17% improvement and mobile operating revenue 320 crore crore which is 8% improvement. Going to the English. Segmentation and our advertisement revenue which has come at 140 crores is a 19% growth. So very healthy growth on a YY basis. On a quarterly basis however it’s a decline of 12%. Circulation revenue however has been a little bit because our impetus at recruiting more copies and more readers is down by 22% on a quarterly basis. Coming on to the Hindi business Our. Growth is 14% with the ad revenues coming at 116 crores on a quarterly basis it’s a decline of 9% at 116 crores. Circulation revenue on a Y o Y basis are at 39 crores which is flat versus last year. Radio as highlighted earlier, radio has been under a bit of pressure. Those segment that we saw dip compared to the prior quarter due to high base effect from the big events which we conducted earlier this year. But on a yy basis the revenues came at 31 crores as against 36 crores last year with the margin that negative 21.
Digital you can see the segment revenues. Those yy as most digital properties including OTT play continue to gain fraction and profitability improvement going to broad based revenue expansion along with business investment rationalization. As a consequence our operating revenues are at 56cr which is a growth of 21% and operating margins are at a negative 38%. With that we come to the end of the presentation by handing back to.
Questions and Answers:
Aaditya Mulani
Thank you Piyush. We will now begin the Q and 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 closing 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 Gaurav Agarwal. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Piyush Gupta
Hi Piyush. Hi Anna. I’m a private investor. So basically my question is regarding you’re one of the group companies DG content. I believe you there you have. You all have diluted a large part of the equity as a RSUs. So just wanted to know what’s the impact on the P L Because if it’s almost like nine and a half percent equity dilution. So I believe in even in the financial. You all should have separately adjusted or shown some details. What’s the impact on the PNLs?
Anna Abraham
It is part of our employee cost in the PNL.
Gaurav Agarwal
Yeah. So in the last quarterly numbers, what’s the impact? Can you tell?
Anna Abraham
Last quarterly number is hardly any issue. Only in the last month.
Piyush Gupta
So this is. So what are all the cost has been charged in the salary and wages account and it’s not a 9% dilution. I don’t know how you’ve calculated that. But the accounting has been conducted as per NDAs and it’s not a 9% dilution but it’s all employees RSUs which.
Anna Abraham
Have been given to the employers disclosed. In the annual report as thumbs up.
Gaurav Agarwal
But Piyush, it’s nine and a half percent. Earlier you all had 29 lakh shares RSUs which is which you guys increase it to 56. So it’s like 10% of the DG content equity.
Anna Abraham
Has been issued yet there’s a right and there is. It is a benchmark to certain milestones also. So currently there.
Gaurav Agarwal
Sorry I couldn’t get you. Can you come again please?
Anna Abraham
Right. At this point in time the shares have not been issued as yet. So when the shares get issued then it will. It’ll have some level of D. But. At this point of time there is none.
Gaurav Agarwal
But if you find out the list of the entire BSE 500 list of companies there would be very few who would have done such large these all things happen in the Private equity unlisted stocks, you know, founder allotments happen. So how come all of a sudden you know right from 2% then 5 now it’s 9 and a half percent.
Piyush Gupta
That’s a very exactly the point that I’m trying to make. First of all, it’s not nine and a half percent it’s much less that has been given as a right for the trust to buy and hand over the ESOPs to the employees. It’s not nine and a half percent. That’s a, that’s the approval which has been taken for future handing out but it will not be a 9%. You know if you want you can separately engage and you can drop a mail to the investor relations section and we’ll give you the and just closing.
Anna Abraham
On that conversation we also the digital business is a new age business. From that perspective we are investing more important in that digital business. So therefore it is listed but there is potential similar.
Gaurav Agarwal
So are there any specific employees like I believe you guys have enrolled.
Piyush Gupta
I tell you what this because we don’t consider you know this this call is for the HD Media Group and DCR really doesn’t fall into that. Why don’t you sell your specific queries on the investor relations and we will answer answer your query there.
Gaurav Agarwal
Nobody bothers to respond on emails, neither calls. Manu is not available. The number which is there that number is seems to be out of working and it’s not working. So how do you guys contact?
Piyush Gupta
We receive a lot of emails on a very regular basis. Just drop in an email but somebody.
Gaurav Agarwal
Should pick up the call now nobody is picking up the call. Also.
Piyush Gupta
Would you be kind enough to kind of put in an email.
Gaurav Agarwal
I will do that Piyush if you give me your email id I’ll put directly to you.
Piyush Gupta
My my email id is very simple. It’s P Hindustan times.com why don’t you write a mail.
Gaurav Agarwal
Yeah, I’ll do that. Thanks a lot. Piyush yes.
Aaditya Mulani
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 Yash R. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Yash R
Hi Piyushai Anna Good evening. Could you please let us know the verticals that have helped to achieve the growth in the print segment particularly the English part ht I know I can read the in the comments that there has been a higher government revenue versus last year. So first of all I mean we must be having a good amount of revenue this year is it normalized or is that any exceptional revenue that you received? And what are the other.
Anna Abraham
Yeah, if I may take it up. See last year same quarter, if you remember we had the national elections so there was a code of conduct which. Was in play because of which government. Revenue was substantially lower. So without therefore this year there is no such restriction. So government spending has been a neural. And therefore that of course last year therefore in quarter one the results that for this this year is getting the upside. But apart from the government revenue, commercial revenue also has fired for us.
Yash R
So which sectors have contributed the most to it?
Anna Abraham
Apart is a big segment from quarter one. So that would be one of the segments which is fired. So as I mean across, across English and Hindi it would be education. Among the top five segments, two, three of them have been fire.
Yash R
Sorry, I didn’t get any of the verticals. Education, Education is one that has performed well. Right?
Anna Abraham
Yes.
Yash R
And.
Anna Abraham
And real estate and.
Yash R
Okay. And what percentage of contribution is by education to the overall.
Anna Abraham
Education is a pretty sizable advertiser in the quarter one.
Yash R
Okay. And growth percentage if you can just let us know.
Anna Abraham
Government and education, we don’t get split by segments.
Piyush Gupta
Well, yes, let me, let me try to give you a context. I mean education, the first quarter is a big segment. It’s in the top five to seven segments that we have publish the advertising terms in the English newspaper. Because the question is specifically to English. The growth has been reasonably good on the commercial side. But we would like to give the exact numbers because you know, it’s a competitive number. We don’t want to share. But that’s one sector which has fired.
Yash R
Okay, and what about on the circulation front? What are the copies? Are we stagnant? Are we growing or has there as those have those numbers gone down? Because in the investor presentation I can see that the discounting is still continuing. Right.
Piyush Gupta
Hold on. Before. Well discounting, you know, as, as I. Have highlighted earlier, we are currently recruiting. A lot of new leaders on the Hindustan side. Right. So all the discounting which has happened. Is primarily happening there which is a short term trend. But I can give the exact specifics.
Anna Abraham
Yeah, so there is. So in the English segment, whatever that decline that you see is largely on account of pricing only copies as you can see sequentially also be un flat. So there’s no change in copies in the Hindi business. We are actually growing in copies last year sequential numbers remain pretty much time.
Yash R
Sorry. On the English front I can see a drop of 22% in the revenue. That is an account of as May.
Anna Abraham
Also mentioned in the investor day.
Yash R
No, I mean. So it’s R realization for copy. So I’m not able to make a sense of it as to what it means.
Anna Abraham
That means the pricing to the customer is discounted as you were. And therefore it is the decline in revenue is linked by pricing and not by cost.
Yash R
Okay, so copies are the same. But then we are continuing with giving discounts right on the COVID price. Hello. Hello.
Piyush Gupta
Hello.
Yash R
Yeah.
Piyush Gupta
Can you hear us?
Yash R
I can now.
Piyush Gupta
So we said yes, you are absolutely right. We are giving those discounts and hence. It is saying on the circulation revenue. The copies are pretty constant. But we are. Our endeavor is to recruit more copies and increase the number of copies as. We go forward from here on.
Yash R
So I mean what is the plan like?
Aaditya Mulani
Dear participant, Sorry to interrupt here but may we request you to fall back in queue for any follow up questions please.
Yash R
Sure. Thank you.
Aaditya Mulani
The next question is from the line of duty. Deepak Sharma. Please introduce yourself and ask your question.
Deepak Sharma
Yeah. Hi, good evening. This is Deepak. My question is that we have signed a couple of AFE agreements in the. In the last six months and we see a uptick in the revenue. So would you be able to give a segregation between the AFE revenue growth vis the normal revenue growth, Ad revenue.
Piyush Gupta
We don’t exactly give that number. But suffice to say that AFE revenue is. Has been a substantial part of the overall print revenue and remains to be seen. But it doesn’t have much be on the new agreements that we would have signed. Because all the existing agreements that we have also have a life of three to five years. So those agreements are also into play. But AF revenue is a substantial part. Of the overall revenue.
Deepak Sharma
Sure. Sure. Got it. Thank you.
Aaditya Mulani
Thank you. The next question is from the line of. Meera, please introduce yourself and ask your question. Participant, you will have to unmute yourself. Meera Rubar, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Yes. Please unmute yourself. Now. Mira Rupar is not available.
Unidentified Speaker
She hasn’t asked a question.
Anna Abraham
Sorry, we couldn’t hear you.
Unidentified Participant
I’m Sarad Ruparel, her father. Mira Ruparel is not available. She hasn’t asked a question. Neither I have asked a question.
Aaditya Mulani
We’ll move on. No problem.
Aaditya Mulani
So follow on. Question is from the line of. Deepak Sharma. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Deepak Sharma
Yeah, so follow up question again. So in my earlier discussion with Aditya, one of my discussions we did mention that you know the. The AFA declaration happened. When we do the conversion of the warrants into equity. So there are standing agreements which happen prior to that as well. So do we have a split of those saying that okay, these are in the pipeline and out of these, you know, X number of them we want to convert the, the warrants into equity. Do we have some ratios onto that? Can you just repeat the question? I, I think I missed a point there. You say when we convert a warrant into equity, what happens? So we, we under the LODR declarations we publish on the bosses that these are the AFV agreements which have converted into equity. The ones are getting converted to equity. But you know, my discussion with Aditya earlier mentioned that there are, we keep on scouting for potential partnership opportunities and keep on shortlisting them. And then out of those, if we find a long term strategic value, then only we convert into that. So what is the spread of those, you know, businesses where we say that we, we form a partnership with the 100 people and only 30% qualify to go to the next round?
Piyush Gupta
You know, so. Okay, so let me try to kind of attempt your question in a very high level. So I, we have no specific number here. First of all, you have to understand the reason that we invest through the warrant structure rather than paying equity is the risk mitigation, risk mitigation strategy. So of course there are a lot of instruments that we are using and not just the warrant, the warrant also is a risk mitigation mitigation strategy. We do pain equity, we do convertible debentures into optionally convertible debentures, we do warrants and so on, so forth.
Now the reason that we would convert a warrant into equity, if we basically see that that equity will can give us a substantial upside. Now that will happen because this is all the information rights that we have in an invested companies. If we see that a certain company is on a certain track where we believe that there can be a lot of upside and that is the time that we convert our warranty to equity. As for the contractual document, there’s a time period in many cases that we have up in which we can accept is this right? And within that time period we keep on looking at the financial, financial performance of the company and basis that.
So there is no straight answer as to what percentage of warrants will be converting to equity. But the simple answer is depending on the conviction that we have on the company’s performance and therefore go forward perspective of the company, we would exercise that option. Otherwise they will not.
Deepak Sharma
Sure. Understood. Thank you. Historically, you know, what would have been the ratio in the past?
Piyush Gupta
Historically, quite a few of our companies which have gone to the public markets and we were sitting in warrants so before the public market we did exercise that option. There are quite a few companies which have shown a lot of traction on both the top line and the bottom line. In that case we would have done this thing but I would have a ready made number for you. But those are the decision gate spaces which you know we look at the information and the information is giving us a pre signal. We’ll go ahead and explain the option otherwise we’ll go.
Deepak Sharma
No, absolutely. I was talking to Aditya earlier and said that Mobiquik was a quick win for us last December itself. So you know it boosted our numbers as well. My, my question was more on the, on the, on the Mrs. You know, you know what happens, you know if most of the companies don’t qualify, you know what happens? Is there a, you know the loss.
Piyush Gupta
Of win? As per, as per our operating thesis at this point in time whilst we are tracking our investment companies in the next two to three years we think that there will be many, many such opportunities in investing companies where we will get this opportunity. Now whether the markets will reward them very nicely or not only time will tell. But at this point in time, you know we see a lot of opportunities over the next two or three years.
Deepak Sharma
Got it, Got it. Thank you.
Aaditya Mulani
Reminder to all participants that you may. Use the raise hand option on your. Screen if you wish to ask a question. Follow on question from Yash R. Please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Yash R
Yeah. Hi. So the question that I wanted to ask earlier was that how long are we looking to see to continue the discounts on the circulation front?
Piyush Gupta
So at this point in time I’ll just do a long form answer. So as you are aware post Covid most of the copies for most of the publishers came down and now very selectively depending on which market is showing a promise and there’s competitive activity we are addressing market by market. There’s a full impetus we are doing in the Hindi market and also in the English market, Delhi, Bombay, you know and, and Chandigarh. We are selectively increasing the copies. Now I don’t take think that this is a carte branch that we are doing across, across all our print locations and all our markets.
But this is a selective, selective markets where we see that we have to. Shore up the copies. Now there are two rules that we take. One is as you said, price off. Second is you know the gifts that we give to our readers so we keep on checking them on a monthly basis but at this point in time the strategy is paying fruits. Of course it’s a little costly for the RPCs tend to depress in the short term whereas the benefit comes over the long term. So at this point in time we are continuing but suffice to say that we keep on looking at the performance on a monthly basis and take a real time call on that.
So we don’t have any.
Anna Abraham
Yes. To add there is a competitive environment on this as well. So you know there is generally it is also depends on the competitive environment what is the. What is the kind of offers that is done by her.
Yash R
So we, we will continue with it for foreseeable future but I am saying.
Piyush Gupta
At least for the next month we are and we will take a call. At the end of next month and. If we think that we should continue. So we are taking one month at a time at this point in time but looks like currently we are continuing. Because you know this will give us fruits in the long term.
Yash R
Okay and what about the new Sprint prices now?
Piyush Gupta
New Sprint prices you know are flat for at least the last two quarters and we don’t see any reason for them to spike up. I understand there’s a lot of anxiety around the geopolitical events but we believe that the new Sprint prices will remain in a very tight band which is currently give or take 500ametric done and we are currently tracking those prices.
Yash R
Okay. Okay all thank you.
Aaditya Mulani
Thank you. Thank you all. With this we come to the end of the Q and A session.
Piyush Gupta
Thank you. As you can see we have clock pretty decent growth on the top line but from a long term business viability we keep on investing behind our copies in our print businesses and our other various businesses like OTT Play. We are setting up, setting up a target and we are, we have seen 100% growth on a Y basis and we hope to repeat the performance forward. Our radio business is, is undergoing a bit of a tough environment right now where the pricing is under pressure but we are doing all the efforts in our hand.
When we correct the situation our cash position remains very firm and if you can only growing and we hope to you know get some more equipments in the next two or three days. With that we appreciate your time and, and we look forward to seeing you in the next quarter.
Aaditya Mulani
Thank you.