HT Media Limited

Piyush Gupta

Group CFO

Pervez Bajan

Group Controller

Anna Abraham

Head, Investor Relations

INR 494 crore

first slide, we've got a consolidated financial summary. For Q4 FY23 our total revenue, stacked to INR 494 crores, as against INR 456 crores same period last year, growth of 8%. EBITDA is however, substantially

INR 456 crore

solidated financial summary. For Q4 FY23 our total revenue, stacked to INR 494 crores, as against INR 456 crores same period last year, growth of 8%. EBITDA is however, substantially down 75% primarily due to c

8%

tal revenue, stacked to INR 494 crores, as against INR 456 crores same period last year, growth of 8%. EBITDA is however, substantially down 75% primarily due to certain investments that we are makin

75%

against INR 456 crores same period last year, growth of 8%. EBITDA is however, substantially down 75% primarily due to certain investments that we are making in OTTPlay and the elevated newsprint cost

INR 10 crore

ch have hampered us in this quarter. PBT margin, as a consequence, came to INR (34) crores against INR 10 crores earlier and net cash, however, still remains reasonably strong at INR 935 crores which is a decl

INR 935 crore

34) crores against INR 10 crores earlier and net cash, however, still remains reasonably strong at INR 935 crores which is a decline of 14%. 3 Piyush Gupta: May 19, 2023 On a fu

14%

er and net cash, however, still remains reasonably strong at INR 935 crores which is a decline of 14%. 3 Piyush Gupta: May 19, 2023 On a full year basis. Our revenue s

INR 1,862 crore

yush Gupta: May 19, 2023 On a full year basis. Our revenue stacked to INR 1,862 crores, which is a growth of 11%. EBITDA however, because of the same reason which plagued us in Q4 cam

11%

May 19, 2023 On a full year basis. Our revenue stacked to INR 1,862 crores, which is a growth of 11%. EBITDA however, because of the same reason which plagued us in Q4 came in at INR 13 crores, which

INR 13 crore

is a growth of 11%. EBITDA however, because of the same reason which plagued us in Q4 came in at INR 13 crores, which is a sharp decline. PBT, therefore, came at INR (156) crores and net cash at INR 935 crore

INR 269 crore

unit, we look at our Print business. On the Print business our ad revenues for the quarter came at INR 269 crores, a growth of 8%, with circulation revenue growing 12% at INR 60 crores. Operating revenue theref

12%

revenues for the quarter came at INR 269 crores, a growth of 8%, with circulation revenue growing 12% at INR 60 crores. Operating revenue therefore at INR 374 crores, a 5% growth, and operating EBITDA

“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.”

“As per practice, we do not provide specific revenue or earnings guidance.”

“This will be followed by detailed remarks on our Print, Radio and Digital business.”

“So, I would like you to give some roadmap, as to when we can expect some turnaround in these two segments also.”

“Because we can expect a certain stream of revenues to flow in the later years, and I would like you to say something on that too.”

“Now, as we embark on the next fiscal year and we've already completed now the month of May nearly.”

“This is all on our Radio One business and you know, with this and the growth that we are seeing in Radio, we are very hopeful that this is the last time that we have seen this impairment, and from here on Radio will grow from strength to strength.”

“Next year we will again have a stupendous year, and a profitable year on our Radio segment.”

“Let me also give you a few points, why we believe that OTTPlay will be successful.”

Piyush Gupta

19

Anna Abraham

11

Yash R

11

Aaditya Mulani

7

Sakshee Chhabra

5

Naveen Jain

5

Ranga Prasad

2

Piyush Bangar

1

Anna Abraham

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 – Head, Investor Relations. Thank you and over to you Anna. Thank you, Aaditya. A very good morning everyone. On the behalf of HT Media Group, I welcome you all to the earnings webinar to discuss the financial results of Q4 and full year FY23. On the call with me today are Mr. Piyush Gupta, Group CFO; Mr. Pervez Bajan, Group Controller; and members of our Investor Relations team. I trust you have had opportunity to go through the financial results of Hindustan Media Ventures Limited declared this Tuesday and of HT Media Limited released yesterday. Kindly note that our remarks will track with the presentation on this Zoom webinar. This presentation, along with the financial statements, is available on stock exchanges and the Investor Relations section of our websites. We start with the cautionar

Piyush Gupta

May 19, 2023 On a full year basis. Our revenue stacked to INR 1,862 crores, which is a growth of 11%. EBITDA however, because of the same reason which plagued us in Q4 came in at INR 13 crores, which is a sharp decline. PBT, therefore, came at INR (156) crores and net cash at INR 935 crores which I have articulated earlier. Now, if you go by business unit, we look at our Print business. On the Print business our ad revenues for the quarter came at INR 269 crores, a growth of 8%, with circulation revenue growing 12% at INR 60 crores. Operating revenue therefore at INR 374 crores, a 5% growth, and operating EBITDA declined by 65% to INR 15 crores. On a full year basis. The Print ad revenue was INR 1,062 crores, which is a 12% growth and circulation revenue at INR 236 crores which is a 18% growth. Our operating revenue at INR 1,434 crores, which is 13% growth and operating EBITDA, came in at INR (2) crores. Moving on, we break it into English and Hindi. On English, in Q4 FY23 our ad reven

Aaditya Mulani

May 19, 2023 With this, we come to the end of the presentation and open up the session for Q&A. 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 present. We will wait for a few moments while the question queue assembles. Aaditya Mulani: The first question is from the line of Ranga Prasad.

Ranga Prasad

Good morning everyone, I am an investor from Hyderabad, my name is Ranga Prasad. At the outset let me say that I’m very disappointed with the financial performance of both HT Media and HMVL, particularly HT Media. Earlier, we were told that the poor performance was mainly due to a sharp increase in newsprint prices. But now there's been a sharp decrease in newsprint prices, also shipping costs have come down to 80%. In spite of all this, we are showing steep losses, both operationally as well as non- operating loss. I am shocked at the non-operating loss, INR 103 crores written-off this year due to write off in a subsidiary and impairment of intercorporate deposit. Would like some light to be shed on these write offs. While there has been some turnaround in the Print business, on the Digital media front and on the Radio front, we are seeing sharp losses. And until these turn-around, I don't see any possibility for the Company to show a rebound in profits. So, I would like you to give s

Piyush Gupta

Thank you for the question Mr. Ranga Prasad. So much as you are disappointed, obviously we are looking for better results ourselves. But let 5 May 19, 2023 me give you a certain flavor of our results for the quarter, and indeed for the whole year. You specifically mentioned about English. As you are aware, our English newspapers primarily they are in Delhi, Bombay and Chandigarh and apart from that, we do have presence in some other cities. Now in places like Delhi and Bombay, though the newspaper prices, as I've already highlighted, are very escalated. You mentioned about shipping cost which has come down but you have to understand that this is not a real time impact which comes to the P&L right away, because there is some inventory which has to be built up for continuing operations. So, the impact of shipping cost, and of course, the commodity cost which has come down now, you will see in the subsequent quarters and that is absolutely a foregone conclusion but it doesn't happen on a

Piyush Gupta

May 19, 2023 substantially from the loss position of last year to a profitable position this year. In the current quarter there is a marginal loss on account of one-off spend that we have incurred for a particular consulting arrangement that we had undertaken. Otherwise, the underlying business itself is profitable. Having said that while there's been significant improvement in the Radio business because this was the one medium which was slow in recovery post Covid, but this year we've seen that recovery coming. We have seen volumes come back. However, like I said, the recovery was low,. It was delayed by a year, while it's a fixed license business, so from the accounting and the valuation point of view, given the discounting and the period to which it is gets discounted, we had to take some impairment. But, again I repeat, it is not impacting consolidated results. It is only on the standalone results. If I may add on, Mr. Prasad, on Radio, your point is absolutely valid. Yes, we've ta