HT Media reports higher income, lower PAT in Q2 FY13

There has been a 1 per cent decline in advertising revenues of print segment to Rs 3,640 million from Rs 3,692 million primarily due to a decline in pricing

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 17, 2012

HT Media has reported a total income of Rs 5,351 million in Q2 of FY2013, up 5 per cent over the last quarter income of Rs 5,119 million. PAT declined by 24 per cent to Rs 333 million from Rs 438 million. The company has said that there has been a 1 per cent decline in advertising revenues of print segment to Rs 3,640 million from Rs 3,692 million primarily due to a decline in pricing. EBITDA declined by 13 per cent to Rs 809 million from Rs 932 million.

The company has reported that there has been 11 per cent increase in circulation revenues to Rs 563 million from Rs 507 million driven by higher circulation and higher realisation per copy. However, there has been a 8 per cent increase in consumption of raw materials to Rs 1,952 million from Rs 1,805 million due to higher circulation and newsprint prices.

Its radio business saw a 27 per cent increase in revenues to Rs 199 million, up from Rs 157 million.

There has also been a 22 per cent increase in employee cost to Rs 1,034 million from Rs 849 million in the previous quarter.

Commenting on the performance for Q2FY13, Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson and Editorial Director, HT Media, said, “We continue to operate in a tough macro-economic environment, with advertising revenues across our print businesses facing head winds. This, combined with persistent inflation in costs, has put pressure on our profitability for the quarter. We are, however, encouraged by the results of the latest Indian Readership Survey (IRS), which clearly show that we continue to consolidate our position among English and Hindi dailies. In addition, our radio and digital businesses continue to gain traction and deliver robust growth according to plan. Overall, we remain optimistic on the medium-term outlook for HTML and will deliver sustainable growth and profitability for our stakeholders as the economic environment improves.”

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