 HT
Media, the second largest media house in the country and
publishers of The Hindustan Times, has come out
with outstanding numbers for the first quarter of the
current financial year. The company has achieved excellent
growth in revenues and bottom line growth is spectacular,
helped by better asset utilisation and reduction in expenses.
For the quarter ended 30 June 2006, HT Media''s net profits
has surged 212.23 per cent to Rs30.63 crore from Rs9.81
crore for the year ago quarter. Total income increased
33.39 per cent to Rs247.86 crore from Rs185.81 crore.
Income
from operations rose 30.79 per cent to Rs239.13 crore
from Rs182.83 crore. Advertisement revenues, which expanded
32.9 per cent, were the main growth driver during the
quarter and contributed 79.6 per cent of total operating
revenues.
Revenues
from sale of newspapers rose marginally by 2.3 per cent.
Income from providing printing services for third party
publishers at the company''s facilities increased considerably
during the quarter.
Operating
profits of the company went up by 103.97 per cent during
the quarter and operating margins expanded significantly
by 778 basis points. Operating margins, excluding other
income, as a percentage of net income from operations
rose to 21.7 per cent from 13.92 per cent for the year
ago quarter.
Apart
from better utilisation of printing capacity through
third party printing, the other major contributing factor
to the margin expansion was a 52.79 per cent decline
in advertising and promotion expenses to Rs8.46 crore
from Rs17.92 crore. Input costs, including cost of newsprint,
went up by 28.51 per cent. Staff costs expanded at a
faster rate of 40.57 per cent while other operating
expenses increased 18.12 per cent.
Interest
costs increased marginally by 4.97 per cent while depreciation
charges increased 4.45 per cent. HT''s bottom line also
got a boost from a near doubling of other income to
Rs8.73 crore from Rs2.98 crore.
Stabilisation
of the Mumbai edition of its English language daily
helped the company to boost advertisement revenues significantly
through better positioning and synergies. Hindi language
dailies in the northern part of the country also improved
their market share and contributed to higher revenues.
HT
Media expects the growth momentum to continue in the
coming quarters as both English and Hindi dailies are
seeing good rise in advertisement revenues. The company
is also planning to launch a financial daily in English
shortly, though the launch schedule has not been
finalised. A team is being put in place for the new
initiative, including a senior professional who was
earlier with The Wall Street Journal.
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