HT Media's Digital Biz Cuts Losses, Q3 Revenue Up 41% YoY & 17% Sequentially

Media and publishing group HT Media recorded Rs 11.7 crore in revenues from the digital segment for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. This marks 41 per cent growth over the third quarter last fiscal and 17 per cent growth sequentially over the previous quarter ended September 30, 2011.

The company also cut losses from its digital business. Segment loss from digital business was pegged at Rs 9.34 crore from Rs 10.55 crore in the same period last year and Rs 10.6 crore in the three months ended September 30, 2011.

The company's job portal Shine.com that competes with the likes of naukri.com among others, added 1 million (compared to 0.5 million resumes in the previous quarter) during the quarter to hit the 8.5 million resume mark. HTCampus.com narrowed the gap with the market leader with a database of 27,000 institutes and 6 lakh candidates.

HT Media has also announced that it has decided to demerge the job portal undertaking of its subsidiary Firefly e-ventures Ltd ( Shine.com) and transfer that business to the parent company. This is not the first time HT media is going ahead with such a proposal. In the past, a similar scheme was approved by the shareholders and creditors of both the companies, but the plan was scrapped later due to business considerations.

The company disclosed that last quarter it pumped in Rs 9 crore in HT Digital Media Holdings Ltd through compulsorily convertible debentures. It has also put in Rs 25.25 lakh in equity shares of HT Music & Entertainment Company Ltd making it a wholly owned subsidiary of HT Media.

The company also put in Rs 15 crore in equity shares of a new firm Indian Education Services Pvt Ltd which was floated a wholly owned unit in October but was turned into a 50:50 joint venture when Apollo Group picked 50 per cent stake in this venture involved in higher education services. More on that here.

Meanwhile, the company as a whole reported total revenues of Rs 526.58 crore, up 13.5 per cent over the year ago period and an increase of 7 per cent sequentially. HT Media's net profit was pretty much flat at Rs 48.16 crore compared to Rs 47.79 crore in the year ago period. On a sequential quarter basis consolidated net profit rose 9.8 per cent. HT Media scrip declined 5.3 per cent to close at Rs 124.3 a share on BSE on Friday.