HT Media ‘s Q2 numbers came out today. The company’s Q2 net profit stands at Rs 26.9 crore (YoY). The company’s CEO Rajiv Verma says that the BCCL-HT media joint venture is to address a new emerging segment in India of commuters’ paper.

Verma says that they are refocusing on their Dot Com business. He also doesn’t rule out the possibility of hiving off their Internet business into a separate company.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Rajiv Verma:

Q: Could you take us from QoQ basis, the net sales are up 9% but net profit is lower than what we had expected?

A: There are two ways of looking at it, one is the comparison which you are trying to compare Q2 with Q1 and the other is if one tries to compare Q2 this year with Q2 last year same period then you will see a growth of profit of almost 236% and our PAT has gone up from Rs 8 crore to nearly Rs 27 crore. Our EBITDA has gone up by 109%, which is growth from Rs 26 crore odd to almost Rs 55 crore.

Now our industry typically sees certain degree of seasonality; every year one will see that Q1 is slightly better profitable than Q2. In addition to that company is in investment mode. In Q2 we have started three new additions in vernacular Hindi as well as invested behind a few new investments in our product. So as a result of that you might be seeing certain differential earnings but if you compare versus last year then it has been spectacular performance of profits.

Q: Are we going to be looking at more ad rate hike and if any, to what quantum?

A: Ad rates are something we continue to evaluate continuously depending on how the inflation on input costs is happening, as we are aware that input costs have been seeing some huge increases on newsprint prices as well as other inputs, which go into media.

So we continue to evaluate that. But what we want to make sure is that we offer better value for money to our advertisers. So depending on how our overall readership of paper is growing we offer better and better return on investment to our advertisers. While I will not rule out increase in prices, we will make sure that our customers get better value for the investment they are making with us.

Q: Could you take us through your expansion plans like the one JV with Times of India?

A: Regarding the BCCL-HT media joint venture, which is to address a new emerging segment in India of commuters paper, a convenient format in the sizing of compact that is something where investments are currently being drawn up but clearly as a result of synergies that the two companies bring to the table the investments are going to be significantly lower.

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