Highlights of the call

The mgmt said that during this year, radio industry has grown by 11% - 13% against just under 10% growth of television and 7% - 10% growth of newspaper industry.

On standalone basis, the company's net revenue for December 2013 quarter was up by 13% to Rs 98.52 crore. OPM inclined by 430 bps to 38.8%. The net profit was up by 38% to Rs 25.88 crore due to increase in operating margin.

Top-line growth was driven by volume, effective rate (ER) hike and multiple income streams.

Revenue growth was driven by 5.5% - 6% volume growth and 4.5% price hike growth.

The mgmt said that the phase III auctions would start in next six months as all the radio operators have given their suggestions on the consultation paper floated by Trai. Election will have no impact on auction.

The mgmt said that it is gearing itself for Phase III expansion and that would increase opex in next 4 quarters as company would be investing in brand building and team building. This would impact the margin and PAT in FY15.

Q4 will be tough quarter because of high base effect.

The mgmt said that ad rate will see hike in Q1 FY15, led by election spending and in Q3 FY15, driven by festive season. The company expects yield improvement led revenue growth in FY15 as utilization has already peaked.

The mgmt said that in Phase III, the major part of the revenue would come from multiple frequencies in Metros and key Urban markets while smaller stations would just increase geographical reach. But overall pricing power will be added, due to additional stations in addition to present 32 stations. The mgmt expects same kind of margin from new stations.

Election led spending contributed just 2% of the revenues during Q3. The election led spending from general election will be seen in Q1 FY15. The election commission is expected to relax norms on election spending by contesting candidates, which would drive ad growth in coming quarter.

The blended inventory utilization level was at 89% (on 13 min ad per hour basis). Utilization in top 8 stations was at 112%, while for remaining 24 stations it was 81%.

For Q3, the blended realization for the company is in the region of about Rs 10016.

The company leads in 22 markets out of 32 markets it is present.

As Phase II is also set to go for renewal, the mgmt expects renewal of Phase II license cost will be up by 50% compared to that of earlier period, as this time the license period would increase from 10 years to 15 years.

Total cash at the end of Q3 FY14 stood at Rs 390 crore.