Expect 35% of business from Warner next year onwards, says Tips Music

Tips Music is focusing on organic growth and quality content while staying clear of inorganic acquisitions.

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Kumar Taurani, MD of Tips Music, anticipates significant growth in the company's business through its partnership with Warner , expecting 35-40% of revenue to come from this collaboration starting next year. NSE Tips Industries, known for its music recording, film production, and distribution, signed the deal in March, but delays in content upload have pushed the partnership's impact to October. With content now fully online, Taurani is confident that the revenue targets set for the upcoming year will be achieved, strengthening their position in the industry.

The current market capitalization of the company is ₹ 9,988.12 crore. Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.



Q: It is a healthy 32% growth that you have delivered on a year on year (YoY) basis. Could you tell us which revenue stream is driving growth for you? Break it up for us, subscription, advertising, music rights. A: At present, I think advertising is more than subscription, but subscription is increasing, and there is two main players - YouTube and Spotify.

Plus, I feel my content from when we started, from 1988 to 2020, whatever we have we think this is our repertoire music, catalog music, that is doing very well. That is the main advantage we have, and that is responding, and that is giving us huge revenues. Q: In a previous interactions that you have spoken to us as well.

You have emphasized on the fact that you are going to focus on quality over quantity in FY25. Now, there is this fear that this might result in a bit of a slowdown in your long-term growth rates for the year. Now, you have grown 32% this quarter.

Do you expect that to sustain in the second half of the year as well. A: Please treat us as a yearly company, because we don't have a new releases in our control. It's linked with the film release.

Beginning of this year, fourth quarter of last year, we have two back to back hits Crew and Ishq Vishk Rebound. Musically, they have done very well. So we can't control our releases.

So non-film we can control. And recently, we are releasing many good non film music, but we have to rely on the film. I feel 30% we should grow by top line or bottom line, we are achieving it this year as well.

Q: It's good to see good amount of top line growth. The problem is the cash flows from operations has decreased considerably. Could you explain that to us? I can see the receivables have gone up.

How do you see this aligning things? A: I don't think so. I think cash flow will be good because we are giving a lot of dividends every quarter. First quarter, we have given around ₹ 47 crore as buyback, and in that same quarter, we have also given ₹ 25 crore as a dividend.

This quarter also we are giving dividend. In totality, around ₹ 97 crore, we have already given. Q: You had mentioned your market share improved for you, could you tell us, where is it now and where is it headed? A: It's same.

The way, around 8-9% whatever we have suggested in the monthly or quarterly presentations we do, it is same. I think in one or two years, with our focus on the new releases, it will increase further. We are focusing on that.

Q: I wanted to ask you an industry wide question. Now, there are reports about consolidation going on in the industry, the buzz about SaReGaMa, Reliance, all of them eyeing Dharma Productions. What's your take on it? You own Tips Films as well.

So could you tell us, what is your view on this sort of inorganic or consolidation that could happen in the industry? A: It's good for industry. We will have a more players join hands together, give quality products. So it's good for the industry.

Q: Do you have any such inorganic acquisition plans? A: No, nothing. We are growing on our own, and we are still a mid size player. It is better for us to focus on our business and don't change our focus and grow the way we are growing.

Q: You have that licensing deal with Warner Brothers, right? What is the earning potential that we should expect in FY25 what kind of contribution as a percent of the revenues are you factoring in in this guidance that you are giving us? A: Warner will contribute to my business around 35%. It's not this year, but next year onwards, we targeting ownership at least, give us 35-40% business, and it will happen because our deal was signed in March and to deliver content to upload on other platforms. So it will take some time.

But now, from October onwards, we are online. Everything is there. Instagram took lot of time, around six months to upload our content and come online.

So it's all done now. From October onwards, we see a better number, but we have already calculated that revenue in our target, what we have fixed for ourselves. So that's coming, and next year, it will be better for us, as a player and partner.

Q: Just one clarity I wanted from you with regard to the cash flow from operations. We are talking about cash flow from operations, not the overall cash flows. You had mentioned, dividends, buybacks.

That's ex of that, right? So as of the half year mark, it is lagging what we saw last year. Last year, cash flow from operations was Rs 230 crore. For this year, you are expecting things to align, and cash flow from operations could be similar to what we saw last year or better? A: It will be better, absolutely.

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