Century Business Media IPO

Century Business Media sells out-of-home advertising space across airports, railway locations, metro stations and city sites.Airport advertising was the largest part of FY26 revenue at 61.52%, followed by railway OOH at 24.82%. City/flex/mounting contributed 11.01% and metro OOH 2.52%.The RHP says Century has exclusive advertising rights at Patna, Ranchi, Deoghar, Darbhanga and Jorhat airports. It also has exclusive rights outside station campuses across five East Central Railway divisions covering 714 stations, plus Platform Screen Door advertising rights at Howrah and Esplanade metro stations.Some media assets are owned by Century and others are operated with third-party vendors. The value of the business therefore depends partly on keeping and monetising useful advertising rights.

Revenue from operations increased from ₹32.03 crore in FY24 to ₹36.65 crore in FY25 and ₹46.43 crore in FY26. Profit after tax increased from ₹3.68 crore to ₹4.70 crore and then ₹5.56 crore. Over FY24–FY26, that is about 20.40% annualised revenue growth and 22.94% annualised PAT growth.Net operating cash flow was only ₹0.16 crore in FY24, then improved to ₹5.40 crore in FY25 and ₹6.05 crore in FY26. FY26 operating cash flow was about 1.09 times PAT.Trade receivables increased from ₹8.77 crore in FY24 to ₹14.16 crore in FY26. Receivables rose from about 27.38% of revenue in FY24 to 30.49% in FY26. EBITDA margin was 18.47% in FY26, below 19.58% in FY25.The RHP reports FY26 RoE of 36.44%, RoCE of 30.06% and net worth of ₹18.02 crore.

This is a 100% fresh issue. Existing shareholders are not selling shares through an OFS. At the ₹74 upper price, the fresh issue is about ₹17.11 crore.The RHP specifies ₹4.21 crore for static and digital media assets, ₹3.77 crore for the Patna Airport security deposit, ₹1.45 crore for debt repayment and ₹3.25 crore for working capital. The General Corporate Purpose amount was not finalised in the RHP.The company says it had quotations for the proposed media assets but had not yet placed the orders. It also says the fund requirements were based on management estimates and were not appraised by a bank or financial institution.

Some airport and railway agreements require Century to pay a fixed Minimum Monthly Guarantee even if advertising revenue from that location is lower. Certain concession agreements can also expose security deposits to forfeiture under specified default or early-termination conditions.Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and West Bengal contributed 81.34% of FY26 sales. Bihar and Jharkhand alone contributed 56.75%, so changes in these markets can matter disproportionately.The top 10 customers contributed 45.56% of FY26 revenue, while the largest customer contributed 11.07%. The company says it generally works on purchase orders and does not have long-term contracts with most customers.The proposed media-asset capex had not yet been ordered at the RHP date, leaving execution risk after the IPO.

The final price band is ₹70 to ₹74. Century reports FY26 EPS of ₹8.61. At the ₹74 cap price, the price-band advertisement shows a historical P/E of 8.59 times.The RHP compares Century with Bright Outdoor Media, Signpost India and Simca Advertising. Their disclosed P/E ratios are 29.48x, 20.55x and 12.75x respectively, with an industry average of 21.12x.Century is much smaller by revenue than the three disclosed listed peers: FY26 revenue was ₹46.43 crore for Century versus ₹127.22 crore for Simca, ₹153.03 crore for Bright Outdoor and ₹575.93 crore for Signpost.Century’s FY26 NAV was ₹27.94 per share and RoNW was 30.83%. These figures provide valuation context, but neither the lower P/E nor the return ratios by themselves prove that the IPO is cheap.