In the same month a company’s AI subsidiary got valued at $2 billion by outside investors, its main listed business reported a net loss for the June 2026 quarter. That’s an unusual mix, a global visual-effects operation working on some of the world’s biggest films, an AI platform now valued independently at billions of dollars, and a parent company still working through debt and margin pressure.
Prime Focus closed at ₹313.00, down 1.80% or ₹5.75 from the previous close of ₹318.75. The company has a full market cap of around ₹24,376 crore, and on the consolidated basis it’s trading at a P/E of 167.40
What Exactly Does the Company Do?
Prime Focus Limited runs three broad pieces of business, and it helps to keep them separate. The first is DNEG, its subsidiary and the world’s largest independent VFX and animation studio. DNEG provides visual effects and animation services for films and shows made by major studios, it doesn’t produce these films itself.
Its work has appeared in Dune, Inception, Interstellar, Tenet, Blade Runner 2049, and the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises. DNEG has won 8 Academy Awards, 8 BAFTAs, 26 Visual Effects Society Awards and 4 Emmys for this work.
The second is Brahma AI, an AI-native enterprise platform built from technology developed across DNEG, Metaphysic and Prime Focus Technologies. It offers tools for content management, digital humans, voice localisation and content search, now being sold to clients in healthcare, sports and broadcasting too, not just media.
The third is Prime Focus Studios, which does selective content production, including the upcoming Indian film Ramayana, plus titles like The Angry Birds Movie 3 and Cocomelon The Movie.
Geographically, around 94% of group revenue comes from outside India, even though roughly 80% of the 10,100-plus workforce sits in India across 24 global locations. That’s what gives the company its cost edge, globally-billed work handled by a largely India-based team.
A $2 Billion AI Business Within the Group
On September 23, 2026, Prime Focus told the exchanges that Brahma AI had raised $150 million, led by Multiples, at a $2 billion post-money valuation, with a further $100 million of investor demand it may accept by upsizing the round.
This matters, and it’s easy to misread: the $2 billion figure values Brahma AI alone, not Prime Focus Limited as a whole. After this round, Prime Focus, through DNEG, remains the largest economic shareholder in Brahma AI, holding approximately 66% economic ownership after the new stake, ESOP pool and founder equity are accounted for. Brahma AI stays independently run, led by founder-CEO Prabhu Narasimhan, with its own board.
A Quarter That Didn’t Quite Match the Story
For June 2026 (Q1 FY27), revenue was ₹1,267 crore, up 23.8% year-on-year from ₹1,023 crore, but down 8.5% from ₹1,384 crore in the March 2026 quarter, a dip the company attributes to Q4 typically being the strongest quarter ahead of summer releases.
EBITDA came in at ₹301 crore, up 23.4% year-on-year, margin roughly flat at 23.8%. Personnel costs rose faster, up 29.4% to ₹844 crore, on headcount scale-up for projects like Ramayana and Dune: Part Three.
Here’s the more telling part. Profit before tax, excluding exceptional items and FX, was just ₹9 crore, barely positive. The company then booked an exceptional cost of ₹66 crore, mostly a ₹71 crore NCLT settlement, partly offset by a ₹6 crore JV gain. FX added only ₹25 crore this quarter, versus a ₹159 crore gain in the same quarter last year. Combined, pre-tax profit turned into a loss of ₹33 crore, and net loss came to ₹46 crore. Excluding the exceptional item, the company says net profit would have been ₹20 crore. So the core business wasn’t as weak as the headline loss suggests, but underlying profitability, stripped of one-offs and FX swings, is still thin.
FY26 Told a Different Story
Over the full year to March 2026, revenue grew 30% to ₹4,676 crore, EBITDA nearly doubled to ₹1,423 crore from ₹786 crore, and margin expanded from 22% to 30%. Net profit swung from a loss of ₹458 crore in FY25 to a profit of ₹301 crore in FY26. Worth flagging: FY25 included a large ₹380 crore exceptional charge, so part of the year-on-year jump reflects that charge not repeating, alongside genuine revenue and EBITDA growth.
Nearly $1 Billion of Order Book and Visible Pipeline
The Q1 FY27 presentation states an order book and visible pipeline of close to $1 billion for FY27 and beyond, roughly 60% contracted and confirmed, the remaining 40% under highly visible pipeline, meaning advanced discussions rather than signed contracts. An additional addressable opportunity of over $270 million is also flagged. Not all of this is guaranteed revenue.
Revenue Visibility From the AI Business
Brahma AI’s revenue is running at an annualised rate of roughly $100 million per the Q1 FY27 presentation, with new customers signed across media, healthcare and sports, including its first Southeast Asian client. Some of this revenue is routed through DNEG and gets eliminated on consolidation into Prime Focus’s group financials, so it shouldn’t be read as an equivalent addition to consolidated revenue.
Debt Is Still the Key Financial Question
Net debt stood at ₹4,138 crore as of March 2026, up from ₹3,863 crore a year earlier. Gross debt rose more sharply, but roughly ₹440 crore of that came from currency translation on foreign loans, not fresh borrowing, meaning net debt was broadly flat excluding FX. Interest cost was ₹126 crore in Q1 FY27 alone against EBITDA of ₹301 crore for the quarter. Management has stated an intention to cut debt by $150-200 million over the next year, a target worth tracking each quarter rather than assuming.
What Could Go Wrong?
Net debt and interest remain high relative to quarterly EBITDA, and the deleveraging plan is a target, not a result yet. Reported profit has swung sharply between quarters due to exceptional items and FX. The VFX business is project-based and cyclical, tied to studio release schedules. Brahma AI, despite fresh funding, is still proving durable monetisation outside media. Execution risk exists in scaling Prime Focus Studios, and future Brahma AI fundraising could dilute Prime Focus’s ownership below 66%.