DB Corp consolidated revenue rises 29% to Rs 451.3 crore in Q2

DB Corp Limited (DBCL), home to newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, has announced its financial results for the quarter ended September 30. 2021.

The company's consolidated revenue jumped 29% to Rs 451.3 crore in Q2 FY22 as against Rs 349.8 crore in Q2 FY21 as the circulation touched 92-95% of pre-covid circulation copies and the print business advertising is now at 82% of the pre-Covid levels.

During the quarter, advertising revenue grew 34% to Rs 302.9 crore as against Rs 226.3 crore, on a comparative higher base of last year. Circulation revenue grew 12.2% to Rs 115.9 crore on as against Rs 103.3 crore.

EBITDA saw a 42% surge to Rs 105.4 crore (23% margin) as against Rs. 74.5 crore (margin of 21%), aided by stringent cost control measures and despite large digital business investment for future growth. Net profit stands at Rs 53.8 crore, as against Rs 28.5 crore.

The company's advertising revenue from the radio business expanded by 58% to Rs 28.7 crore versus Rs 18.2 crore. EBITDA grew 3.2 times to Rs 8.7 crore versus Rs 2.7 crore.

“With the pandemic creating a sombre environment in the past few quarters, we are pleased that the cloud of despair seems to have been lifted with a strong wave of positive sentiments flowing in. We had always expected a good recovery, but the robust momentum that we are witnessing in our key Tier-II, Ill and beyond markets is truly encouraging. With this broad-based recovery, we have not only crossed our performance of last year but are on track to reach our performance of 2019 or before the pandemic started,” DB Corp MD Sudhir Agarwal said.

“This, we believe, is a testament to our well-thought-out strategy, editorial integrity, and continued leadership position in the markets we operate in, making us natural partners for our advertising clients, and importantly, the first choice in newspapers for millions of readers across the country. As our digital footprint expands, we hope to be able to capture the mind-space of our readers across Print as well as Digital mediums. We will continue to strive for our stakeholders and are excited to go into the second half of the year with strong momentum.”

In its quarterly update, the company said that its efforts on resumption of circulation to pre-covid levels have yielded stellar results, with various initiatives having contributed to the restoration of almost 92-95% of pre-covid circulation copies along with cover price increase in select markets.

“Further. These efforts have resulted in expanding market share gains with an average increase of around 2-3% YOY across all markets in which the Group operates, underscoring the resilience of the group. The Dainik Bhaskar Group is well positioned to expand its market share further owing to its superior offering, a well-oiled and efficient distribution network and strong trade connections,” it added.

The company said that the demand for print advertising space is witnessing an upsurge. Advertising in large format, such as gatefolds, covers, and full pages, are making a strong comeback. Non-metros, where Dainik Bhaskar operates in, remain at the forefront of current economic recovery.

“Advertisement revenues are reclaiming pre-Covid levels with the festive season providing an added push and as a result, our print business advertising stands at 82% of the pre-Covid levels i.e. Q2 FY20 despite the absence or muted performance of large categories such as Auto and Consumer Durables. All other sectors such as Real Estate. Education, BFSI, Healthcare, Retail and newer categories such as e-commerce and start-ups, are inundating the advertising space across our newspapers,” it added.

The company said that local advertising which constitutes almost 70% of the overall advertising is currently growing by almost double-digit. The momentum of mega issues continued in the quarter gone by with all editions being completely sold out and some creating history in terms of the single day revenues that were generated from ad sales, it added further.

Well implemented cost optimization, operating leverage and increased revenues have aided in improving the operating margins with 200 basis points expansion YoY. Despite disruptions led by the second wave of Covid-19, DB Corp has been working towards and are well on progress to achieve almost 55%-60% of last year's operating costs savings of Rs 195 crore. The EBITDA for the Print Business in Q2FY22 came in at Rs 121.9 crore (with an EBITDA margin of 29%) as against Rs. 87.3 crore in Q2FY21 (with an EBITDA margin of 27%).

The company claimed that Dainik Bhaskar App's monthly users have increased by approximately 7 times since the beginning of 2020, owing to high-quality content development and a highly tailored product experience, as per Comscore data. Some of the key areas of initiatives by the company to spearhead growth include human resource with fresh new digital team, investment in original news, technology up gradation for superfast digital apps speed and editorial strategy of hyper local news with increasing use of videos.

It has also created a digital advisory board with the recent addition of Mark Thompson, the Ex CEO of New York Times (NYT) to the Advisory Board. “We expect him to add a lot more strategic digital expertise as Mark oversaw the entire Digital Transformation of NYT over the last decade closely and will be advising DB exclusively in the Indian market.”