DB Corp Q1FY23 total revenue up 62.5%

DB Corp Limited (DBCL) - home to Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar – on Thursday announced its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2022. 

The company's total revenue is up by 62.5 % at Rs. 500.3 crore in Q1FY23 as compared to Rs 308 crore in Q1 FY22. Meanwhile, the advertising revenue has jumped 96.6% to Rs. 336.9 crore as against Rs. 171.3 crore in Q1FY22. Circulation revenue grew by 4.5% to Rs.115.6 crore as against Rs. 110.6 crore. 

Meanwhile, EBITDA grew by 1338% YOY to Rs. 73.8 crore as against Rs. 5.1 crore, aided by stringent cost control measures, and despite high newsprint prices and large digital business investment for future growth & after considering forex loss of Rs 1.67 crore. Print Business EBITDA margin stands at 20% in spite of newsprint price increase. 

The company’s net profit stood at Rs 31 crore as against net loss of Rs. 22.3 crore, after considering forex loss of Rs 2.15 crore.

According to a BSE filing by the company, the print industry is regaining momentum: Dainik Bhaskar Group is a key beneficiary of the reversion-to-print trend that is being witnessed. Advertisers are increasingly moving back to traditional media – Print and TV, for their ad spends and Dainik Bhaskar with its omni-channel delivery of high-quality content is a trusted platform for advertisers across the board. D B Corp’s Print Advertising performance has reached near to Qtr 1 FY20 performance (excluding Govt & Political billing).

“As the economy breaks away from the Covid-19 related effects, we are seeing strong on-ground indicators of positive sentiments that are fuelling growth, especially in the non-metro cities in India. To capitalise on this, advertisers – both traditional sectors as well as new age sectors, like Digital, App based and start-ups – are increasing their advertising spends, besides, traditional categories like, Real Estate, Jewellery and Education. With a captive audience that reposes its trust in the Dainik Bhaskar every single day – our newspapers are providing companies with a strong platform for their advertising budgets.”

Commenting on the performance for Q1FY2023, Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, DB Corp Ltd said, “Our industry has always been the most resilient in the face of challenges. While several experts were writing off print media in the wake of the digital revolution, we, at Dainik Bhaskar, continued our focus on delivering high quality and trustworthy content to our loyal readers. Not only have we moved to a strong leadership position in both physical and digital, but we are also benefiting from an industry level shift where advertisers are moving back to print in a significant way. This strategy has helped us deliver strong financial results for the Q1 FY2023. The editorial team at Dainik Bhaskar has established a strong mechanism to understand the pulse of its readers and deliver content that is honest, relevant, and useful. With our strong on-ground presence, we have established ourselves as the #1 Indian Language omni-channel news delivery platform. Our circulation strategy has enabled us to scale up to the pre Covid-19 peak. We continue our focus towards strengthening our financial position by remaining committed to our cost saving measures, especially important in light of high newsprint prices, which we expect will stabilise in the forthcoming quarters. We commence this new financial year with a sense of strong optimism.”