DB Corp Q1 FY12 ad revenue up 20%; to acquire Prabhat Kiran

Indore's afternoon Newspaper Prabhat Kiran is published by Sudhir Agarwal led Divya Prabhat Publications.

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | July 22, 2011

DB Corp Limited (DBCL), India's largest print media company and home to flagship news papers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Dainik Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, has announced its financial results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2011. The highlights of the Company's operational and financial performance are as follows:

Performance Highlights for Q1 FY 2011-12:

- Stand-alone Advertising Revenue increased by ~ 21% YOY to Rs. 2841 million in current quarter from Rs. 2358.2 million in Q1 of last fiscal.

- Consistent and strong advertising growth which is one of the best in the Indian print space

- On an apple to apple basis, i.e. excluding advertising revenues of new markets of Jharkhand and Maharashtra, Stand-alone Advertising Revenue has grown by ~ 18% YOY

- Stand-alone Total Revenue has grown by ~ 19% YOY to Rs. 3527 million in current quarter against Rs.2977.2 million of Q1 of last fiscal

- Stand-alone EBIDTA margin for Q1 stands at 29% at Rs. 1024.4 million

- Print Business EBIDTA margin for Q1, excluding losses of new markets - Jharkhand and Maharashtra, stands at 35% at Rs. 1154 million

- Stand-alone PAT margin stands at 18% at Rs. 634 million.

- Consistently delivering one of the highest PAT margin in Indian print media space, since beginning, after factoring in new market losses, including one-time pre-operative expenses on account of new launches

- Consolidated Advertising Revenue increased by 20.2% YOY to Rs. 2832.4 million in current quarter from Rs. 2357.1 million in Q1 of last fiscal

- Consolidated Total Revenue has grown by 18.4% YOY to Rs. 3538 million in current quarter against Rs. 2987 million of Q1 of last fiscal

- Consolidated EBIDTA margin stands at 28.4% at Rs. 1004 million

- Consolidated PAT margin stands at 17.3% at Rs. 611 million

- Radio business: Advertising revenue has grown by 17.3% to Rs. 125 million in Q1 of current year, against Rs.106.3 million in Q1 FY 10-11

- Radio business has achieved EBIDTA of Rs. 17 million (~14% margin) in current quarter

- EPS stands at Rs. 3.33

- DB Corp Ltd. retains position as the largest print media group amongst national dailies, with 18.1 million readers across India's fastest growing markets – as revealed by the Inaugural Quarterly Results of IRS (Q1 2011) released in June 2011

- Dainik Bhaskar retains its position as No. 1 Newspaper of urban India in Average Issue Readership (AIR).

- Expansion in new territories continues with strong momentum - Aggressive growth and expansion strategy coupled with strong execution capabilities have enabled DBCL to expand its footprint in Maharashtra with the highly successful launch of Dainik Divya Marathi in Aurangabad and Nashik city

- In April 2011 successfully completed foray in the Jharkhand region with Dhanbad edition launch – that had begun with the launch of Ranchi in August 2010 and Jamshedpur in December 2010

- Maintains leadership position in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab (JAL), Rajasthan (U) and Gujarat.

- Radio business continues to scale up well – reports ~17.3% growth this quarter supported by a robust EBITDA growth of Rs. 6 million in Q1 on YOY basis

- Digital business ramping up rapidly– stellar growth in number of page views. dainikbhaskar.com, diyvabhaskar.com, divyamarathi.in & dailbhaskar.com, stand out as preferred destinations for their respective online target audiences.

- In the Board Meeting held on 21st July'2011, the Board of Directors has also considered and accorded their in principle approval for acquisition by D. B. Corp Limited (DBCL), of 60% of the paid up share capital of Divya Prabhat Publications Pvt. Ltd, which is presently held by Sudhir Agarwal, one of the promoters of the Company, for INR12 Million. Divya Prabhat Publications Pvt. Ltd, a profit making company, publishes "Prabhat Kiran", an afternoon Newspaper from Indore (M.P.).

- Dainik Bhaskar voted as ICMR's (Indian Council of Market Research) star brand 2010-11

- My FM 94.3 selected as Best Station IDs in 'New York Festival Awards (USA)' on June 29, 2011

Commenting on the performance for Q1 FY 2011-12, Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, DB Corp Ltd said, “On an overall basis, our growth momentum has been well maintained this quarter as reflected by our strong financial performance and a robust ad revenue growth, which we believe is one of the most consistent and strongest across the Indian print media space. This quarter sets off a new fiscal of investments and expansion. Our new-market launch strategies have served us well that have always centred on customising and launching a strong product with high quality content, in territories presenting significant readership gap with an opportunity to expand the market. We continued to make determined progress in consolidating Bhaskar's presence in key regions – as we successfully completed our foray in Jharkhand with the launch of Dainik Bhaskar's Dhanbad edition in April 2011 and also made successful in-roads into new territories of Maharashtra – with very exciting and challenging launches of Dainik Divya Marathi in Aurangabad and Nasik cities that are both of great strategic importance in strengthening the Bhaskar brand in the state. Followed by the successes in these regions, we soon plan to launch in Jalgaon and over 2011-12 plan to extend our presence in other formidable markets in Maharashtra.”

“We are excited about future opportunities and our outlook is optimistic, driven by the rapidly rising consumption story in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and the potential of the regional print media segment. Leveraging our competitive strengths to well capitalize on this growing opportunity, we remain committed to reporting encouraging performance going forward and in delivering greater stakeholder value,” added Agarwal.

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