DB Corp Q1 net profit jumps over 2.5-fold at Rs 78.75 crore

DB Corp on Thursday reported an over two-and-half-fold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 78.75 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2023, riding on robust advertising revenue growth.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 31 crore in the same period last fiscal, DB Corp said in a regulatory filing. Consolidated total income during the period under review stood at Rs 573.6 crore, as compared to Rs 499.38 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal, it added.

Total expenses in the first quarter were at Rs 469.97 crore, as against Rs 457.3 crore in the same period a year ago, NewsDrum reported.

The company, which publishes newspapers including Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, said the resurgence in print media continues to dominate all forms of media as the most trusted source of news, and this resurgence has resulted in a strong fillip as advertisers look for the best avenue for their marketing spends.

"Print advertisement continues to register strong revenue growth of 24% year-on-year for the last five quarters from Rs 1,351 crore to Rs 1,675.5 crore," the company said.

Advertising revenue in the first quarter grew by 17.2% to Rs 394.6 crore, as against Rs 336.8 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, it added. Circulation revenue grew by around 4% to Rs 119.9 crore, as against Rs 115.6 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Newsprint prices continued its downward trend in Q1 FY24, DB Corp said, adding "We are hopeful that this trend will continue based on our assessment", the company said.

Furthermore, the company said that for the past three years, the digital business has been a key focus area and an important pillar for future growth of our business and this focus has been translated into strong gains.

“Our ability to innovate clearly puts us ahead of the competition and with a highly personalised product experience – which includes text, graphics and videos. Our app has registered tremendous growth from 2 million in January 2020 to more than 13 million in May 2023. This has propelled Dainik Bhaskar to extend its leadership as the dominant digital leader with the number one Hindi and Gujarati news apps, with the competition either staying flat or declining its user base. With our dominance already established in the print format and now in the digital format, we are undoubtedly the number one Phygital Indian Language Newspaper in the country,” the company stated.

In the radio business, revenue grew by 16.2 % YoY at Rs 37.2 crore versus Rs 32 crore. EBITDA grew by 23% YoY at Rs 11.5 crore versus Rs 9.4 crore.

DB Corp Ltd Managing Director Sudhir Agarwal said that, "As global economies are making a slow recovery from their inflationary pressures, the Indian Economy, especially the non-metro markets continue to see rapid growth. The print sector has been on the uptrend for the past few months and this is likely to continue.

While English language print has been struggling with sluggish demand, regional newspapers seem to be faring better, he added.

"Along with ad revenue growth we have been focused on cost optimisation and over the last 4-6 months have also been helped with easing newsprint prices. This has helped us deliver our fifth quarter of consistent growth across all segments and are confident of continuing this trend in the forthcoming quarters," Agarwal said.

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