DB Corp's net profit zooms 106% YoY to Rs 100.3 crore in Q2FY24

Print major DB Corp has reported a spike of 106% in its Consolidated Net Profit in Q2FY24. It amassed a sum total of Rs 100.3 crores in the quarter that ended September 30, 2023, as against Rs 48.8 crores it clocked in during the corresponding period, last fiscal year.

The company’s Total Revenue also went up from Rs 548.6 crore to Rs 601.9 crore which is 10% up YoY in the second quarter of the current fiscal owing to strong growth in revenues coming from advertising and circulation, both.

The Advertising revenue of DB Corp in Q2FY24 stood at Rs 430.1 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2023, which is 13% higher than that of last year’s Rs 381.1 crores.

Of this, the company, in its regulatory filing, also mentioned that its Print and Other Business Advertisements were also up 13.42% YoY to Rs 394.6 crores in Q2FY24 as against Rs 347.9 crores in Q2FY23; followed by Radio Advertisements which was up 6.21% YoY to Rs 35.9 crores as against last year’s Rs 33.8 crores.

Additionally, the Circulation Revenue also shot up 4% to Rs 120.5 crores in Q2 of FY2024. In the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year, the same stood at Rs 115.7 crores.

DB Corp’s EBIDTA also grew by a strong 71.55% to Rs. 167.6 crores as against Rs. 97.7 crores aided by stringent cost control measures, and also helped by softening newsprint prices. Further, the EBIDTA margin of the company also expanded by 1000 basis points to 28% from 18% last year.

Contributing to the total EBIDTA was Print and Other Business which went up 80.02% YoY in Q2FY24 to Rs 156.8 crores as against Rs 87.1 crores and Radio which was up 1.89% to Rs 10.8 crores this time around as against last fiscal’s Q2 wherein it stood at  Rs 10.6 crores.

Furthermore, the company, which publishes newspapers including Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, in its regulatory filing also mentioned that the newsprint prices continued their downward trend in Q2FY2024 and based on their assessment, they further expect newsprint purchase prices to remain softened in the next few quarters.

“Our average cost for newsprint has reduced from the high of Rs 63,500 PMT in Q2 FY2023 to around Rs 56500 PMT in Q1 FY2024 and now further down to Rs 51500 PMT in Q2 FY2024 resulting in newsprint cost reduction of 16% YoY,” it stated.

On the Advertising front, the company mentioned that traditional advertisers such as Education, Real Estate, Government, Jewellery, Health etc. continued to use print as a preferred medium. However, the Auto Sector which is currently increasing its ad spends on print still has a lot of headroom for future growth.

“As we have been highlighting, New-age digital sectors continue to see value in the Print media, and in this quarter too, digital, app-based companies and start-ups continued their print preference,” the company statement highlighted.

Delving further into the Circulation front, DB Corp stated that it underwent a slew of initiatives with a focus on retention, renewals and expansion of the reader base which as per the company are all delivering strong results.

“We continue our targeted efforts to increase institutional sales, which helps foster visibility and further expansion. Various other initiatives like Reader Scheme (Azadi Ka Utsav), trade scheme and PCC survey drive have been received well by our readers and trade partners. Our focus on technology deployment to automate and increase efficiency has been doing well, for instance, we

rolled out UPI payment option for our readers towards increasing collection efficiency,” the company added.

Commenting on the performance for Q2 FY2024, Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, DB Corp, stated, “The Indian Consumption Story is continuing to fuel growth, with Tier II and beyond cities driving the expansion. Over the past few quarters, print media has been cemented as the most trustworthy medium and Dainik Bhaskar has been a strong component of that trust. This has resulted in robust growth in advertising revenues, and we are happy to see that trend continuing. Across sectors, advertisers are using our platform for hyperlocal advertisements to increase their returns. What really enthuses us is that even though the festive season for this year is entirely in Q3, our Q2 numbers have shown strong double-digit growth – highlighting the vast potential of the markets which we operate in. We look forward to a good festive and wedding season ahead with an estimated 3.5 million weddings that are likely to happen in Nov-Dec, spurring the local economies.”

“As a market leader that has been at the forefront of innovation in the sector, our teams continue to work hard to not only maintain the pole position, but also extend our reach and improve our delivery. With an omni-channel mechanism in place resulting in eight continuous quarters of growth, we are confident that the next few quarters will extend our lead even further,” he added.

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