Dainik Bhaskar continues its record of strong quarterly results

Dainik Bhaskar continues its track record of strong quarterly results. This impressive growth was on the back of all segments firing on all cylinders and delivering robust ad growth. 

Print and other business advertising registered another quarter of strong growth of around 18% YOY to Rs 3584-million from Rs 3051-million and EBIDTA grew 93% YOY strong in Q1 FY2024. 

Consolidated EBIDTA registered a strong growth of 84% YOY in Q1 FY2024 to Rs 1359-million from Rs 738-million on account of impressive revenue growth as well as continued cost control including softening newsprint prices. EBIDTA margin expanded by 900 basis points to 24%. Consolidated PAT grew by strong 154% YOY to Rs 788 million from Rs 310 million. 

According to the company, print advertising continues to register strong revenue growth of 24% YOY for the last five quarters from Rs 13,510-million to Rs 16,755-million. “We are hopeful that our leadership position and reader engagement continue to serve our advertising partners to reach their audience and this in turn, will help propel consistent advertising revenue growth,” the release said.

Newsprint prices continued its downward trend in Q1FY2024 and the company is hopeful that this trend will continue based on our assessment. “Our average cost for newsprint has reduced from the high of Rs 63,500-pmt in Q2 FY2023 to Rs 56600-pmt in Q1FY2024 against 62100-pmt in Qtr 1 FY 23. Our teams continue the well thought out cost control optimisation measures and this, coupled with our circulation strategy and the growth of advertising revenues have helped us deliver strong operating results for yet another quarter, and this momentum is expected to continue over the next quarters,” it added.

Sudhir Agarwal, managing director, DB Corp, “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. Reputed agencies such as CRISIL peg this growth at about 15-17% on the back of strong advertising revenues, driven by elections, government spending, consumer demand across traditional and digital sectors. While English language print has been struggling with sluggish demand, Regional newspapers seem to be faring better.”

He added, “Dainik Bhaskar, as the dominant leader, and India’s largest newspaper group, has a clear advantage. We attribute this to our continued editorial excellence, high reader engagement and omni-channel delivery mechanism. Along with ad revenue growth, we have been focused on cost optimisation and over the last four-six 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.”
R