DB Corp Q1 FY 16-17 financial results reflect growth in ad revenue

The performance highlights for Q1 FY 2016-17 (consolidated) includes advertising revenues reported growth of ~21% YOY to Rs 4,136 million in current period from Rs 3,423 million in Q1 of last fiscal, primarily through volume recovery and market share recovery. Circulation revenue has increased YOY 15% to Rs 1,176 million from Rs 1,022 million, primarily due to yield driven growth, 13.3% growth has come from mature market and ~ 1.7% has come from new centres. The company also displayed consistent impressive circulation growth of 15% CAGR for last 5 years, which is highest amongst listed peer group – demonstrating strength of the products, content strategy and editorial philosophy.

The total revenue reported growth of 19% at Rs 5,745 million in current period from Rs 4,812 million in Q1 last fiscal. EBIDTA grew by 46% YOY at Rs 1,853 million with strong EBIDTA margin of 32% for the quarter, against margin of 26.5% and EBITDA of Rs 1,274 million, in Q1 FY 2016, after factoring forex loss of Rs 8.1 million. This also includes losses for new editions of Bihar, which was not there in Qtr 1 of last year

PAT grew by impressive 62% YOY at Rs 1,040 million (PAT Margin 18.1%), against Rs 643 million (PAT Margin 13.4%), in Q1 of last year, after considering forex loss of Rs 28.7 million as against 18.4 million forex loss in qtr 1 of last year

Sudhir Agarwal, managing director, DB Corp, said, “Our stellar performance this quarter is testimony to the effectiveness of our business growth and execution strategies, which have been implemented very successfully by our teams. Over the past few quarters, we undertook several key initiatives to propel the company on a growth trajectory, which have started delivering results. We have been confidently implementing our yield strategy, which has gained acceptance amongst advertisers. We are happy to report the success of these determined efforts this quarter and take this opportunity to thank all our associates for their trust that reinforces the Bhaskar value proposition.”

Agarwal added that on an overall basis, the second phase of economic reforms indicates an optimistic way forward. “Developments, including the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission and good monsoons, will provide further impetus to the economy as well as the domestic consumption story,” he said.

Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) has declared Dainik Bhaskar as the largest circulated national daily in India consistently for the last four times. Dainik Bhaskar has been ranked as the world’s fourth largest circulated news daily by WAN-IFRA, which is the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Dainik Bhaskar is the only Indian news daily to feature amongst the world’s top five most circulated newspapers.

Content is the core for media business and DB Corp has always kept its readers at the centre with ‘Kendra Mein Pathak’, which is core editorial philosophy of Dainik Bhaskar. And in order to be consistent with changing times and upgrade the readers, the company has initiated several new developments during the last quarter. These include exclusive tie-up with The Economist for any language newspaper except English in India. DBCL is the only publication in India, across languages to have a tie-up with world’s top four credible brands, like The New York Times, Time Magazine, Harvard Business Review, and now The Economist.