Mumbai: DB Corp Limited (DBCL), India’s largest print media company and home to flagship newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, today announced its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.
Dainik Bhaskar continued to maintain strong momentum on circulation expansion strategy across key markets delivering a growth of 12% since initiation of circulation campaign in June 2017
Radio Phase 3 stations become profitable: Turned EBIDTA positive, following the complete commissioning of all 13 stations, acquired under batch 1 of Phase 3 during 2017. Profitability achieved on the back of strong inventory management, programme profile, prudent cost efficiencies and growing popularity.
New Look www.divyabhaskar.com: The World`s largest Gujarati website has re-launched itself as the global destination for Gujarati content with a new look and wide, exciting canvas of popular content. Introduced 4 news unique categories of content which will be seen first time ever in the industry.
Buy Back of Shares: The Board of Directors at its meeting held on May 26, 2018 approved the proposal of buyback of 92,00,000 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each (representing approximately 5% of total equity share capital) from the shareholders of the company through the “Tender offer” route as prescribed under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Buyback of Securities) Regulations at a price of Rs. 340/- per equity share, aggregating to approximately Rs 312.80Crores. The buyback has been approved by the shareholders on July 6, 2018. The public announcement was published on July 10, 2018. The draft letter of offer was filed with SEBI on July 17, 2018.
Commenting on the performance for Q1 FY 2018-19, Mr. Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, DB Corp Ltd said, “This quarter our focus continued to be on ensuring successful implementation of our circulation expansion strategy, in markets across India that are responding well with the team’s complete focus on market expansion, editorial and impactful readership engagement efforts. As India’s largest news networks, we are in the process of assembling an exciting curation of editorial activities keeping in mind important developments with wide public appeal. A detailed road map has been structured in association with industry stalwarts, which will help us deliver stimulating content for our readers. Our non-print businesses continue to progress well, building great value for readers, advertisers and the organisational triad.
The next 5 years are set to be the golden years for Tier 2, 3 towns and DB Corp with its strong presence across these markets is in the best position to capitalize on these opportunities. With our legacy of execution excellence, we are excited, aggressive and totally committed to think and act much beyond our capabilities so that we can deliver the desired levels of growth. At a broader level, all positive signals such as GDP growth, government spending, SmartCity projects, etc. augur well towards a period of greater progress and advancement.”
The highlights of the Company’s operational and financial performance are as follows:
- Total Revenue reported growth of 7% at Rs. 6392 million in current period from Rs. 5997 million in Q1 last fiscal
- Circulation Revenue has increased YoY 10.3% to Rs. 1345 million from Rs. 1220 million, primarily due to Volume driven growth
- Advertising Revenues reported growth of 5% YOY to Rs. 4549 million in current period from Rs. 4334 million in Q1 of last fiscal
- EBIDTA Stands at Rs. 1749 million, EBIDTA margin of 27% for the quarter, against EBIDTA of Rs. 1933 million, in Q1 FY 2018; after considering forex loss of Rs.24.9 million and circulation expansion strategy related non-recurring expenditure of Rs, 58.6 million
- PAT stands at Rs. 976 million (PAT Margin 15.3%), against Rs. 1101 million (PAT Margin 18.4%), in Q1 of last year; after considering forex loss of Rs. 31 million and circulation expansion strategy related non-recurring expenditure of Rs. 58.6 million.
- Radio business: Advertising revenues expanded by 2% YOY to Rs. 317 million in Q1 of current period, against Rs. 311 million in Q1 of last fiscal, despite high base
- Radio business EBIDTA grew by 26% YOY to Rs. 71 million from Rs. 56 million
- Radio Business PAT grew by 59% YOY to Rs 26 million
- Digital business revenue grew by 4% YOY to Rs. 126 million
