D B Group grew by 8.3% in 9M FY 2014-15 & Q3 FY 2014-15

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 and nine months ended December 31, 2014.

Total Revenues have increased by 8.3% to Rs. 15400 million, from Rs. 14214 million. While the Advertising Revenues grew by 7.8% to Rs. 11623 million as against Rs. 10778 million during corresponding period last year, DBCL achieved EBIDTA Margins of 29.8% in 9M FY2015 at Rs. 4587 million from Rs. 4115 million (EBITDA Margin 28.9%) of last year with YOY growth of 11.5%, after factoring forex loss of Rs. 19.9 million and  PAT grew by 9.4%, YOY to Rs. 2523 million (PAT Margin 16.4%), from Rs. 2307 million (PAT Margin 16.2%) , after factoring forex loss of Rs. 44.1 million and incremental depreciation of 172.5 million, as per new Companies act 2013

Total Consolidated Revenues have expanded by 6.1 % to Rs. 5574 million from Rs. 5256 million on account of: Net Increase in print business Total Revenue of Rs. 260 million in Q3 FY 2015 on YOY basis; Advertising revenues increased to Rs. 3934 million from Rs. 3751 million, reflecting a growth of 5% YOY basis and circulation revenues grew by 16.8% YOY to Rs. 969 million from Rs. 830 million; the Net increase of Rs. 19 million in revenues from radio segment in Q3 on YOY basis.

Revenues increased to Rs. 257 million from Rs.238 million due to improved advertising revenues. Print business EBITDA margins stand at 34.1% at Rs. 1783 million. The same considers. An analysis and break-up of Mature and Emerging Editions financials on a quarterly basis is given below. We classify emerging editions as those which are below 4 years of age or profitable since last 4 quarters, whichever is earlier.

DB Corp Ltd. remains the highly respected regional news daily by 19.8 million readers across India’s fastest growing markets and recent Audit Bureau of Circulations result for six months period (Jan-14-Jun’14) declared. Also Dainik Bhaskar as the largest circulated national daily of India, maintains leadership in legacy markets of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana (CPH), Gujarat and urban Rajasthan. Having strong progress in emerging regions, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Bihar reports good progress  with high quality product, aggressive branding efforts and persistent reader connect initiatives continue to translate into strong growth. Have also gained traction in readership profile of affluent class SEC A & B.

DBCL’s non-print business continues to reflect strong growth – continues to harness its strengths in this era of growing influence of digital, mobile and social media. On the Digital front there has been an Increasing percentage of urban population is accessing news electronically. Digital strategy is based on symbiotic relationship of ‘crowd and cloud’ - elements that make print and digital natural, complementary partners to each other. Dainik Bhaskar has been consistently scaling up digital (internet and mobile) business and very well placed to capitalise on the expected exponential growth of internet users in India.

While digital content in English is being consumed aggressively, closely studying audience behaviour in the digital space to explore how digital content is being consumed in Tier 2, 3 or 4 cities and towns, where internet penetration is a challenge. It is in these markets where the language of consumption becomes the driver of digital media growth.

Currently, DBCL’s websites continue to develop a loyal readership base. www.dainikbhaskar.com continues to be the #1Hindi news site, as well as the #1 website in Hindi on the Internet. Similarly, www.divyabhaskar.com is the #1 Gujarati news site, as well as the #1 website in Gujarati on the Internet. DBCL’s other websites are the Marathi news website www.divyamarathi.com and the English news site www.dailybhaskar.com.

With a noteworthy progress in growth of page views and unique visitors there focus is continuously on generating reader engagement through unique content and real time coverage of local news aligned to brand promise “har khabar ka sabse tej update din bhar”.

For the quarter under review, Dainik Bhaskar’s digital business has registered a total of 540 million page views and 18.2 million unique visitors. While www.dainikbhaskar.com registered unique visitors of 13.4 million and 361 million page views, www.divyabhaskar.com registered 2.6 million unique visitors and 156 million page views and the recently launched website Money Bhaskar has gained a strong readership in comparison to other financial sites. The site has achieved 41% growth in unique visitors and 19% growth in page views. Moneybhaskar.com is a comprehensive unique product created based on research to cater to an identified business audience, presented in an easy-to-consume and attractive manner, while also helping in de-mystifying financial issues.

On the mobile Mobile front, the majority of Indian Internet users access the Internet through their mobile phones. They also launched new concept in app: through a master app the user can consume content across all DBCL sites in all 3 languages (Hindi, English & Gujarati) from a single app. Our App is one of the fastest apps developed with best-in-class engineering to serve audiences struggling with slow connectivity issues in 2 & 3 Tier cities. Focusing on user’s reach and direct consumption of content, all our news notifications are based on location of the user.

On the Radio side, MY FM continues to be ranked beyond peers. Consistent efforts to grow popularity and cultivate a very strong bond with its listeners based on programming that caters to listener interest.

Commenting on the performance for Q3 & 9M FY 2014-15, Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, DB  Corp  Ltd  said,  “This  quarter  we  diligently  focussed  on  3  core  areas:  product,  content  and distribution which demanded all our hard work and efforts. Through an exciting mix of a high quality product led by innovative content, focus on better local news coverage in each region, various ground activation initiatives to intensify reader engagement, events to welcome greater corporate partnerships, have all contributed to improving our reach to readers across our legacy and emerging markets.  We continue to progress well through Jharkhand, Bihar and Maharashtra making good headway in the readership profiles of SEC A & B categories, particularly Bihar and Maharashtra, even on the back of a higher cover price. In Jharkhand, we are working doubly hard to move towards our break-even target in this fiscal. Our focus on stronger internal operating efficiencies has ensured our financial health through better expense management while newsprint costs have also seen a correction which has contributed to the strong bottom line."

"Our non-print business continues to make steady strides. The environment within the digital, mobile and radio world in Tier 2 & 3 cities is exciting and there’s much to explore and study in consumption behaviour and trends in regional language in these areas, which we have already undertaken very actively. Our digital properties have been gaining larger viewership numbers due to real time region- specific coverage, our mobile app has been developed with best-in-class engineering to serve audiences struggling with slow connectivity issues in 2 & 3 Tier cities and we expect good response from it. Several initiatives are in progress to enable us to take advantage of future growth opportunities," he added. 

"The government has been working towards speeding up the needed reform implementations required to boost industrial and economic growth and we expect to observe some visible impact on better GDP numbers over the next two years.  We are confident of our operating strengths and continue to execute to plan while maintaining stability in our profitability outlook,” Agarwal stated.