BENGALURU: DB Corp Limited (DB Corp), home to flagship newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Dainik Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar reported 2.1 percent increase in Total Income from operations (TIO) for the year ended 31 March 2016 (FY-16, current year). The company reported consolidated revenue of Rs 2,051.87 crore in FY-16 as compared to Rs 2,009.57 crore in the previous fiscal.

Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee - Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

For the quarter ended 31 March 2016 (Q4-16, current quarter) TIO increased 5.6 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 514.28 crore as compared to Rs 485.60 crore, but declined 12.2 percent quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q) from Rs 585.89 crore.

DB Corp’s PAT in the current year declined 6.2 percent to Rs 296.64 crore (14.5 percent PAT margin) from Rs 316.34 crore (15.7 percent PAT margin) in FY-15. PAT in the current quarter was almost flat y-o-y (increased by 0.4 percent) at Rs 64.24 crore (12.5 percent margin) as compared to Rs 64 crore (13.2 percent PAT margin), but declined 39.9 percent q-o-q from Rs 105.11 crore (19 percent PAT margin) in the immediate trailing quarter.

Radio Segment - My FM

DB Corp’s radio segment that has an FM radio network under the brand My FM reported 12.1 percent increase in TIO in FY-16 at Rs 107.50 crore as compared to Rs 95.87 crore in FY-15. The radio segment’s contribution to DB Corp’s overall revenue has gone up to 5.24 percent of TIO in the current year from 4.77 percent in the previous year.

The radio segment’s operating profit increased 0.9 percent to Rs 31.52 crore in FY-16 from Rs 31.23 crore in the previous year. The radio segment’s operating profit in Q4-16 declined 5.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 9.4 crore from Rs 9.95 crore and declined 8.1 percent q-o-q from Rs 12 crore in Q3-16.

Printing and publishing of newspaper and periodicals (Printing) segment

Print segment reported 0.8 percent increase in TIO in FY-16 at Rs 1,892.56 crore as compared to Rs 1877.70 crore in FY-15. The print segment’s operating profit declined 2.7 percent in the current year to Rs 476.96 crore from Rs 490.23 crore in FY-15.

Digital Business

DB Corps’ Digital business revenue grew by 33 percent to Rs. 12 crore from Rs. 9 crore of corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Circulation and Advertising revenues

Circulation Revenue grew by 16 percent in FY-16 to Rs 435.6 crore from Rs 375.5 crore in FY-15, largely driven by yield growth of 13 percent, primarily in legacy markets. Circulation Revenue increased 15.3 percent y-o-y in Q4-16 to Rs 113.6 crore from Rs 98.5 crore, primarily due to yield driven growth, largely coming from mature markets.

Advertising Revenues was lower in FY-15 at Rs 1481.2 crore as against Rs 1516.6 crore during last year. Advertising Revenue in Q4-16 was at Rs. 360.0 crore as compared to Rs 354.3 crore in Q4-15.

Total Expenditure (TE) in the current year increased 4.5 percent to Rs 1605.10 crore from Rs 1535.46 crore in FY-15. TE in Q4-16 increased 7.5 percent y-o-y to Rs 422.34 crore as compared to Rs 390.75 crore and was almost flat q-o-q as compared to Rs 422.32 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

Raw material (RM) consumption in FY-16 declined 4.5 percent to Rs 618.67 crore from Rs 647.57 crore in FY-15. RM consumption in the current quarter increased 3.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 157.77 crore as compared to Rs 151.70 crore, but declined 5.2 percent q-o-q from Rs 166.46 crore in Q3-16.

Company speak

DB Corp managing director Sudhir Agarwal said, “Our performance this quarter continues to reflect sustained efforts to engage strongly with readers and advertisers. We continue to undertake several key initiatives to propel the company on a growth trajectory, since we have already laid a very strong foundation for the business that now has extremely strong fundamentals. Our strategic areas of focus are at the core of our growth and expansion roadmap and way forward, being led by print, digital and radio segments. This year we brought back the ‘Zidd karo’ campaign that resonates our operating philosophy – which has guided the group to report significant growth over the last few years. While we are implementing multiple efforts to increase reader engagement primarily driven through content, we are also focusing very intensely on advertiser engagement to help advertisers understand multiple ways of engaging with our readers since we know the preferences of our readers very well. On this basis, our yield strategy is gaining steady and strong acceptance. The key thrust areas going forward will centre on giving readers a well-rounded experience, our commitment to advertisers and associates, an enthusiastic and energised work environment for all staff and our responsibility towards stakeholders to deliver high shareholder value. We continue to be excited by the development of the radio and digital segments that have great growth capabilities and are on course. On an overall basis, Indian language print media holds tremendous potential and as the largest player in the industry backed by strong competitive advantages, we look forward to leveraging future opportunities.”