Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to D. B. Corp Limited Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call. We have with us today the senior management team of D. B. Corp Limited, Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Girish Agarwal, Director, Mr. Lalit Jain, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Mushtaq Ali, Senior Vice President, Finance and Accounts, who will be representing the D. B. Corp Limited on the call today. The management will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026, followed by a question- and- answer session.
Please note that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. Documents relating to the company's financial performance have already been emailed to you and are available on the website of the stock exchanges and the company's investor section. Trust you have been able to go through the same.
As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Now I hand the conference over to Mr. Pawan Agarwal. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our Q1 FY 2027 earnings call. We will begin with an overview of our financial performance for the quarter ended June 30th, 2026, followed by key operational updates across our businesses. We started the financial year on a strong note, delivering healthy growth in revenues, improved profitability, and continued margin expansion despite a challenging cost environment.
Our consolidated total revenue increased by around 8% year-on-year to INR 6,220 million, reflecting steady momentum across our core businesses. More importantly, our focus on operational excellence and disciplined cost management translated into stronger profitability. EBITDA grew by around 19% year-on-year to INR 1,647 million, significantly outpacing revenue growth. Consequently, our EBITDA margin expanded by 250 basis points to 26.1%, compared to 23.6% in Q1 FY 2026, demonstrating the strength of our business model.
Our profit after tax increased by around 25% year-on-year to INR 1,007 million, compared with INR 808 million in the corresponding quarter last year. This strong bottom line performance reflects the combined benefits of healthy revenue growth, effective cost optimization, and sustained operational discipline. Our consolidated advertising revenue continued its strong trajectory, growing by around 10% year-on-year to INR 4,320 million, compared with INR 3,933 million in Q1 FY 2026. The growth was broad-based across key sectors and reinforces the continued strength of print advertising in a leadership market.
Print and other business EBITDA grew by 18% year-on-year to INR 1,499 million, as compared to INR 1,270 million in Q1 FY 2026. At the same time, our circulation revenue remained stable at INR 1,204 million, reflecting the continued loyalty of our readers and the strength of our market-leading publication despite an evolving media landscape. Our radio business also delivered an encouraging performance during the quarter. Revenue increased to INR 425 million from INR 392 million in last year, while EBITDA grew by around 29% year-on-year to INR 148 million, compared with INR 115 million last year.
The strong profitability improvement highlights the continued recovery and operating leverage within the radio business. On the cost front, newsprint prices witnessed some upward pressure during the quarter, primarily due to broader macroeconomic and geopolitical developments. Despite this inflationary pressure, our continued emphasis on procurement efficiency, cost optimization, and disciplined execution enabled us to successfully mitigate much of the impact, resulting in healthy margin expansion during the quarter. Let me move on to our digital business.
Digital continues to be an important long-term growth pillar for the company, and as of May 2026, our news applications recorded around 20 million monthly active users, maintaining Dainik Bhaskar's position as the number one Hindi and Gujarati news app. Our continued investment in high-quality content, technology, and user experience are helping us strengthen user engagement, improve retention, and further expand our digital reach. With that, I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Girish Agarwal for his comments. Over to you, Girishj i.
Thank you, Pawan, and good evening, everybody. Thank you all for joining us today. This quarter has been another demonstration of the resilience and strength of our business. Newspaper continues to perform consistently, reinforcing its relevance as a trusted and effective medium for both readers as well as advertisers. Our performance during this quarter reflects disciplined execution across all our businesses, sustained market leadership, and our continued ability to deliver profitable growth. With that, now, I would like to open the floor for the questions- and- answers session. Thank you very much.
Shall we open the floor for questions?
Yes.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question need to star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you need to star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue settles. First question is from the line of Shivam Gupta from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I want to know circulation copies had dipped to around 39 lakh in Q4. Has the new circulation team helped to stabilize or grow the number in Q1, and what is your update outlook for the full year?
The circulation number in Q1 this year is around 38 lakh copies. With all our efforts, I think some of the impact of the summer also is in this, but it would be in the range of 38 lakh, 39 lakh only. I guess with all the efforts of circulation which our team is doing, we are able to maintain the number and in certain places, we have been able to increase our market share also.
Okay, sir. The next question is about the MAU you told around 20 million. As of Q4 or Q1?
In Q4. In Q1, the number is around 19 million, 20 million. So the number has been hovering around the same, 19 million, 20 million.
When can we expect that it will contribute meaningfully to the consolidated revenue rather than just user growth?
I guess this is a long-term investment call, which we have taken looking at the growth in India and future probability. So we are looking at certain monetization strategies, but right now the last focus is to develop the readers base. So that is what we are focusing on.
Okay, sir. That is it from my side.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much. Next question is from the line of Kavish Parekh from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a great set of numbers.
Thank you.
The first question is on the ad income. Could you share some more color on this? Did it involve some one-off? How would you break down sectoral contribution to this growth? Would you also say that there was some impact of government contribution in this? Because if I recollect, November 2025, the government had increased, DAVP had increased prices by about 26-odd %. So would you say there is some impact of the same in these numbers?
I think in this quarter, important thing is that every possible category has shown an upward growth, barring out education and automobile. Education was flat for a simple reason, because NEET exam was announced null and void, and they did the re-examination in the month of July. Sorry, June end. Which means the results of NEET, which is going to come out in July or August, the advertising around that result got shifted from quarter one to now quarter two.
So that's the reason education was flat. Automobile was down, actually negative, because of the geopolitical issues, the fuel supply, the rates and all that. So I guess that's the reason why most of the automobile companies are holding on to the advertising. Except these two categories, whether it's response or real estate or jewelry or hospitals or FMCG or government, everyone has contributed to the growth in a good manner.
Could you also break down the contribution of the sectors?
Sure, I can do this for you. Education, as you know, in the quarter one is the highest contributed sector, in the range of around 20%. Government was around 14%-15%. Real estate was around 11%-12%. Automobile came down from double digit to a single digit. Jewelry around 5%. Others are in the single digit.
Any comment on the point that I mentioned earlier? DAVP price increase about 26- odd%. Has that kicked in over the past two quarters, and is that also one of the reasons?
It has kicked in. That is the reason the government numbers are also growing in double digit.
Understood. Fair. Secondly, what would be your outlook on newsprint prices? Where do you think it can peak out?
Newsprint price, if you see in quarter one, we have seen around 13% hike. Quarter two also, we believe the price will continue to go up, because in quarter one, we had certain stock lying from the earlier quarters. But we clearly see an indication from Q3 and Q4, the prices will start coming down. So as of now, let's look at quarter two, where the prices will suddenly go up.
Right. Fair. And sir, just hopping back to the previous question on advertising. What in your view is the core driver for such strong growth on the print advertising side? Because if I hear commentaries across the board, especially broadcasters, months seem pretty soft for them given the macro challenges. A lot of advertisers held back on their spends. So how should we think about this? What led to such a strong performance on the print advertising side?
On a lighter note, I would say, [Non-English content] But on a serious note, good thing is that this shows that the efforts made by the team and the confidence of the various categories on the print. So I think because of that every possible category is doing.
And last question from my side. On the circulation side, if I look at a slightly longer term, at one point, if I go back two years, circulation used to be somewhere around 43 lakh, 44 lakh copies. Today that has come down to 38 lakh, 39 lakh . Structurally, that has seen some decline. While of course, I appreciate the readership efforts that we are taking to maintain readership, it definitely still has come down. How should we assess the yield? Has that, the realizations, have they been holding up or is it also very challenging to take price hikes on the realization side of it? If you could also put out the latest number of realizations.
If you look at my realization, we are at a flat. There is no growth. We are very clear, we do not want to unnecessarily burden the reader by increasing the price furthermore. So all our efforts are being made to make sure that we are able to grow copies. But unfortunately, rather than growing, we are able to maintain and lose maybe a couple of percentage points. That is the reason we do not want to take any price hike because advertising is growing. So we are in a better situation, position if we do not increase the cover price.
Could you let us know the latest cover price?
One second. INR 4.93 is the average cover price.
Sure. Would you have this-- the number for 1Q 20 26 handy, YoY?
YoY number was INR 4.9 again. There's hardly any change.
Thank you so much, sir. All the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Krushi from BugleRock. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. I think most of my questions were asked by Kavish and participant earlier. Just one very small question that I have is that we have seen some dip in the subscriber base for the apps that we run.
I would not consider that as a dip because 20 million becoming 19 million, I won't really call it a dip. Because in the digital business, unless it is substantial beyond 10%, 20%, 30%, 2%, 3% moving here and there is hardly any number.
Right. My question is actually coming from the perspective that I think, one or two quarters back, we had even discussed about how we are going about the activation of subscribers over here. It's coming from that perspective as well.
We are looking at different markets like Uttar Pradesh is one market we are very focused on in terms of digital, since we don't have a print presence over there. Editorially, in all our digital platforms, we are doing a lot of things. We are doing use of animations, little bit of use of AI also there. Every possible effort has been made, and I think if you look at the, again, not to justify, but I think compared to the market situation, our numbers are doing pretty good. Having said that, there are huge opportunities available. Uttar Pradesh government election will be there next year, March. That's a big opportunity for us. Let's hope a lot of new cycling comes our way.
All right. Wonderful. Just one small thing. Again, there was some decline in the other expenses, just a few crores. Anything structural, anything noteworthy over here?
No, I think every possible person in the company is trying to make sure that we save cost.
Got it. All right. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Abhinav from Equirus Investments. Please go ahead.
Congratulations on the great results.
Thank you.
Regarding on the segmental growth, which you mentioned for education and auto, can you give number or directionally for other segment as well? With real estate
As I mentioned, other segments all are doing good. Real estate is doing good, jewelry is doing good, FMCG is doing good, Electronics are doing good, Banking is doing pretty good. I think also, and this education also because of the NEET shift that happened. If I compare Q1 and Q2 put together, education will also be in a good growth.
Okay. Regarding the cash, how much are you planning to spend on CapEx? I think Q4 you had guided around INR 150 crore, INR 160 crore.
Yeah, it is going to be around the same range also.
Okay. Another thing was I just wanted to understand what was your driver for the margin expansion which we had year-on-year basis?
Sorry, what expansion?
Margin expansion on operating level. What were the key drivers for it?
The cost saving, top line going up.
Yeah, I understand cost saving, but any specific thing or any specific cost saving scheme which was done?
As I mentioned to you, see, we realize in our business a large cost is newsprint, where none of us have any role to play. So what we have is the other cost: traveling, admin, everything possible. So rather than only limited people sitting in HO looking at the cost, we have now taken it to all the team members. Everybody is trying to save costs wherever they can, and that's the reason we have been able to save some cost.
Okay. That's it. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Lohit Saini from Jay Ram Wealth . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on the good set of numbers.
Thank you, sir.
I have one question. With the rapid emergence of micro drama platforms in India, could you share your thoughts on whether the existing Bhaskar serials on the Dainik Bhaskar app can be a potential strategic growth opportunity for the digital business, given the use of AI into short format videos? How do you plan to advertise these Bhaskar serials?
Lohit, thank you. You are really watching my app very closely. As you rightly noticed, we are doing couple of micro dramas using the AI on our platform, and we have been getting good response from the readers. The idea is to make it more relevant. Only difference is that our dramas, our serials has to be based on the news. We can not do fiction. That is the reason we have a slight limited scope to play there, but still pretty large. We continue to do more, and as far as the publicity is concerned, we are posting them on the other platform like YouTube and other places to get some traction there also.
Okay. Can we expect something like this in English app as well?
Sir, English app slightly later because all the resources are in Hindi and Gujarati. To be very honest, English, but later, not now.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Next follow-up question is from the line of Kavish Parekh from 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, yeah. Thanks for the follow-up opportunity. Sir, if I heard you right, you mentioned that CapEx for this year could be somewhere around INR 150 crore, INR 160 crores. Before FY 2026, CapEx used to be much lower. FY 2026 saw sharp bump up in that. Where exactly is this being spent?
Last year, sir, if you remember, we had taken a call two years back that wherever we are paying high rental, better to acquire the property and build it on our own. For example, in Bhopal, we have finally bought a place, and we are making our own building. Similarly, we did this in couple of more stations. That's what the strategy is, so that we are able to save the rental expense and build our own property and also get the appreciation on the property.
Fair enough. Understood. Secondly, within the other expenses, last year we had started spending on initiatives to maintain the readership. Out of the other expenses on an annual basis, how much would that spend amount be?
I don't have the exact number with me right now, but I think all the expenses of circulation, promotion, and all would be in the range of around INR 20 crore-INR 25 crore annually.
Sure. Third thing on the digital bit, I heard Mr. Agarwal earlier today in an interview, saying that you put out about 14,000- odd stories, 1,800- odd videos per day on the platform. A pretty high number, a very solid number. Could you share some more details here? What is the total team size like spent working only on the digital piece? How many on-ground reporters? How many people on the tech side? Some more details.
Sir, these 14,000 stories are generated by the print and digital reporters together. Because as you know, in print also have a huge team at every possible location. We print almost 250 district editions. We generate almost 1,700 news pages on a daily basis. All those things are also posted on the digital, except the video, because video, print cannot take it. So videos are done exclusively for digital, and digital also have their exclusive team in certain markets, certain places.
Yeah. Any quantification on the team size working solely on digital?
Sir, for the big reason of the confidentiality to protect the competition to know much more detail, I can't diverge more. You will appreciate that.
Sure. Last question from me on the radio. What would be a realistic growth target on the radio segment?
They have grown by how much? 8%, 9% Pawan this quarter?
12%.
12%. Correct. We have had about this quarter, about 8% increase in our revenue across our 37 stations. We have seven more stations lined up. We are looking at a good growth this year on the bottom line because we have also put in a lot of cost control checks. So if you have seen our EBITDA in the first quarter has gone by about 15% up. So this year is going to be a mix of both revenue and cost control.
Any quantification on the top line? What would be your aspiration for maybe this year and the next year?
I think 12% number growth is also a humongous task in radio business.
Correct.
Because if you put it, the space is fixed, the timeline is fixed. You can't increase the timeline there. This is all by doing multiple innovations and all that. Though I would be much more greedy, but realistic sense, even this kind of growth is a humongous task for them.
Sure. This is very helpful. Maybe I'll connect with you offline to discuss more on the digital piece. Thank you so much.
Welcome. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Yash from JP Associates. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening. Firstly, congratulations on a good set of numbers, especially ad revenue, which has grown in double digits.
Thank you, sir.
Now, my first question is, has this growth coming from pricing, or is this a sort of volume increase?
Little bit of both, sir. I can't say 50/50. Pricing is less, but more of volume.
Okay, that's good news then. Now about circulation, I think I'm a little confused because here we are saying that the copies were at around 38 lakh copies during the quarter, right?
Yes, sir.
In the previous quarter, it was around 39 lakh.
Correct sir.
The revenues are higher over, compared in the previous quarter.
In certain places, there is a minor tweaking of the weekend prices. Few places, the high-paid copies on a particular day was increased. Because of that, but nothing major.
But then there has been some increase in pricing, right?
2%, 3% [inaudible] overall.
Sorry, 2%, 3%?
Overall, if you look at the overall numbers.
Okay. Where do we see, because I do not think in the last two years, we have seen some drop in the circulation copies in the first quarter, which is normally what is termed as summer fall. This year we have dropped from 39 lakh, let us say 40 lakh in Q3 to 39 lakh in Q4 and 38 lakh in Q1 again. Any specific reason as to why our copies have been reducing or decreasing quarter-on-quarter? I mean, for the past few years it was constant at around about 40 lakh copies.
Correct.
This is in spite of increasing spends and offering schemes to readers.
Correct.
Such issues. I mean, what is actually going on on the ground?
I think it is a mix on the ground because, let us get it right, there is some impact of some people, those who are not very serious readers, moving on to digital, little bit of them, couple of 2%, 3%, 4% like that.
Oh.
I guess that is one thing. But in certain markets, we have actually gained the market share. Like in Rajasthan, we have gained the market share. In MP, we have gained the market share.
Is it that the overall market is decreasing?
Maybe I would say by a couple of percentages.
Okay. There seems to be some drastic improvement in our other operating income if we compare it with the previous year. What is that?
Other operating income also includes the interest on the FD, what we have.
No, not the other income, which is below your EBITDA. I am talking about other operating income, which is a part of your publishing income. Print and publishing income, apart from ad and circulation revenue.
Lalit, just give us the detail. Lalit, can you give us the detail on this, please? You are on mute looks like.
Yash, sorry you are not audible.
Mr. Lalit Jain, can you give us the reply on this? You are on mute.
Yeah. This is because of the increase in job work revenue and westage revenue.
Okay. All right.
Yeah.
Just one more thing. Sir, newsprint prices, you said have gone up by around 13%. Is that versus previous year, or is that against previous quarter?
Previous year.
And-
Compared to previous quarter, around 8%.
Last quarter we were told it was around 49,000. This quarter would be around 54,000, 55,000?
53,000.
53,000.
Yeah.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Aditya Mundra from Mytemple Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Sir, what would be a portion of our digital revenue from the entire revenue?
Minuscule, sir, right now.
Okay. That would be mainly advertising. Whatever it is.
Correct.
Okay. Sir, directionally also, would it be at least 5%-10% in that range of our total revenue?
Sorry, sir?
Directionally, would it be around 5%-10% of our total revenue or even lower?
Even lower, sir.
Okay. Are we seeing any increasing trend there by any chance?
Yeah. Advertising is growing there. Advertising revenue is growing there.
Okay.
The base is too small, so advertising revenue is growing there.
Okay. There could be a couple of years before it becomes a meaningful 10%, 20% contribution to the top line.
Correct, sir.
Okay. And sir, do we guide this year for maybe a higher revenue than what our pre-COVID high was? Do you think we can return back to maybe a more than this year ?
I can't give any guidance, sir, but everybody's working hard. That much I can assure you. Every possible team member is really working hard.
Okay, sir. And sir, for the circulation revenue, would the revenue that we have achieved this quarter, should that be considered as the base in the sense that we will not go below that? Any view on that?
Sir, in circulation number, which is 38 lakh copies right now.
Yeah.
We are putting all our efforts to gain copies. But to be very honest, we lose some copy, we gain some copy. We again lose some copy, we gain some copy. So you can appreciate our teams also go through a lot of frustration because of this, but I guess that's the market situation right now. But we are holding strong. And important point is that we are gaining market share.
Mm-hmm. So you're saying the industry loss would have been higher than what our 39 lakh- 38 lakh is? The industry would have lost a lot more.
Yeah, looks like, sir. Very clearly.
Okay. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Sir, any equivalent. I think globally, do we see any equivalent part of any other newspaper that gives us confidence that maybe circulation has a floor, basically things won't go below that? Some parameter in developed economies or I do not know. I am just asking on any other country that you might be tracking.
No, sir. No other country. I think we should look at ourselves.
Okay.
Keep strong. Actually, see my market share improving, and that is the reason my advertising is improving. The growth of advertising is also a reflection of my share growth.
Mm-hmm. Right. That is largely volume-driven, as you mentioned.
Correct.
And sir, one final question. The print and other EBITDA percentage that you have mentioned in your media release, that is print and circulation combined, right?
Print and digital combined, sir. Yes.
Print and digital as well as. So there is no circulation revenue included in that EBITDA calculation, is it?
Correct.
Okay. But it is not separately given also, like the circulation EBITDA.
No, sir. There is no circulation EBITDA, sir.
The print and other EBITDA percentage basically includes everything other than radio.
Correct.
Okay. Fine. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question. I will now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you everyone for your participation today and time on this earnings call. I hope we have responded to your queries, and we will always be happy to be of assistance to our investor relation department, headed by Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, for all your further queries. Thank you and have a great evening.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. On behalf of D. B. Corp Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.