Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to D B Corp Limited Q4 and FY 2025 earnings conference call. 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing the star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. We have with us today the senior management team of D B Corp Limited, Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Girish Agarwal, Non-Executive Director, Mr. Lalit Jain, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Mushtaq Ali, Senior Vice President, Finance and Accounts, and Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, Head of Investor and Media Relations, who will represent D B Corp Limited on the call.
The management will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter and full-year ended March 31, 2025, 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 stock exchange and company's Investor section. Trust you have been able to go through the same. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pawan Agarwal. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the Q4 FY 2025 D B Corp earnings conference call. We will begin the call by highlighting the key financial performance for the quarter and full-year ended March 31, 2025, followed by key operational updates. For FY 2025, we reported total revenues of INR 24,212 million, compared with FY 2024 revenues of INR 24,821 million on an election-driven high base of last year. At a CAGR of 13% in the last three years, the advertising stood at INR 16,899 million in FY 2025. The circulation revenue stood at INR 4,734 million in FY 2025.
Our EBITDA stood at INR 6,270 million, reflecting an EBITDA margin of 26%, with the print business continuing to deliver industry-leading EBITDA margin of 30% for the fiscal year gone by. The net profit came in at INR 3,710 million, marginally lower than last fiscal, but registering a 38% CAGR growth over the past three years. The improvement in profitability has been driven by efficient cost management, favorable foreign exchange, and strong newsprint prices. Excuse me. Coming to Q4 FY 2025, our advertising revenue stayed headwinds. However, we are starting to observe encouraging signs of recovery and anticipating returning to our growth trajectory in the upcoming quarters. The total revenue for quarter four FY 2025 stood at INR 5,668 million as against INR 6,418 million last year, which has benefited from elections.
The advertising revenues came in at INR 3,841 million, as against INR 4,457 million last year. While circulation revenue remained flat at INR 1,172 million. The EBITDA stood at INR 1,017 million, and net profit for the quarter was INR 523 million. Notably, our circulation strategy proved successful with an impressive addition of copies across markets during the quarter four FY 2025. This was a result of our team's robust ground-level acquisition efforts and success of our innovative Jeeto 14 crore reader scheme. Our radio business continued its strong run, leading industry growth with advertising revenues of INR 1,663 million for FY 2025, a 4.5% YoY increase, and EBITDA rising to INR 558 million, up 1.3% YoY.
With regards to our digital business, we are very happy with the progress as our MAUs increased further to 19.6 million as of March 2025, making Dainik Bhaskar a clear digital news leader. We are the number one Hindi and Gujarati news apps. Our focus market has now increased to 14 states, including Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand for our digital mobile app market outreach. With this, I will now request Mr. Girish Agarwal to update us on the operations. Girish, over to you.
Thank you, Pawan. Good evening, everybody, and thanks for joining us. Our full-year results reflect a slowdown, especially in the quarter four. This decline is primarily attributed to two key factors. One, high base effective, which was stemming from the last year's election-driven surge we saw last year, and the challenging economic conditions in the Q4, especially in Q4 because in Q1, two, three, we were in a good shape. However, there are some encouraging highlights, what we still see is that starting this fiscal April, we are observing a decent improvement in the market. Like in April month, we saw a strong double-digit growth, in the advertising. The other notable and reassuring achievement has been the growth in our circulation number. As you know, from last couple of years, the circulation number has been on a weaker ground. We were also contemplating what is to be done.
Finally, we thought that now we need to go all out since the newsprint prices are supporting us to gain some more copies. We did the scheme of 14 crores, and I think, after a long time, there was a slight uptick in the overall numbers. I cannot say very encouraging numbers, but still upstate in the numbers. Based on that, we believe this whole year we will continue driving this and there will be a growth in the overall circulation number. This will also help us to arrest any kind of decline which may happen, going forward in the circulation. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the outlook for India.
We believe that the domestic economy is poised for consumer-driven growth in the near to medium term, and this view is supported by the several positive triggers on the horizon, including the income tax relief measures that is expected to boost the disposable income, anticipated rollout of the 8th Pay Commission and the forecast of a normal monsoon, which will support rural sentiment and spending. We remain focused on consolidating our market leadership, delivering consistent value to stakeholders, and exploring meaningful opportunities for expansion and innovation. With continued focus on our operational efficiencies, reader engagement, and monetization strategies, we are confident in our ability to return to growth trajectory in the upcoming quarters. With that, we could now open the floor for questions and answer session. Thank you once again for joining me, and over to you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Amit Doshi from Care Portfolio Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. We understand that we have increased the copy of circulation, number of copies. However, the same is not reflected in the numbers. Can you share what exactly is the reason?
We started this Jeeto 14 crore scheme in the first week of January, and we started seeing some uptake happening from February and March. If I see the Q3 and Q4, there is a growth, but suddenly from the last year Q4 to this Q4, it is almost flat. But from Q2 and Q3, the Q4 numbers are better. Going forward, you will see further reflection on that.
Okay. In terms of percentage, what kind of circulation growth that we are looking at?
We are talking about 2% right now.
Okay. Expectation for the next financial year, 2025, 2026?
Yeah, expectations are much more, but looking at the practical, because what's happening, at the same time, there is a single, double, single digit or maybe 1% or 2% decline also in the few markets. So considering all that, even if we are able to close the market at 3%, 4% growth, that will be a big achievement.
Okay, understood. You have just recently mentioned that, of course, year-on-year figures are looking very negative in terms of ad revenue because of last year high base, obviously, especially because of the election campaign year that it was. If you can just give some sort of a breakup of some color, like what has been the reduction in the government revenue versus non-government revenue. If you give some more color because the numbers is quite different, quite low.
Understood. If you look at last year, full-year, the automobile category was able to grow at 16%. The real estate category grew at 17%. The jewelry category grew at 11%. The education category grew at 2%. The BFSI grew at almost flat. Other categories were negative. But the top of it was the government category and the political advertising, which went down by almost 25%. I think that 25% hit was not able to take care by the others, and hence we were overall down. Especially in Q4, because in Q4, what happened, my automobile also became flat, actually negative, 5% negative. My education became flat. My real estate became flat. Because of that, I think the Q4, I don't know for what reason, the market was not really supporting the growth.
However, we were able to at least close the other categories on flat. Yet, because of the big blow on the government advertising and the political advertising, which happened in the Q4 last year, we were not able to show the desired response and the growth.
Okay. Basically, you would love all to say that the fall is almost 60%-70% because of the government reduction.
More than that because other categories did.
Actually, yeah. Because otherwise they actually grew. Sorry. More than 100%. Understood. Sir, you launched this Bhaskar English app in January, first or second week, I believe. Any update that you would want to share in terms of the response or any. Does the MAUs that we saw a slight increase? Can you slightly give color on that?
English Bhaskar app received very well, but the numbers are too small, too small to be very honest. We are still giving some more time to team to at least have some respectable number where we can come and talk to you on that. However, I am happy to talk about the numbers of the Hindi and Gujarati app. If you look at the Indian Gujarati app in March of 2025, the number which was disclosed by Comscore, we are jointly at around 19.6 million MAUs, which was higher than the January 2025. The most heartening number is that in the app number, we are at 19.6. The number two player, which is Aaj Tak, is at 2.6 million. You can see the lead difference from 2.6 million compared to 19.6 million.
Right. You believe now this number, 20 million, is a fair number that you have achieved because the kind of gap that you have between number one and number two, before you kind of start monetizing in a slightly larger way. You have never disclosed your digital plan so far, but just trying to understand in terms of your mind, in terms of the number of MAUs that you would look at before taking some.
Our internal target is that we must go to 50 million MAUs. But at the same time, for monetization purpose, we are doing certain experiments in different markets, different cohorts, and we are getting a decent response. But we will not take any blanket call till the time we have a critical mass, which we believe is still a long way to go.
Okay. And sir, what is the reason for sharp jump in other expenses?
Two things. One is the circulation promotion expense, which went up. As we mentioned to you, we did this Jeeto 14 crore scheme, and we have decided that this full-year, we are going to run some schemes or other. Maybe this is our summer fall month, we will not do much on April, May, June, but starting from August onwards, we will do again some circulation scheme to make sure that their circulation is either growing or staying intact. That is one. And second thing we are doing on digital promotion in various markets. So those are two costs which is ugly. Apart from that, around INR 20 crore cost is the regular expenses increase in the system.
Okay.
If you look at the number, the total cost of other expenses went up by almost INR 97 crore. Correct? So in that 97, INR 20 crore are routine expenses increase in productions and other things. Then CP is a big cost and digital promotion is a big cost.
Okay.
I'm sorry to interrupt. Mr. Amit, could you please—
Yes.
—park in the question queue for further questions? Thank you. The next question is on the line of Rakesh from Nine Rivers Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir.
Hi.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.
Yes.
Sir, we just wanted to know on the digital piece. From the last couple of years, we are seeing that business, and now it has become a sizable business, which has grown very well. First of all, congratulations on that. Sir, just wanted to understand when we are thinking to monetize that? Two, first is when you are thinking, second, what is the way? Will it be through the advertising or will it be through the subscription model? What is our thought process? Because we have seen a couple of companies in India which are focused on advertising, a couple of companies focused on subscription. What is our thought process on this piece? That will be very helpful.
As we mentioned to you earlier also, that company is experimenting in different markets, different cohorts on the monetization. So far, the response has been decent. Currently, we are at 19.6 million MAUs, which we believe should, potentially going forward, go up. Then only we should be able to take a call whether we want to do a blanket monetization. As far as the advertising and circulation subscription goes, I think it will be a mixed strategy. There will be a subscription revenue and also advertising revenue. So it has to be a mix of both, sir.
Okay. Sir, with respect to the other expenses you mentioned, the increase in other expenses, like I said, circulation expense for promotion that you are doing, plus the advertising with respect to the digital, and there are other expenses you mentioned. Can you please talk about that again? I could not understand that.
Out of this INR 97.98 crore increase in the expenses, roughly around INR 20 crores are the routine expenses increase, like the production costs, traveling costs, and all that. Then there is a big chunk of similar amount from the circulation promotion expenses for the entire schemes, for the surveys, and all that. Then there is a large chunk on the digital promotion.
Okay. Understood, sir. Thank you. Best wishes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Satyen Choudhury from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. First question is, you spoke about the revenue decline which has happened in Q4 outside the government as well. A few sectors have been flat and sectors like automobile have actually seen a decline even in Q4. So what regime since then has changed? Like April, you are talking about seeing a double-digit growth. Do you think is it happening due to maybe a low base or the ad spends are actually coming back since then?
To be very honest, confusing, because in the month of January, February, the market was down. March onwards, we saw some uptake in March, and April has been a good month in terms of education, real estate, and jewelry. Also one of the reason why April was good, because Akshaya Tritiya this year was in April, 30th April. Last year it was on 11th of May. So maybe some benefit of Akshaya Tritiya went in the month of April also.
All right. Understood. So we'll have to see probably for another month or two before we can actually establish whether the uptake is actually happening on a more sustainable manner or—
But if I take the base of government advertising of last year, which is 2024, 2025, and the other market, I think this year we should be in a decent position.
Okay. And sir, just one more question. Last year Q4, what percentage of total ad revenue was government advertising?
Last year, I don't have the exact percentage, but that was the highest chunk because just before the Lok Sabha election.
Okay. Understood. All right. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Riya Mehta from Aequitas Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I would like to ask that how was auto doing for us, because I think you mentioned it was negative 5%. What kind of absolute amount of auto ads are we seeing?
If you look at the annual number for the automobile category, we grew at around 16%.
Right.
Yeah. If you look at the annual number. But when you look at the quarter four, the auto was negative by 3%, 4%, 5%.
Right. Okay.
I am hoping that this year auto—
10% of our revenue, 10% of our total ad revenue.
Auto last year was 9% of the total revenue.
9% of total revenue. Okay. I think what is so negative during the year or maybe during the quarter was real estate and education. Is it generally that this quarter, Q4, is not heavy for education?
No, this year in fact we were surprised. Education and real estate should have grown much higher. I don't know, there was a lull in the market in the month of December, January, February. All the three months are bad.
Okay. Received the answer. I think last Q4, you had mentioned that around 9% of the ad growth was coming from our election spend. That would come on a broad base basis around INR 35 crore-INR 40 crore. Is my calculation right?
I don't remember the exact number, but, overall, if you see last year, we have gone down by INR 62 crore in our advertising. From a base of INR 1,752 crore, we went down to INR 1,689 crore, which is a INR 62 crore decline. The government decline was more than this.
Okay. So maybe some part of it was election driven and some was even organic government advertisement spend has gone down. Is it fair to assume?
I really cannot say. We have to see this year whether the numbers have gone down accordingly or not.
Okay. April, we are not seeing any decline in government spend.
No.
Okay. I think that is it from my end. I will join the queue for the questions.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Falguni Dutta from Mansarovar Financials. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah, good evening, sir. Sir, what was the number of copies in circulation for Q4?
Around 40 lakhs.
Okay. What were the newsprint prices for Q4, and how are they now?
The Q4 prices this year is at around INR 47,500.
Okay.
Which is down by almost 4% over last year. Going forward, we believe that this price should stay or come down by maybe a percent or so.
Okay. They would be almost similar now, is it?
Yeah. Slightly decline possible, maybe a percent or so.
Okay. And sir, any comment on the dividend?
We have done, as you know, last year it was 55% for the payout. This year we did 58% of the payout. Our policy continues like this.
Okay, sir. Fine, sir. Thank you. That is all from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Agastya Dey from CAO Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, very much, sir.
Thank you very much, sir. Sir, can you share the annual number for circulation revenues value?
Almost the same as a line of around INR 40 lakhs.
40 lakhs. Okay, perfect. Sir, I wanted the actual revenue number. It should be published, right?
Revenue number circulation is roughly around INR 473 crore.
Okay, perfect sir. Thank you. Sir, most of my questions have been answered, and you have explained everything fairly clearly. But as we stand now, sir, do you think for this coming year you will be able to mitigate the entire drop that we will see in government expenditure? Because obviously, this year there is no Lok Sabha election. So again, compared to last year, there will be some drop off. So will we see a growth this year?
We will see a growth for sure, because last year the government advertising all happened till March, because from April, Code of Conduct came in picture.
Right.
So we will have some, I think, overall growth over the government advertising, because when the Code of Conduct happen, even the state government advertising stops.
Right. So sir, how does this cycle actually work for you? How long do we take after Lok Sabha elections to catch up to the Lok Sabha level of advertising? Because I am assuming that every year the advertising is actually growing, if you normalize it for elections.
Yeah. You know, sir, government advertising is very difficult to predict.
Okay.
Yeah. It's very difficult to predict the government approach advertising.
Sir, given the trends that you have seen so far in the first quarter, would you say that we will see probably a double-digit growth overall for the company for this year, or is it too early to say?
Our endeavor is for that only, sir.
Perfect, sir. Thank you very much, sir. All the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Good evening.
This quarter, our inventory turnover has been high compared to previous quarters. Is it because the dealers are facing difficulties in pushing forward, or is the consumer still hesitant to pick up the newspaper and read? As circulation revenues has also dipped, and what I recall from previous call is that we were seeing positive response from the reader because of the VPF scheme.
As I mentioned to you, from Q3 to Q4, we have seen some uptake in circulation numbers. Now, it's a task for our team to maintain and grow this number from here onwards.
Okay, sir. Also, sir, there is an increase in cash every quarter. Are we looking an opportunity to deploy it?
If you see dividend payout strategy has been the same, as I just mentioned. This year we paid 58%, last year we paid 55%. We'll continue doing that, sir.
Sir, on the acquisitions part, is there anything?
If you have something in mind, please do let me know offline.
Sure, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Rakesh from Nine Rivers Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you very much for the follow-up opportunity. Sir, with respect to the other expenses you mentioned, it was due to the promotion expenses with respect to the digital as well as the circulation. So what we should take it a growth for the other expense in the coming year, it will be what number?
Sir, whatever is the Q4 number, if you analyze that for the next year, it will be slightly lesser than that only.
Okay. And sir, your thoughts, again, I will come to the digital piece. What is the current profitability or the breakeven? Has the breakeven reached digital business, or what is the loss or something you can talk about digital business?
Sir, based on our board recommendation, we took the request to all the investors. I took the liberty of not disclosing the digital numbers in detail considering the competition around, hence we are not disclosing those numbers, sir.
Okay, sir. Thank you very much, and all the best.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Amit Doshi from Care Portfolio Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you.
Go ahead.
Sir, you mentioned that the newsprint price you are expecting to be slightly the same or lower. With this rupee appreciating, do you believe there is a likelihood of returning, I mean, reversing the price trend? I also noted that the ratio of gross margin, there is a bit of a hike. Is it because of newsprint prices or something else? I just wanted to confirm on that.
See, as you know, 30% of my newsprint is imported. Now if the newsprint price get impacted because of dollar, then it will impact the Indian also, because Indian newsprint manufacturers do the parity on the imported one. I really can't comment on the volatility of the international market and impact on the rupee.
Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to confirm since you mentioned that you likely to expect to reduce, so that's the reason I—
I'm assuming it will stay as the same, then it will have a benefit. But if the rupee depreciate, then we'll have a problem.
Okay. Thank you, and wish you all the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Riya Mehta from Aequitas Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the follow-up. Sir, first question is in regards to the shipping and the freight. Basically, we have been hearing that availability of containers have been an issue. Are we facing something on those lines, and what kind of inventory levels do we have for imported papers?
We also were slightly concerned on this. Based on that, we have done some stocking for the next quarter. As of now, we do not have much of concern on that, but let us see how the next two, three months goes.
Okay. For one quarter we are satisfied with the—
Yeah.
We have the patient payment here.
Okay, yeah.
Got it. Apart from auto, real estate, and education, could you help me with what other sectors did good for this quarter?
Unfortunately, most of the other quarters went on a single-digit growth. Like healthcare, single digit. Electronics and electrical, single digit. Hypermarket went on a slight decline. Entertainment, cinema, unfortunately, went on a big decline. Most of the OTT channels have stopped advertising because they are facing the heat.
Got it. Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Khushi, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yes, ma'am. Good evening. Ms. Khushi?
Khushi, your line has been unmuted. Please go ahead with your question.
Hello.
Hi, good evening everyone.
Yes, Ms. Khushi, good evening.
Am I audible?
Just speak a bit louder, please.
Yeah. My first question to you is, what is the ad yield rate growth for the quarter and annually?
Sorry, what is the?
Ad yield rate growth.
Ad yield rate growth. Unfortunately, nothing significant. Nothing significant, to be very honest. This is one area where we have to really work hard, along with the industry, to increase the rates.
Okay. My next question to you is, earlier you mentioned that 30% imported mix. Was the number quarterly or it was annually?
Same. The generally number varies from 25%-30% quarter on quarter.
This is quarter number. What would be the annual number?
As I mentioned to you, for example, the Q4, the number was 77/23, but if you look at the annual number, it was 75 and 25. It keeps varying from quarter to quarter. The range is anything from 75/25 to 80/20 or 70/30.
Okay. My next question is, what is the growth and contribution of the government sector, BFSI, and jewelry quarter and the next quarter financially?
Okay, so government quarter actually has gone down, as I mentioned to you. In fact, the whole discussion from last half an hour was just only that because of the election not being there, we lost quite a money from the government business. Unfortunately, that one. And other two category, which one you said? Please remind.
BFSI and jewelry.
BFSI, banking and financial services.
Yes.
There has been a 3%-4% growth on that particular segment. And jewelry, there has been a growth of almost 11%.
Quarter number?
Quarter number growth jewelry is higher because the Akshaya Tritiya, which was last year in. Sorry, the quarter four you are talking about, yeah. So quarter four, the jewelry growth was 14%. Yearly growth is 11%.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Meghna, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello, am I audible?
Yeah. Slightly blurred. Can you use the handset directly, please?
Is it better now?
Yeah.
Sir, like you mentioned all the sectors, can I know the contribution of each sector in quarter four?
If you look at the contribution on the, I can give you the annual number, is better. Annually, if you see—
Okay.
Sorry.
Yes, sure. Annual number would work.
Yeah, annual number. Government contribution was the highest with almost 20%. Then education was at 12%, 13%. Automobile 9%, real estate 10%, jewelry 6%, FMCG another 5%. Yeah, and so forth.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Kumar. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity, sir. Just two questions at my end. The first one, you sort of mentioned the ad growth improving in April. Could you sort of help us, and is this a base effect kind of thing? Because I distinctly remember consumption last year, first half was sort of slightly muted. The consumption economy was broadly sort of muted. Is this a base effect playing out in your opinion?
Yes, you are right. This is a base effect also.
The second point is, the last couple of years, clearly the government's focus has post-COVID, the government focus has also been a lot on the CapEx side, and I think after sometime we saw fairly monumental changes in the income tax side, and I think the finance minister talking about foregoing almost a INR 1 lakh crore kind of revenue, go into the hands of consumers on that account. Really sort of talking to CMOs on a fairly regular basis, do you sort of get that sense of that money in the hands of consumer in April and May, basically, little bit of opening of purse strings at the customer end, and then at the corporate ad ex.
I mean, I know this is barely the beginning right now, but do you get that sense that things will sort of build up as we go towards the festival season, things will sort of build up better than certainly what we saw last year?
Yeah, unfortunately, the Q4 numbers, if you look at of the other industry also, has not been very good, whether it's FMCG or auto and all that, real estate. Looks like that the ground is stressed. Now, all the measures taken by government in the last couple of months, hopefully they should work. As I mentioned about the 8th Pay Commission survey and all that. So that money is yet to come out in the hands of people and then in the market. I am confident that going forward, this will certainly help.
In your conversations with your clients, do you sort of see any of those being. See, fortunately, H3, I mean, that's water under the bridge now, right? Because anyhow the income tax changes are applicable from 1st of April. So we are talking April, May, essentially. Now in your conversations with your clients, do you sort of see the consumer sort of opening up their purse strings a little bit on the back of lower income tax rates and some additional benefit that some tax benefit that they are getting, starting to get from April onwards and sort of—
People are hoping for that, but on the ground—
Right.
Nothing till March, but from here, people are hoping for it.
My last point was on the real estate side, specifically. Again, all of us are more metro tier one people. So at least in Delhi, Bombay, what we saw a post-Diwali, little bit of a correction in the real estate market in terms of sentiment, in terms of pricing, in terms of volumes. So two points really. One is that, have you sort of also seen a little bit of correction in tier two, tier three? And you were sort of saying first quarter real estate was also down. Advertising was also down. But again, what are the kind of trends incrementally that you are seeing? I mean, is that correction sort of over? Are you sort of seeing some sort of, again, green shoots of recovery on the real estate side as well, six months broadly, basically?
I think in tier two, three, what happened, the real estate guy did a bumper sale during Diwali. This Diwali was bumper for real estate guys. And most of these are the owner-driven companies, owner, manager-run companies. I think they had enough. So they went slow in their mind, and then nothing happened for three, four months. They were not bothered about it. But from, I think February onwards, they all are concerned. So April went okay. So let's hope they should continue now.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today's conference call. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you everyone for your participation and time on this earnings call today. I hope we've responded to your queries, and we'll always be happy to be of assistance through our investor relation department, headed by Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, for all your further queries. Thank you and have a great week.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. 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.