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DB Corp Ltd
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Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and a very warm welcome to the DB Corp Limited Q4 FY '22 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I now hand the conference over to Ms. [ Amrita Pujari ]. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, and good evening to everyone. We welcome you to the DB Corp Limited Q4 and Full Year ended FY 2022 First Earnings Conference Call. We have with us today senior management team of DB Corp Limited, Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director; Mr. Girish Agarwal, Non-Executive Director; Mr. P.G. Misha, Group CFO; Mr. Mushtaq Ali, Vice President; Mr. Lalit Jain, AVP; and Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, Head Investor and Media Relations, who will represent DB Corp Limited on this call.
We will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter and full year ended March 31, 2022, followed by question-and-answer session. Before we begin, we would like to state 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 exchange and the company's Investors section. We trust you have been able to go through the same.
I now invite Mr. Pawan Agarwal to share his outlook on DB Corp's performance for the quarter. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much, Amrita, and good evening to everyone, and thank you for joining the Quarter 4 FY 2022 DB Corp Earnings Conference Call. We'll begin the call by highlighting the key financial performance for the quarter and full year ended March 31, 2022, followed by key operational updates.
In the year gone by, the Indian economy has bounced back impressively. Further, quarter 4 also saw a lot of good traction even though it got slightly disturbed in the beginning by the third wave. For our sector also, we've seen good traction in both advertising and circulation. However, newsprint -- higher newsprint prices were a dampener.
Consolidated full year advertising revenue grew by 17% to INR 11,827 million versus INR 10,084 million of FY '21. Circulation revenue recorded a growth of 10% to INR 4,558 million against INR 4,146 million of previous year. Various cost optimization efforts taken during the year has resulted in 1% growth of EBITDA to INR 3,228 million versus INR 3,193 of previous year. This is despite substantial increase in the newsprint prices. Print business margin stood at 26% versus 25% of previous year. Consolidated PAT for the year stood at INR 1,426 million versus INR 1,414 million in FY '21.
Looking at the performance of Q4 FY '22. Our consolidated advertising revenues grew by almost 1.6% at INR 3,134 million as against INR 3,084 million in the previous year. Circulation revenues stood at INR 1,152 million, higher by 4.4% on a Y-o-Y basis, and the total revenues came in at INR 4,799 million, higher by 4.3% on Y-o-Y basis. The operating profit stood at INR 663 million. Print business margin stood at 24% as we continue to benefit from our overall cost control measures. Our consolidated PAT stood at INR 245 million in Q4 FY '22.
Going forward, we believe that newsprint prices should...
Pawan, are you there?
[Technical Difficulty]
Okay. Sorry, I dropped. So I'll pick it up from the stop, drop. So the print business margin stood at 24% as we continue to benefit from our overall cost control measures. Our consolidated PAT stood at INR 245 million in quarter 4 FY '22. Going forward, we believe that newsprint prices should settle back to normal in the next few quarters. And we are also further working on ways to contain the impact of rising newsprint prices.
Moving on to our digital business. We are scaling up our digital business by implementing a focused strategy of investment, which continues to show strong growth on a sustainable basis. We have followed the approach of being a multi-modal leader in the delivery of high-quality content and best news products for the Indian market, both on a content as well as a technology perspective.
According to the latest Comscore results, the Dainik Bhaskar Group App's monthly active users has increased to more than 17 million in March 2022 when compared to just 2 million in January 2020. We have been consistently demonstrating remarkable growth in our active user base. We've also crossed the important milestone of achieving more than 1 million mark in daily average e-newspaper downloads.
We also did a soft launch of a brand campaign with a tagline, Sach, Kareeb se Dikhta Hai, which highlights the values and core offerings of Dainik Bhaskar: high-quality trusted journalism with a large focus on local and in-depth news. The brand ambassador of the campaign was Mr. Pankaj Tripathi, an acclaimed Indian actor who has a very strong connect in our core markets and with our brand values: local and trust.
Coming to the radio division. In the full year of FY 2022, the revenues grew by 35% Y-o-Y to INR 1,122 million, volume growth gained momentum across sectors such as real estate, FMCG, banking, state government and lifestyle for the year. For the quarter 4 FY 2022 revenue from the radio division came in at INR 303 million, higher by 9.2% on a Y-o-Y basis. As we have taken a high rate hike recently, we expect radio to perform well, additionally also helped by the yield growth.
With this, I would now request Mr. Girish Agarwal to update us on the operations. Over to you.
Thank you, Pawan, and good evening, everybody. And I hope everybody continues to remain and healthy. On the advertising front, the year and the quarter had been very decent for us. And we are happy to share that in Q4, print advertising has fully recovered to 2019 levels, excluding shortfall in government revenue and the election billing in 2019-'20 level. Even in the month of April this year, print advertising has registered a decent growth versus 2019.
The reason I'm comparing 2019 because last 2 years have been COVID impacted. So it will be more fair to compare 2019 in terms of real growth. Otherwise, the number looks higher, but they may not be really high. We have also undertaken the advertising rate hike effective this April itself, which I'm sure will further help us to ramp up some revenue.
The news sector is looking for geo-controlled ad campaigns. And new age players looking to tap the non-metro market continues to come to us given our wide reach and strong editorial integrity that resonate with our readers. This has helped us in delivering growth on these numbers.
There is a paradigm shift happening in the way advertisers are looking at Indian manual newspapers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, which is certainly benefiting us. In a recently published article by Harvard Business Review, it was found that advertisers prefer traditional advertising mediums to capitalize on the consumer trust. I think this is a very hard thing to know that most of the advertising categories are, again, looking at the traditional advertising as the premium medium for them. The study goes on to say that not only traditional advertising is delivering the best of eyeballs, but is also headed for growth. Advertisers prefer tangible ads, which are much more effective and impactful.
On our financial performance and cost optimization, we continue to focus on sustainable cost optimization and, therefore, we will see result and improvement in our margins going forward also. During the last financial year, we had saved around INR 185 crores in our print business operating costs, and we had indicated to you that almost 50% of these savings are sustainable. I'm happy to report that in FY 2022, we were able to take the saving up to almost 80% of FY 2021 cost savings. Resultantly, the print business EBITDA margin for FY 2022 stood strong at 26% with around 100 basis points growth over last year.
High newsprint prices were overall dampener, I would say, in the bottom line performance. We have pleasure to inform you that the domestic newsprint prices are showing signs of some softening, and we are hopeful that these price's price hike era should be over now, and we should get some relief going forward from the quarter 2 of FY '23.
As per our earlier committed -- commitment shared with you in previous quarters, we are happy to share that our pledge of shares has become 0 as on March 2022. And as on date also, we are nil. And this is our commitment to you that we will ensure that this stays as 0.
That is all from our side. And now my colleague and I would be happy to respond to your questions. Thank you very much.
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of [ Himanshu Upadhyay ] from [ O3 Capital ].
I have a few questions. So I was looking at the circulation revenue in Q4 FY '19, which was INR 127 crores, okay. And currently, we are around INR 115 crores, yes, INR 115 crores. So say 10% of revenue remains down, okay. And we have increased the prices also by 6%, 7% is what we had stated. Do we take that overall loss of copy is still running in double digits, okay?
Yes, you're right.
So what is the plan here? And do we expect that they can come back or some sense on that? And how should we understand that the loss of copies is how significant, okay?
Okay. So let me give you the number. In the Q4 of 2021, the copies are 45 lakhs. And in the Q4 of '21-'22, the copies are around 42.76. So clearly 2.5 lakh copies, which is around 5%, 6% declined over the Q4 of 2021.
Now frankly speaking, as we mentioned to you that this 10%, 12% copies if I talk about the pre-COVID number also, so this 10%, 12% copies have gone for 2 reasons. Some of the households actually stopped subscribing to 2 papers or even 1 paper, some of them. And the offices copies, railway station copies, bus stand copies, hotel copies, that has been discontinued to a large extent. But we are putting all our efforts to see how we can get those copies back.
But frankly speaking, the offices copies have not been able to start again. In some of it, yes, but largely no. In cost cutting, also a lot of offices stopped a lot of things in the offices, and newspaper became one of that. And the railway station, again, the disruption is there. So we are hoping that we'll come back on track, so we are able to start the copy there. So that -- I would assume that 10%, 12% copy is actually looks like a permanent loss.
Okay. And similarly, on the advertisement revenue part, okay. So what was the peak or, let's say, Q4 FY '19 on the newspaper was INR 370 crores and INR 39 crores on the radio has come down to INR 289 crores and INR 30 crores, okay, INR 289 crores for the print and INR 30 crores for the radio, okay. So how -- it remains around 30%. But is there any visibility that you can get back? Or you think...
Sure. Let me give you the numbers in detail comparing 2019-'20. Is that right?
No, I'm saying 2019. Because 2019-'20, last 2 weeks were already shut down, okay, so March 2020. So that's why I am comparing it with March Q4 FY '19.
If I -- I don't have a number of '18-'19 right now with me. But if I -- again I think '19-'20 number, what that we are comparing right now with us. If I see the 3 big categories where we have seen a dent, if I look at the overall annual numbers. One is the automobile category where there's almost INR 100 crores dent in the automotive category. Very clearly in automobile category because of the 4-wheeler and 2-wheeler supply issue, this category is hardly advertising, not only with the print, even in the other media also, [indiscernible] because there's no inventory available with them. So this category, I'm very confident that the moment they have the supply issues getting over in control, they will come back to us. So that's really not much of a worry for me, this INR 100 crores.
Another almost INR 89 crores is the loss on the government revenue. This number, as you know, we had some kind of issues with the government and our advertising in few states and the central government has been put on hold for a while. So unless that is resolved. So I think this INR 90 crores will be on hold. And this also includes some of the election billing, which happened in the year of '19-'20.
Furthermore, lifestyle as a category has taken a dip of around INR 30 crores. Barring out these categories, most of the categories are looking good. In terms of education, we are almost neutral; in terms of banking and finance, we are on the higher side; in some of jewelry, we have shown our growth, so other categories seems to be controlled but for these 3 large categories.
And this prediction is including for both radio and print and on FY '20 basis, you are saying.
Yes.
Okay. And if you -- okay, because, see, the only thing why I was comparing with FY '19 was because of shutdown, there was significant drop already at that period of time. And we have taken this price range, okay, in double digits on the radio. We said that effective from 15th February, okay, there was a press release that you have taken a double-digit price in the radio advertisement. But the traction in the revenue side does not seems to be that much, okay, on the video side [ 15% ].
What happens in a market, when you take a price hike, you don't see growth happening from next day itself. Because it is not a B2C product, it's a B2B. Like when I take a price hike in my newspaper, I increase the price hike, say from Monday. And Monday onwards, the consumers are paying higher number. But since in a B2B, you have a long-term contract, 3-month contract, 4-month contract and all that, so the effectiveness of that price does take some time to get implemented.
Like in newspapers also, recently, Indian civil society has recommended a 20% increase in the advertising rates. So based on that, all of us have started writing to our advertisers that we need to take a hike on that. Some of them have said that, okay, in the next couple of months' time. Some of them have already agreed for some percentage immediately. Some of them are still discussing on that. So in a B2B category, it does take some time, especially in this competitive environment.
So if we want to understand this 9% increase in radio advertisement, okay? Y-o-Y, what will be the volume growth and the pricing growth? Or where would be capacity utilization in Q4 FY '22 versus Q4 FY '21?
Right now, the largest growth would be from the volume and the capacity utilization is still at a reasonable level. We are still less than 20 minutes now.
Less than 20 minutes, so it would be 70%, 80%. Or it is still further below that.
We call it -- we actually call 10 minutes inventory at 100%. Out of 60 minutes, we call it 10 minutes, but now 20 minute is the benchmark that we did, so you can say about 70%.
So 14 minutes, you are saying.
Yes, 14 to 16 minutes, exactly.
Okay. And one thing, last and I'll join back in the queue. See, we have nearly INR 500 crores of cash, okay, on the balance sheet, but still the dividend was pretty low this year, okay. What would be the thought process? And what would be stopping you from paying dividends because now profitability has started getting better or it seems because of once the advertisement revenue starts moving up. So what is the thought process there?
So let me reiterate the thought process on the dividend of the company. The company is very clear that the company wants to ensure that the most of the earnings need to be paid out as dividend. In today's Board meeting, Board has decided to pay INR 3 as the final dividend, which will be refunded to the AGM, which will be happening in the September month. And around that time, we'll also see what are the best ways to -- most tax-efficient ways to distribute the benefits to the stakeholders.
But earlier, we had stated that our focus will be always to have dividend payments, okay. Is there something else also you will be evaluating now? Or...
We stay with that only. And we are finding out some more effective manners to distribute the profit.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of [ Sokna Karna ] from [ Sedish Capital ].
Sir, I missed your initial comments. So can you just, sir, elaborate on your digital strategy. Because apparently, I mean, we're doing pretty well over there compared to other peers. And also, we've hired ex -- I mean keep on the advisory board, the ex-CEO of NYT. So I mean, how are we looking at this whole piece? And how will it contribute to our advertising revenues? And is it already contributing to our advertising revenue? How will we monetize the whole thing?
So as I said, we are happy to share that our monthly active users, from 2 million in January 2020 has reached the number of, in this quarter, 17 million. It's an 8x increase in our monthly active users. And on that monthly active users, we've also received 1 million average e-newspaper downloads. So there were 2 things that we are tracking. We are also the largest app on the Comscore as far as all of the news lines are concerned.
And you asked whether the current advertising revenue has contributions on dividends. So there is a very small contribution right now, but we have plans and we will keep sharing those with you this year. Obviously, we'll keep on monetizing in subscription as well as [indiscernible]. It will take some time. We'll keep you updated on that.
And sir, how much is the spend on this whole digital strategy in terms of -- I mean, the level that reflects in terms of the cost?
The spend, whatever we are doing, is a very judicious call on the investment made in the digital segment. And we took the liberty of requesting all of you to allow us not to disclose the exact number of the digital separately to you from the competitive purpose.
So like this quarter, we have done a massive campaign, advertising campaign on television, so there is a reason you see our other costs have gone up significantly. That's more because of the digital data mass advertising came on television for acquisition, for attracting more people to come and download our app. But the costs are totally under control. We are watching it on a practically weekly or daily basis, so yes.
The next question is from the line of [ Hakin Azari ] from [ RoboCap ].
Am I audible?
Very much, sir.
So I just had 2 questions. You had mentioned your press release that you've almost recovered most of the revenue as compared to Q4 FY '20. And in your last conference call, had mentioned that in FY '23, you want to cross the FY '20 number. So I just want to know, does that guidance still stand? And in FY '24, would you be able to touch your FY '19 number?
As I mentioned to you that if I look at the FY '19 -- '19-'20 number, barring out these 3 categories in most of our categories, we are at par or within a very single digit plus/minus. And I'm very confident the automobile will come back in the next couple of months' time. The ship issues should get resolved. And our other issues should also, going forward, get resolved.
And yes, otherwise, if I look at this year so far, April has been a fantastic month. We got a very good growth in April. And May, June also looks decent, though there will be a slight shift of the education category business from the quarter 1 to quarter 2 because of the delayed results.
So all the results and the examination which used to happen in the month of April and May, they are happening now in the month of June and July. So there will be shift in advertising. But when you look at the deals which we have signed up with the advertisers, that's on a good pace.
And once the cost of materials or newspaper price has come down, you're expecting again the margins to become better. And I just want any margin guidance that you give, anything sustainable?
So we are at 26% margin right now, and we certainly see and hope that this should further go up from there.
Okay. Fine. Great. And is there -- could you just let me -- tell me the current debt of the company right now? And what would be the finance cost going forward?
We have a 0 debt, so finance cost is not reflected anywhere. It's like a INR 5 crore debt overall.
Yes. This is the finance cost is due to the Indian [indiscernible]. So this is because of the [indiscernible] only.
Sorry, sorry. This is because of?
[indiscernible] Yes, the calculation of the lease property, which is booked as interest and acquisition. [indiscernible]
Right. And the last question that I had is regarding -- in the last con call, you had mentioned that a probe was on regarding the revenue that you're going to get from Google and you filed a complaint all the publishers have signed. Just want to know what -- is there any update on the probe?
Recently, Canada also has passed -- in the process of passing a bill where they are saying that the social platform will have to pass the revenue, share the revenue with the news source. So that's the other optimism we have now for the Indian regulator to decide on that.
And what is the best possible outcome that can come from this?
Definitely slightly ambitious guy in this. So I'm looking at much, much bigger number.
Okay. Very good. Can I -- is it okay, if I can just squeeze a last question regarding the other expenses. In this quarter, also some major expense, like the majority of the other expenses.
The majority of other expenses is -- we did a massive advertising campaign for digital. So the majority of this quarter cost is based on that.
How much is it, the advertising campaign?
I again request you that you will give us the permission not to disclose the digital number separately, hence, we are not doing it.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Abhishek Salunke from V.E.C. Investments.
Am I audible?
Yes, very much.
So just to note that the business is back to almost pre-COVID level and if not for the cost of paper prices increasing, I think you've have declared a much bigger number. So what is your outlook on the cost of paper prices in fiscal '23? Do you look at softening or going up?
Unfortunately, if you look at the paper prices, this quarter, our average price is sitting at INR 48,000 per tonne. Now -- but this is because we already had some inventory, and we also had some contract with us for the older waste. Current market rate, this would be currently north of INR 60,000 plus. So our worry is that in the Q1, our cost will also jumped.
But having said that, because of the raw material availability now for the newsprint industry, I think they are indicating the costs will go down going forward. So we will have some impact coming in quarter 2 and 3 as a reduction. Let's see, by Q3, we will have a clear picture, are we in the range of early INR 50,000 or higher of INR 50,000.
So there is a temporary strain on our gross margin because of this. But are getting back to almost like growing impact compared to [indiscernible] if we look at fiscal '23.
Sorry, I'm not able to hear that question of yours. There's an echo.
Am I audible now?
Yes.
Yes. So I'm saying this higher cost prices -- cost of paper will lead to [indiscernible] on margins in the first half of fiscal '23. But you are expecting that by the second half of fiscal '23, the margins will be like satisfactory.
Yes. So I would say that in the Q1 of this next financial year, the margins will be subdued, but it will suddenly improve in Q2 and Q3 going forward.
And I think in the second half of fiscal '23, we will also look at some part of revenue out of our digital app because it's grown tremendously, and it's popular now. I'm also one of the users of the digital app and it's fantastic. So I'm hoping that from second half of '23, we would look at some contribution from digital app. Your comment?
Certainly, yes. And thank you for being our user.
And just last question. DB Corp, the market cap is around INR 1,400 crores. I suggest that if we have cash of INR 515 crores, liquid cash, so we have done buyback in the past at around [indiscernible]. Does it make sense for us to do a buyback at this price because it's kind of bit undervalued compared to the business capital like it is in now. What do you think?
We will certainly take your suggestion to the Board and we would let them decide.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Sidhant Mattha from B&K Securities.
So 2 first question -- 2 questions. First question is regarding the costs. So I missed your point on saying that you saved some costs. So what is like the -- what cost savings are prominent [indiscernible] or something like that, which will flow into FY '23 also?
In 2021, we had done a saving of around INR 185 crores over '19-'20. Out of that, almost INR 150 crores continued as saving for '21-'22 also. And we believe that almost INR 90 crores, INR 95 crores will continue saving for this year going forward also.
Okay. That's okay. And secondly, at some previous -- in some previous questions, you answered about the EBITDA margin, I missed that point. So -- and our print EBITDA margin is 26% for this quarter.
Sorry, full year. 26% full year of FY 2022. And we believe we are working towards it, that we should be able to improve this going forward.
The next question is from the line of Depesh Kashyap from Equirus Securities.
You talked about the TV media campaign cost right in this quarter. So I just want to understand, since you're not giving the number, whether that will be a one-off or that will continue going forward?
It all depends the response what we have got from the market. And if we feel that this is further going to help us to take the numbers higher, we would try to do something more. But if we believe that what we have done is good enough and we'll take on for some more time, we may not. So it all depends based on the business requirement.
Okay. So any guidance on the overall EBITDA margin? I understand you say that print margins will improve, but overall EBITDA margin for the company, any thoughts on that?
Our endeavor is to ensure that we go back to what we were doing earlier. We'll see how the newsprint plays and how the digital market plays up.
No, sir, that is already giving 26% margin, but these extra costs are bringing it down, right. So like with these costs, do you think 26% margin kind of a number is sustainable for FY '23?
For the print business?
Overall.
Let's see how it goes. I think digital also, we are planning some monetization in terms of the second quarter. Let's see how does it pan out, how the newsprint prices and all that. There are too many moving parts in this. So allow us to wait and show you the quarter results going forward.
Got it, sir. And also, just -- if you can just remind us like this campaign, you're basically focusing on adding the monthly average users, right. Right now, there is no revenue coming from the digital side. You're not doing any advertising or anything like that on that.
Absolutely.
Got it. So in the second half, are you expecting to increase the subscription or advertising kind of a thing, which I think you answered in the previous question that you're looking some monetization of...
We are working on it about some advertising and all that, and we will update you when we are ready to roll it out.
Okay. All right. And sir, you also talked about a proposal of increasing the ad rate by 20%, if I heard correctly. So do you think this any rate hike is possible given the [ RM ] inflation that is hurting most of your clients?
So what we have done, we have sent a very humble request letter to all our clients explaining them our situation, explaining them our reach, explaining them the newsprint cost, at the same time, explaining them how effective we are. And some of them have been kind enough to say, okay, we'll give you the 5%, 7% increase immediately. Some of them have been slightly tough nut, so we are still working with them. So yes, it's a mix basket.
And this is for entire industry, not specifically for DB Corp.
No, no, sir, the entire industry. Some players are not even asking for the rate increase because they're not confident about themselves, but some of us like we are really pushing hard.
Got it. And sir, lastly, what led to the sharp improvement in the receivables? Is there a lesser proportion of the government revenue? Is that the case?
Yes, sir, very much. And also, our team is working hard. I think you must give it to them to recover the money.
Got it. Got it. Any, sir, anything, recurring trends, how is it going in April and May? Are there any improving trends compared to the last quarter?
I think one interesting thing, what we are noticing in advertising is the clients, those who are advertising in print, they are actually now saying that, yes, the effectiveness come from the print. And I'll give you a very specific category example of real estate. And another category is the e-commerce, those who are with us and the other new apps those who are coming in, those advertising in print that are digital clients.
Now all these clients are not looking for brand. They're looking for direct response from the print. So when a real estate client leaves a jacket with us, he wants a response by Saturday, Sunday, 2 days itself. Because most of the site visit happens on Saturday and Sunday. And these clients are coming back, signing the deal with the higher amount based on the 2019-'20 days also. So that's very heartening to know that the business is moving in the right direction.
Including the jewelry client, like there are 2 big national players. One is Tanishq and one is [ PDZ ], apart from the local players or the end market. All these guys are right now sitting at 20% plus growth with us, so that's a very positive sign in the market.
Got it. And lastly, for modeling effect, sir, you said that the newsprint cost, that it currently is around INR 48,390, right, for this quarter. It includes some inventory that you're holding for the lower price. So what will be the increase in the newsprint cost for the quarter 1? Like what is the current prices that are going on?
I think, currently, if you go by the current price, it's almost $1,000 for imported and almost INR 70,000, INR 65,000 for the Indian. But obviously, that's not our price because we have some prior contracts done. But there'll be a mixed market number, higher number, certainly in quarter 1.
The next question is from the line of [ Richita Kargi ] from [ Iveld ].
My question is [indiscernible] us operating revenues. But you said in this year, actually [indiscernible], again how much revenue we're saving this year?
I couldn't understand your question, [ Richita ]. Could you say it again, please?
Yes. In FY '22, how much operating revenue was saved by the company, if you could come back on that?
Sorry, how much revenue was done what?
In FY '22, how much operating revenue was saved? Like in '19-'20, you mentioned that you saved INR 180 crores. So in FY '22, how much was saved?
[indiscernible] cost.
Yes, the cost.
Yes. Okay. So okay, not the revenue, the cost.
Sorry, the cost.
Yes. So we had, as I mentioned to you, in 2021, we were able to save INR 185 crores. And the question was that is this INR 185 crores sustainable going forward? Out of that INR 185 crores, in the year '21-'22, we were able to continue a saving of INR 150 crores. Going forward, out of that INR 150 crores, we believe INR 95 crores will be further continued as a saving going forward.
The next question is from the line of [ Himanshu Upadhyay ] from [ O3 Capital ].
My question was we had seen many weaker players would be finding much more tougher to survive in this industry. So is there any opportunity to -- for inorganic acquisitions or something like that? And we have also stopped growing through organically means of growing. So what are your views there?
As you mentioned, a weaker player may be willing to sell out, but the question is that do you want to acquire weaker players unless until they add any value to us, there is no point just for the heck of it looking at them. So certainly, we are not looking at the weaker players to be taken up.
And as far as we are concerned on our organic thing, so wherever we -- in our markets of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, we are further working on that to see how we can gain some more copies in these markets, maybe in the newer areas or newer markets and all that within our geographies.
So geographical expansion we are not thinking currently.
Yes, we are not thinking [indiscernible].
And in the existing markets, the organic growth, what you are expecting, will it be more from getting these weaker players copies? Or you think the way the things are, you will get those copies more.
Yes, you're right. Yes.
So can you explain, sir?
In the particular market I'm operating, there are 2 more publications operating. Now because of the overall cost issues, they may have decided to weaken their product by using the inferior quality of newsprint or reduce the number of pages, reduce the number of editorial team operating with them for the cost-cutting purposes.
In that case, certainly, my product would be a better product than another product. So I reached out to a reader and explained them the merits of my product. And that helps him to take a call to go with the better product.
And would we like to increase the number of sales people in sales and marketing people? Because if there is some scope to grow.
Yes, if it is required, we will. Right now, we have not reduced any manpower in our sales and marketing. But if required, we'll certainly increase them.
But we are not increasing currently. Not largely, but sudden, maybe here and there few increases market-wise keeps happening. For example, recently, we have decided that 2 distinct markets in Madhya Pradesh, we want to highlight and focus them on. So we've increased the team over there.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of [ Sokna Karna ] from [ Sedish Capital ].
Sir, my question was advertising revenues. Now on the high base, we've grown a little weak during the quarter. But I mean, what is the -- I mean, could you give us a little bit of outlook as to how we're seeing the coming year? And is there pressure because of -- I mean, [indiscernible] facing inflationary pressures on the margins as well. So are we seeing any pressure? Or is it because the real estate is sort of picking up. So I mean, what are the trends that we are looking on the advertising revenue sides?
And you also mentioned that the digital monetizing part should also start looking better from the next few onwards. So together, I mean, could you give some idea? So how should we look at these advertising revenue going forward?
I think revenue, if I go segment-wise, then the real estate is one segment, which is looking brighter. Education is also looking good. Jewelry is looking fantastic. Travel category is looking very good. Banking and finance is looking good. The category which I want them to improve drastically, because they have gone drastically down, are the automobile, lifestyle and government. So if these 3 categories come back to their normal and with some growth over 2019-'20, we are in a good shape.
And sir, what was the contribution to the overall revenues of FY '22 from government?
Around 14%.
Okay. So okay. All right. So should we look at some double-digit kind of trajectory going ahead for...
Our teams are working very hard towards that. I'm sure, with the market numbers panning out the way we are looking at, we should be there. That's it.
Okay. Sir, how it is in terms of -- I mean, I haven't tracked the data, but how are the yields, advertising yields?
They come back the pre-COVID level. [indiscernible] is not a major issue now in certain categories, certain players, yes, but largely it's back.
Okay. And when we talk about the digital part of the business, would it be -- I mean, the existing you would have these accounts which are these real estate, et cetera players. So I mean, you're seeing some initial run increase where in you can start monetizing them on the digital side as well.
We have not yet decided the strategy for digital advertising. That is -- may be rolling out in the -- in some months time going forward.
Due to time constraints, we will take the last question from the line of [ Avinash Nigraja ], an individual investor.
My question is around the copyright laws that was changed in Europe. Recently, we read that they have changed the copyright laws, and that is going to impact the revenue sharing. I just wanted to know your thoughts, sir, if there is something similar that you foresee happening in India. Or I know that there are something that the Competition Commission is also looking into. Are these 2 things different? Or I just wanted to know your perspective on this.
If I'm understanding your question right, you are saying that what happened in case of Europe and Australia, wherein the social media platform were asked to share the revenue with the news sources. Is that you're talking about, sir?
Yes. There is also, I think they have amended the copyright laws to actually force the Google and Facebook to actually share the revenue. So...
In India, they have not yet decided on how are they going to ask them to share the revenue. The matter is still submitted, under consideration with the regulators. So I will not be able to really comment on that. But yes, most of the publishers in India strongly believe, and rightly so, that when we create a news platform and if any other person is collaborating with us, then we should also be sharing the revenue.
Because there is a newsroom cost. There's a cost to every piece of news which has been generated. So suddenly, there is a Google or Facebook or any other platform, they should be rightfully sharing the revenue with us. So that is the case we all are pleading in front of the regulator. Let's see how it comes out.
I now hand the conference over to the management for their closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for your participation and time on this earnings call today. I hope that we responded to your queries adequately today, and we will always be happy to be of assistance through our Investor Relations department, headed by Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, for all your further inquiries. Take care, everyone, and stay safe. Thank you. Have a good evening ahead.
Thank you. On behalf of DB Corp Limited, that concludes this conference call for today. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.