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DB Corp Ltd
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Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the D.B. Corp Limited Q4 and FY 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] 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, Vice President, Finance and Account; and Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, Head, 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 ended March 31, 2023, 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 e-mailed to you. and are available on the website in the company's Investors 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.
Thank you very much, everyone, and a very good evening to everyone, and thank you for joining the Q4 FY 2023, D.B. Corp Earnings Conference Call. We will begin the call by highlighting the key financial performance for the full year and quarter ended March 31, 2022, followed by key operational updates.
We concluded fiscal 2023 on an optimistic note with strong results on the back of growth in our revenues across all major markets and circulation. Our print advertising for fiscal FY '23 grew by strong 27% Y-o-Y. Print advertising grew strong 16% Y-o-Y in Quarter 4, FY'23.
Our consolidated EBITDA grew by impressive 34% Y-o-Y. And in quarter 4 FY'23 to INR 889 million, with margin expanded by 250 basis points despite higher newsprint charges. We've been highlighting over the past few quarters on the strong revival of traditional media and this quarter, once again, demonstrated print media as the most credible source amongst advertisers, resulting in strong growth in advertising revenues across categories.
Traditional advertisers, such as real estate, education, white goods and jewelery etc., continue to use print as a preferred medium and the auto segment has started to see some movement. The Audit Bureau of Circulation Survey for July 2022 to December 2022, continues to position Dainik Bhaskar Group as the largest circulated newspaper group in India as well as placing Dainik Bhaskar in the top position as the largest circulative newspaper in India with a very wide gap with #2 print player.
Consolidated full year advertising revenue grew by a strong 25.4% to INR 14,827 million versus INR 11,827 million of FY 2022. Circulation revenue recorded a growth of 1.5% to INR 4,627 million against INR 4,558 million of previous year. Total revenue grew by 21.2% Y-o-Y to INR 21,682 million as against INR 17,885 million. EBITDA grew by 12% to INR 3,611 million as against INR 3,228 million after considering ForEx loss of INR 52 million, aided by stringent cost control measures and despite high newsprint prices.
Consolidated PAT for the full year grew by 19% to INR 1,691 million versus INR 1,426 million in FY 2022 after considering ForEx loss of INR 60 million. In quarter 4 FY 2023, advertising revenues grew by 14.2% Y-o-Y to INR 3,578 million versus INR 3,134 million of Q4 FY 2022 on the back of increased ad spend by traditional sectors as well as new wage sectors.
Circulation revenue remained flat at INR 1,153 million as against rupees INR 1,152 million of Q4 FY 2022. However, it may be noted that our circulation teams are making strong progress through several campaigns with trade partners as well as our readers.
Total revenue grew by 13.5% Y-o-Y to INR 5,446 million as against INR 4,799 million in Q4 FY'22. EBITDA grew by 34% Y-o-Y to INR 889 million versus INR 663 million, with EBITDA margin expanded by 250 basis points despite, again, a very high newsprint pricing, but on the back of our operating cost cutting measures that we took.
Tax for the quarter grew by 67.3% to INR 410 million versus INR 245 million in Q4 FY 2022. Moving on to our digital business, which has been a key focus area and an important vertical in terms of future growth for our business. The company has been steadily growing its loyal monthly active user base across it's app It increased over 7x from 2 million users in January 2022 to more than 14 million in March 2023. Our teams continue to work on the digital apps to improve the engagement with users and this is helping overall retention of our leaders across all formats.
Coming to the radio division in FY'23, revenues grew by 20% to INR 1,342 million versus INR 1,122 million last year. EBITDA grew by 28% to INR 402 million versus INR 314 million, with EBITDA margin at 30% in FY'23. Our team continue to work towards building strong brand visibility through key tie-ups, local and current affairs and innovative content to increase audience engagement, which will help us increase our advertising rates as well as augmented revenues. With this, I would now request Mr. Girish Agarwal to update us on the operations. Over to you Girish.
Thank you, Pawan, and good evening, everybody, and thank you for joining us on this call. As Pawan stated earlier, we concluded this fiscal on a stronger note with strong Y-o-Y growth, especially Indian print media industry is witnessing a strong growth in advertising across segments and this is happening across languages Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, which is very heartening.
Our key market seems to be doing very well. And as it is evident that in the GST collection, it's up by almost 15%, 25% from our market, where Dainik Bhaskar’ operates. Dainik Bhaskar editorial strategies and dominant position in these markets has resulted in a strong growth of advertising revenues across the board. In addition, the new Ad sectors, the digital players are also using print for their hyperlocal campaigns.
And we are very optimistic that this trend of increasing revenues will continue in the forthcoming quarters. Our radio and digital presence are ever increasing, and we continue to innovate our content, improve our omnichannel platform for delivering full crisp and pertinent content to our loyal reader base. We've been implementing various cost optimization measures, as we have been highlighting over the past few years to ensure that these measures keep our cost in control.
And we're very happy that so far, whatever cost measures we have informed you, we have lived by that commitment. And newsprint prices have also started softening further.
And as indicated in our press release, while newsprint prices were high on a Y-o-Y basis, it has started to taper off and the true benefit of this tapering will be visible over the forthcoming quarters. This is all from our side and my colleagues and I would now be very happy to respond to your queries. Thank you very much.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Rushabh Shah with O3 PMS.
I have a couple of questions. We have seen the wages of paper fall and -- which will lead to more cost savings. So will we invest the savings in increasing the circulation or more investment in digital part of the business? And why so sir?
So please understand whatever savings are coming, that will be further adding on to our bottom line, but that is not stopping us from any expansion plan. As I mentioned to you in the last quarter also that we are looking at circulation growth, expansion in most of our markets, MP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat. So we are anyway going ahead with that. We are doing it. And also in digital, we are not leaving anything, any stone unturned over there and that is the reason why we have the huge number of app monthly users and daily users also. So please rest assure your company has enough bandwidth enough reserve with us to take care of any such requirement and expansion issues.
Okay. And then my second question is, how is the capacity utilization in terms of Ads in radio business?
In radio business, utilization is about 11 minutes in an hour if we look at our entire clock so there's still headroom for growth in 30 stations, a lot of headroom for growth in smaller station. And big stations, we are trying to reduce this in peak hours also.
And then my third question is, is there scope to improve advertising rate in radio or newspaper?
So the advertising rate is not one-way traffic. If I can increase the rate, I would have done it yesterday only. But it's all process. The market has to respond, advertiser need to feel okay about it. And I think it says every day a fair of us to ensure that we are able to push our rates a bit. But it's not that simple. So I hope you will appreciate that.
Last one from my side. Are we seeing intensity of competition increase in newspaper business with fall in paper prices?
So frankly speaking, in last 30 years of my career, we have always seen very intensive extreme competition in all the markets. And that's why it keeps us on our toes all the time. So we haven't seen any change plus or minus, to be honest.
Our next question is from Amit Khetan with Laburnum Capital.
So my first question is on other operating income. There seems to be a substantial jump of about 30% quarter-on-quarter. What driving this? And is this a sustainable number? Or is there some one-off element here?
These are the job work done by our team in various location because, as you know, our printing presses are lying idle during the day. And [ ND Printers ] one of our building subsidiary is set up in Noida. So they also do their job well. So all these guys are going out and doing higher job. Actually after COVID before printing job has increased. And also, this bucket has been income from interest on FD. As you know, that currently, company is sitting on a INR 631 crore bank and cash balances. So a large chunk of it is in FD form.So we get FD income also on this.
I'm talking only about the operating part, right, not the other income. Other operating income, if I exclude the circulation and the advertising revenue.
I'm talking about that only. I'm talking about the other income, which include job work, and it includes the little bit of event income and also FD income and also it include the wastage from the newsprint.
Understood. Understood. Secondly, we have done a very good job on cost control over the last few years. If we exclude newsprint costs, right, how much of our cost structure is variable and how much it fixed?
So frankly speaking, if I look at the other cost apart from the manpower, so my [indiscernible] cost is around INR 144 crores. This INR 144 crores, I can call it, 100% variable. But in a way it's fixed because I have to print a number of copies. So in a large way, I would call it fixed, depending on the number of copies, circulation or approaching the market and all.
Got it. So what I'm trying to understand is tomorrow, next year, is your revenue fell 10%, how much our cost can fall by?
Okay. I'm going to answer it other way. If my revenue increase is about 10%, 15% next year, half this cost will go up. So let me give you the number. In the Q2, we had a cost base of INR 138 crores. In Q3 because of the festival, the cost went up to INR 153 crores because more number of pages and all that. In Q4, it came down to INR 144 crores. So our idea is to keep these costs under control, which should only increase when my revenue goes up, either through circulation or the ad revenue, the number of copies goes up and number of pages goes up. And I'm more happy to increase this cost because then I'll print more pages for advertising and will incur the cost for that.
Got it. Got it. And lastly, our circulation revenues have been kind of flattish and we would have affected some price increases over the course of the year. So what would be your loss of copies? And how should we think about volume growth from here on?
So our loss of copies in mill. If you look at my Q4 number last year and Q4 number this year, I am at the same number, INR 43 lakh, round. And I have increased the cover price from INR 4.70 to INR 4.82. So I have taken a INR 0.12, which is 3% jump in my cover price overall without any loss in the circulation.
Got it. And how should we think about volume growth going forward?
As I mentioned in the last call, we are working hard to increase another 2, 3 lakh copies this year. And as of now, it looks okay. Let's see how it goes going forward.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Pradyumna Choudhary from JM Financial.
Congrats on a good Y-o-Y set of numbers and then improving outlook. So my first question is with regards to the gross margin. So last couple of quarters, we've been seeing a big decline in newsprint readers, right? So -- but the same hasn't any translated till now at least and do much improvement in our gross margin. So could you throw some light over there? That's my first question.
So if you look at the EBITDA margin, in Q2, we were at 16% EBITDA margin. In Q3, we went up to 17% EBITDA margin. Now as we sit in Q1, we believe our margin should be decently higher than this. So when we meet you in the month of July now, we'll give you some good news on the margin.
Okay. And like, just trying to understand more from an inventory side, like are we done with probably some high cost inventory that we will expect with regards to the newsprint, because...
Very much done. Let me give you the newsprint prices trajectory also. In quarter 2 last year, we were at INR 63,500 per tonne blended cost of the newsprint of Indian and imported. In Q3, it went down to 61,500. In Q4, it went down to INR 60,000. And as we are sitting in Q1, we are hopeful that this Q1 would close at around INR 57,000. So there has been a constant decline in the newsprint cost. And also this will reflect in the margin going forward.
Usually, sir -- like what I'm trying to understand is usually what's the lag period between the prices going down and the same getting reflected in our margins. Like just a sense, very [ dot ] sense.
There is no formula. For example, at one particular point of time, we thought $800 or $850 was an okay price because market was showing indication for $1,000, and I have entered and got a 6-month stock. After that, market did go to $1,000, but then quickly got corrected and came down to $750.
So the lag period -- because I dropped for 6 months benefited me and stood with me while if I don't buy for 15 days 3 days like period or less. So there's no formula, frankly speaking. It's a commodity market. I want us to look at that economy.
Understood. And my second question relates more to the digital lab side. So like now are you in a position to give any updates with regards to strategy over there?
So I can update you think that we have been pretty good in digital. We have -- as we mentioned to you last time also, that our focus -- so generally, what happened in digital business, people are dependent on the advertising to take care of the digital expenses and give them profit. But what we have seen in the new genres, worldwide, especially if you look at the example of New York Times and other publications from Sweden and other places, we have seen their dependency is more on the subscription rather than the advertising because advertising and digital platform is a commodity, okay? So our focus also is there that we need to go to a subscription, and that's how we've been working in last from 2, 3 years' time on that. Make it sure that our content are really worthwhile for a customer to pay for it.
And we've been doing multiple experiments in multiple markets and different social economic categories of our leaders to see how much they are willing to pay. Are they interested in the pay wall or a metered wall or e-paper and all that? What would they pay for? So all these experiments are going on from last 6 to 8 months and would take another, I think, 8, 10 months more. And I'm sure that we -- one thing I can assure you, we are in very much in the right direction.
Understood, sir. And my last question is in regards to the rate of advertising. So I think it's been 4, 5 years since we last saw an increase by the DABP. So are we expecting any increase in advertising [indiscernible] in the next few months, maybe?
I will certainly forward your request and suggestion and apprehension to the Government of India to look into it.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Naman Dhanuka, an investor.
Sir, I would recently seen a billboard of your -- is there a new campaign that you're running in Mumbai? And would we share some [indiscernible].
So just to let you know, Dainik Bhaskar, as a newspaper has been launched in Mumbai, but it is not being launched by D.B. Corp. As you know that a section of our family runs the business in Maharashtra for Hindi. So they are the ones that have launched in Mumbai, obviously, with our support with tie up with us. But no financial involvement of D.B. Corp on that. And they're doing a good job on that.
And secondly, you mentioned that you have INR 631 crores of cash and cash equivalent and you're also generating reasonable amounts of free cash flow. So if you can just explain to us what you plan to do with the excess cash going forward?
I'm happy to inform you today Board decided to announce another interim dividend of INR 3. So this year, we have announced INR 6 of interim dividend equivalent to almost INR 106 crores, which is 63% of our bank. So as you know, our policy is being very clear that unless company needs some more money and all that. Whatever money board approved, we announced as a dividend.
And is there any possibility of doing a buyback, considering that the stock price is where it is and you don't really have new sort of extra cash?
We can certainly take your solution to the Board in the next meeting.
Our next question is from Riya Mehta with Aequitas Investment.
Congratulation for good set of results. My first question is in regard to [indiscernible] business. So on a -- doing really great there. And just out of shear comparison, so I think Dainik Bhaskar app for January '22 and May '22, we had around 13.6 MAUs. However, sequentially, we dropped down to 10.9. Any particular reason?
No, no, no, I think you've got some number wrong. We have not dropped down from 13 to 10. You were seeing must be in the overall number in our -- Pawan correct me if I'm right?
I have it from the presentation.
You're talking about MAUs, correct?
MAUs.
MAU is a function of...
Yes, you are talking about March '22 number, correct?
Yes. May '22, I think.
Yes, that actually was done as a promotion by us for that particular month. There's no reason on that particular month number went up. Otherwise, if you look at my overall number, we've been maintaining a number of around 16 million to 17 million for Dainik Bhaskar and Divya Bhaskar put together.
And as I mentioned to you, we are doing multiple experiments these days now in terms of subscription preparation for going forward. So we are also experimenting in a particular geography, particular socioeconomic class to see when I go and ask them that if you have to pay for a metered wall, if you have to do something as such and all, how do they respond? So maybe a couple of like people here in there keep moving based on that.
Because I think in 2022, we had around -- average of around 16.5 to 17, and now we have seen around 14 to 15. So that's -- I was a little bit concern. My next question is in line with the print. I think sequentially, as raw material prices have been going down. However, EBITDA for the print as a whole as -- so in FY -- so in Q2 FY'22, they're 17% and then -- and I think Q4 is sequentially decreasing to 15.7%. So this is an impact of inventory of newspaper or any other thing expenses we can read into?
No, no, no expenses, all costs under control, which is all about newsprint. And also what happened, the number of pages has gone up in last 2 quarters because of the more inventory we advertising in the season time. Because last year, if you remember, in this quarter, the education results were postponed. So that quarter was not a very strong education season. This year, it happened because of that.
Yes, because the raw materials prices are going down EBITDA was up. And now the prices going down and the EBITDA is going down. So it's the concern there.
As I had answered earlier question that in the Q1, the EBITDA margin will expand in a pretty decent number.
Okay. And my next question would be in regard to the regional advertisement. So I think in an interview that you've seen 23% volume growth. So could you elaborate more where do you see this coming -- going forward, where do you see growth coming from in this segment? And do you see any shift in the segment as a whole?
Growth is coming from largely, I would say, barring out few states, most of the states are contributing to the growth, number one. Number two, segments are very clear real estate, education, jewelery, healthcare, these are the segment government, which are growing pretty decently. And our focus is also on these statements. These states and these categories.
And did you gave some more details on auto. What auto is doing for us, in earlier to some INR 100-odd crores, where is it right now and where do you see it going forward?
So frankly speaking, if you look at the auto number over last year, we have grown. But if I see the auto compared to that INR 100 crores of '19, '20 numbers, we are still far behind because most of the auto companies are hardly launching any vehicles. So that's one problem we have with them. We're waiting for them to start -- getting the response on the market, start selling more vehicles and then they should come and do more launches.
Okay. And I think you said that the new startup companies are investing more with us. So could you give some insight into that?
What happened that generally people need to say that all the digital companies are different. They don't look at and all that. So all these digital companies are also advertising with us, all the food delivery guys, all the medicine delivery guys, different apps become advertised through us to capture the audience whether when we tell people that we all these new age, so-called advertisers are also looking at print, when it comes to popularizing themselves.
So moving forward, correct me are wrong, we would see a similar kind of volume growth of 23% to 24% going forward. And in terms of value on yields, it will more or less remain constant?
I can only say that we are working very hard. Teams are doing very -- all efforts to ensure that the growth comes in the way we are looking at it. Committing on any number could be a futile exercise. Because better to deliver and come back to you in the month of July to give the quarter 1 numbers.
And how FMCG advertisement going? So it is a small stat for us, but it does lower FMCG and Lifestyle.
FMCG is growing but in a very single digit, and Lifestyle is bad, not too bad, but still bad.
Our next question comes from Bhagyesh Kagalkar with HDFC Mutual Fund.
There are 2 queries here. One is, okay, you'll be aware that New York Times did some 11% growth took them last year [ $2.31 billion ]. The second part of interest is that we are going to receive $100 million from Google Alphabet, a 3-year deal, which you allowed them to feature [indiscernible] content. The issue is I think government has been supportive of the Indian print media agreements but nothing concrete has happened so far up to. But the big companies sort of, do share something with us eventually.
So as you -- if you remember last time, I mentioned to you, DNPA, which is a digital newspaper association as well as Indian Newspaper Society has already gone and filed a case against Google in Competition Commission of India. And it is the matter of subjudice, this will not be prudent on my part to comment anything on that. But we have taken up the matter with the regulator saying that Indian newspapers should be compensated by Google in an appropriate manner.
Other question is a general question. Most of the areas in which we operate, now we are close to elections, both [indiscernible] as well as [indiscernible] elections in the next 12 to 18 months, you mentioned that that will boost to the overall economy. Small rides, advertisement, anything. We do think the political parties also will take out big ads now onwards because elections will be contested, any election essentially. So that should give an extra boost revenues over time?
Political parties should consider us our markets so that they are want to communicate there message to our millions of readers. Yes, do it through us.
Our next question comes from [ Yash Ramnaswami ] with [indiscernible].
First of all, congratulations on a good set of numbers. So I would -- my first question is with regards to the digital spend that we have done during the quarter. Can you just throw us some light on that, please?
Sir, if you remember couple of quarters back, we took the permission from all of you to not disclose any specific numbers on digital that our competition should not get any kind of information on this front.
There's the reason we are not disclosing any specific number on the digital. But I would like to assure you that the company is doing everything possible to ensure that we get the desired results in the digital platform, and we are working towards it.
And I was just going through the results that have been announced. And I was just trying to figure out what the EBITDA margin for print stands at. Because it's not mentioned anywhere. I mean, I was looking at the results as well. So nothing can mention on that front. Could you just let us know the number, the margin for the print business alone.
So in print, the EBITDA margin is 20%. 2 0.
Okay. And just one more question with regards to the [indiscernible], have they come back versus what they were before? Or are we still -- there's still some ground that needs to be acquired on that front?
We have acquired all the grounds.
Okay. So there's no embargo as such at the moment.
No.
Our next question comes from Pradyumna Choudhary from JM Financial.
Just another question was, would you be able to quantify the government Ad revenue end of quarter bond line? How much came from government Ad?
So government advertising increased central government, state government, panchayat, all the government, local bodies Nagar Nigam state housing boards and all put together as such. If I look at the Q4, the government revenue was around INR 65 crores.
Around INR 65 crores.
Our next question comes from the line of Riya Mehta with Aequitas Investment.
My question is in regard to -- there was a case on the radio business where we have filed a counter case for increase in the -- there's some royalty or something to be paid to the main label producers or something. Could you elaborate on that?
We've challenged it in the Supreme Court. The court has admitted our petition. It's under consideration of Supreme Court. It's an old case in the entire industry and Supreme Court has still there a petition. So we are pretty hopeful that we get a favorable order from the Supreme Court.
Okay. And it is unfavorable, what will be the impact on the financials?
We don't know.
We would not like to comment on that. I hope you will appreciate that.
Yes. In regard to the employee cost, I think it will increase significantly on a quarter-on-quarter basis. So do we see this similar trend going forward?
When you say significant, what percentage is significant for you, Madam?
Percentage of sales which has increased almost 180 basis points that we see on a quarter-on-quarter basis the employee expenses. So just want your insight on it.
Manpower cost, if you see Q-on-Q from INR 100 crores has gone up to INR 102 crores -- it's INR 103 actually. It's a 3% growth in manpower costs.
MP as a percentage of [indiscernible]. And in terms of other expenses, which is events and all the other ancillary businesses, what kind of margins do we see there and what kind of growth? Because last 2 years, I think FY'22 and FY'23, we've seen significant growth in that business. So going forward, what do you anticipate? And what are the margins like in that business?
Margins are in the same range was D.B. Corp call for the company largely there. And in terms of growth, we are hopeful that this percentage -- higher percentage will continue because after COVID, a lot of people have started getting things published. And again, so the printing job is doing pretty good.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Mohammed Patel with Care Portfolio Managers Private Limited.
My first question is for FY'23, can you split the sectoral is for advertisement in education, real estate, FMCG, government?
We can give you some flavor. As I mentioned to you for the Q4 government was around INR 65 crores. And response category, which was classified was around INR 50 crores. Real estate, education and automobile put together was around INR 100 crores. Yes, that are the other categories.
Can you give the same number for full year FY '23? Percentage is also fine.
So if you go by percentage of last year, so government was around 15%, education, real estate, automobile put together around 30%. Yes, and response category, 15%.
Okay. My second question is, are you expecting any city addition launches to add volume growth in the near term?
Sorry, I couldn't understand it.
Any city addition launches -- adding new cities -- I mean adding new additions to increase of volume growth.
We are expanding within our territory, within our geography.
Okay. My next question is, can we expect the gross margin revival to historical levels starting FY '24?
That's what we are working towards.
Okay. And what is the average circulation volume number for full year FY '23 versus FY '22?
Almost [ 42.5 ] for full year.
Subscription includes e-paper and I was just thinking [indiscernible] that is shared on a social media apps. So how do we tackle that?
No, we don't -- so there is a high court orders now where the e-paper circulation is illegal. So whenever we come to know about few cases, we take them to the complaint of the police station and they correct themselves because there are some excited lot. Those who make a group and every morning they copy the e-papers and circular to all the groups. I'm sure you would also be a member of one of them groups. So these excited lots whenever we come to know about them. We send them the legal notice and then they correct themselves.
And my last question. So you prefer a subscription over advertisement. So if you can just throw your earlier thoughts on why you believe on this?
It's not about my preference, is that how we the news apps worldwide, the successful ones have emerged. And when we look at and review in the same context the Indian market, we also believe there is a way forward because advertising on the digital platform is a commodity. So why would somebody come and pay me a premium for advertising, the other point. And if my reader is -- see advertising in a newspaper or in a digital format have a different co-relevance. In a newspaper, I'm emerged in a particular news in a particular paper and the advertising on the side of it. While in digital, advertising is in a very -- in my face kind, you are including in my reading pleasure there.
There's the reason as a consumer, people -- nobody appreciates advertising on digital platform or even intelligence platform. If you look at IPL, suddenly I'm watching something seriously and it goes off and somebody comes and saying that why don't you buy this candy? They are irritating you. While in print, that was in a very decent manner. I'm reading my article there's an ad place here. That's the reason we believe that if a region has to pay for a app to use that going forward. He doesn't want all this kind of nonsense there. You want to read your e-paper or your paper when you read your newspaper. There we are not very comfortable with putting lot of ads over there and irritate consumer.
Okay. Can we expect some news from contribution from digital business starting FY'24?
I think it's too early. Larger things take time, and we want to give time to our readers so that they also get used to us and then show us larger benefits going forward.
Our next question comes from Ankit Shah with White Equity Investment Advisors.
I just have one question on the margin. How we see the trajectory of digital business investment in FY'24? And in this context, how will the margin trajectory of the company localize in FY '24?
See the advertising growth in print as well as the newsprint prices going down will help me improve my EBITDA margin considerably. At the same time, whatever investment we have to do in digital that will continue there. But since digital also is maturing now in terms of their requirements, so they won't need major help from us going forward. So that way, whatever savings print has, will add on to the overall margin of the company.
Okay. So would it be fair to assume that the spend on digital business may not rise further. So let's say, if we were at INR 100. Next year, it may not cross INR 100?
Yes, you can kind of assume that.
Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, that was the last question. I would now like to 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 that we've responded to your queries 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 queries. Thank you, and have a great evening.
Thank you, everybody.
On behalf of D.B. Corp Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.