Operator: Please note that this conference is being recorded. We have with us today the senior management of the D.B. Corp Limited, Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Girish Agarwal, Director, Mr. Lalit Jain, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Mushtaq Ali, Senior Vice President, Finance and Accounts, who will represent D.B. Corp Limited on the call. The management will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter ended and H1 ended 30 September 2026, followed by the question and answer session.
Operator: 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 exchanges and 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.
Pawan Agarwal: Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the Q2 FY27 DB Corp earnings conference call. We will begin the call by highlighting the key financial performance for the quarter ended 30 September 2026, followed by key operational updates across our businesses. Our consolidated total revenues for the quarter stood at INR 614 crore compared to INR 635 crore in Q2 FY26.
Pawan Agarwal: EBITDA stood at INR 124 crore compared to INR 115 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, while profit after tax stood at INR 69 crore against INR 93 crore. As you know, last year Navratri festival season was in Q2, and this year it falls in Q3. So on a like-to-like basis, DB Corp's advertising revenue and EBITDA registered positive single-digit growth in Q2, excluding the impact of this festive shift.
Pawan Agarwal: This underlying growth reflects the continued strength of the company's established franchise and the steady momentum of its core business. Coming to advertising revenue, our consolidated advertising revenue stood at INR 411 crore compared to INR 439 crore in Q2 FY26. While the timing of festive advertising impacted the year-on-year comparison, we remain focused on strengthening advertiser relationships and sustaining engagement across our key markets.
Pawan Agarwal: Circulation revenue stood at INR 116 crore compared to INR 121 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. On the cost front, newsprint costs increased by 14% during the quarter, primarily due to broader geopolitical uncertainties and related cost pressures. We continue to focus on procurement efficiencies, cost optimization, and disciplined inventory management to mitigate the impact of higher input costs and preserve operating profitability. Let me now briefly take you through our H1 performance.
Pawan Agarwal: For H1 FY27, consolidated total revenue stood at INR 1,246 crore compared to INR 1,222 crore in H1 FY26. Advertising revenue increased to INR 843 crore from INR 832 crore, while circulation revenue stood at INR 236 crore compared to INR 241 crore. EBITDA for the first half stood at INR 289 crore against INR 297 crore, and profit after tax was INR 169 crore compared to INR 174 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Pawan Agarwal: Moving on to our radio business, revenue for Q2 FY27 stood at INR 39 crore compared to INR 43 crore in Q2 FY26, while EBITDA stood at INR 11 crore against INR 13 crore. For H1 FY27, radio revenue remained stable at INR 82 crore, while EBITDA improved to INR 26 crore from INR 24 crore in the corresponding period last year, reflecting an improvement in profitability.
Pawan Agarwal: Our digital business continues to be an important long-term growth pillar for the company. We remain focused on strengthening our digital presence through investments in content, technology, and user experience while building on the reach and credibility of our established media brands. With this, I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Girish Agarwal. Over to you, Girish.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you, Pawan, and good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on this call today. The shift in festival-linked advertising activity impacted the quarter's year-on-year comparison. Despite these challenges, our underlying business remained broadly stable, supported by our strong readers' relationships, trusted brands, and continued relevance among advertisers.
Girish Agarwal: Looking ahead, we remain positive about the opportunities in the second half of the year with the festive season expected to support advertising activity across our key markets. We will continue to strengthen our advertisers' partnerships, enhance reader engagement, and build on our competitive advantage across newspapers, radio, and digital with a sustained focus on efficiency, innovation, and long-term growth.
Girish Agarwal: We remain committed to strengthening our market position and creating sustainable value for all our stakeholders. With this, we can now open the floor for the questions and answer session. Thank you.
Pawan Agarwal: Thank you very much.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you.
Operator: We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Again, to register for a question, please press star and one. Your first question comes from the line of Abhinav Mandowara with Equitas Investments. Please go ahead.
Abhinav Mandowara: Hi, good evening. My first question was regarding the seasonality. As you mentioned that Navratri was there in Q2 last year and this time we are seeing in Q3. So what is the revenue guidance on our advertisement for Q3 and for the whole year as a whole, and also circulation business?
Girish Agarwal: On the advertising front, as we mentioned to you, because of the eight days of shift of the season from September to October, we believe there is an impact of almost around INR 40 crore. Now, with that shifting into Q3 and the overall momentum, what we believe is there, though in certain parts of India, the monsoon is not playing well because in Rajasthan even there's rains happening even today.
Girish Agarwal: I do not know how the overall three or next six months are going to pan out. Especially, I am more concerned about the geopolitical situation. But having said that, looking at the overall momentum which our country has, I am pretty optimistic on the next two quarters also.
Abhinav Mandowara: Right. I guess in one of our interviews, you had mentioned that we are confident of reaching high single digits or early double digits revenue for the full year for advertisement. Do you think considering the festive demand we will be able to reach somewhere there?
Girish Agarwal: That is what our endeavor is. Looking at what we see in last seven, eight days of festival, overall momentum is good. Let us hope this continues.
Abhinav Mandowara: What would have led to the circulation decline, however, since you have mentioned?
Girish Agarwal: We are at around 38 lakh copies. If you compare the last quarter, numbers are almost the same. So all efforts are there to make sure that we continue having the base. But few percentage here and there is the one which is bothering us. But we are working all efforts on that, especially what we are doing in our non-core markets. That is the area where we are not much bothered about few copies going down. But in the core markets of ours, we are putting all our efforts to make sure that we maintain the number.
Abhinav Mandowara: Got it. Are we taking any further price hikes?
Girish Agarwal: No. We have taken this call, if you remember, a year back or so, that overall, let's face it, there is a challenge on the number of copies. Furthermore, if we increase the cover price, that will further escalate the decline. So we do not want to do that.
Abhinav Mandowara: Got it. In terms of print and the newspaper cost, we have a mix of imported as well as domestic. I assume that we will be also bearing the incremental freight cost. So going further, what is your guidance on the newsprint cost per ton? What kind of increase do we hold for the same?
Girish Agarwal: See, if you look at the last year to this year, in terms of per ton cost, there is an increase of 20%.
Abhinav Mandowara: Right.
Girish Agarwal: What we were paying INR 47,000 per ton average cost, we are paying right now almost INR 57,000. So there is almost 20.8%, to be more precise, 21% is the impact on the newsprint cost. That is all because of the geopolitical situation. Because the imported prices are up, domestic prices also follow the same route.
Girish Agarwal: Also the freight is on the higher side. So we believe that in next Q3 and Q4, these prices should go down by maybe 2% or 3%, but not more than that as what we hear from our suppliers. I think that is one pain area which the industry is facing and going through right now.
Abhinav Mandowara: Are we facing any issues in shipments or availability of imported paper or anything on those fronts?
Girish Agarwal: See, this becomes a rate. When somebody says, "I have this much quantity to offer," and you know the market is tight, you lose the leeway on the pricing if you want to secure the supply. That's a problem.
Abhinav Mandowara: And inventories, how much do we keep?
Girish Agarwal: Inventory, generally speaking, we keep few months for the Indian, because Indian transportation takes 10 to 15 days maximum. Imported, around a quarter.
Abhinav Mandowara: Got it. So ideally now, since I think major price hike happened in Q1, Q2, the further inventory which will come in, say, in Q3, will be of a higher price versus Q2?
Girish Agarwal: No. As I mentioned to you, compared to Q2, the prices may soften down by 2%.
Abhinav Mandowara: Okay.
Girish Agarwal: But if we compare to last year of Q3 and this year Q3, there is an impact of almost 18% to 20%.
Abhinav Mandowara: Right. Sure. Got it.
[Analyst]: Actually regarding the segmental split, how have all the segments done in Q2 and going forward, where do you see the demand traction from?
Girish Agarwal: I can give you the breakup, but those breakup will not be useful. Why? Because the festival season, eight days of Navratri is in Q3 this year, so the number looks not apple to apple comparison. Also furthermore, just to add on, we also lost on some of the government advertising because there was some Panchayat election happening in a couple of states because of the code of conduct, so that advertising also went down.
[Analyst]: Okay. But still the sectors we are seeing traction on, good growth.
Girish Agarwal: Real estate, single digit. Ideally this should have been good double digit, but because of the real festival season going this way. So most of them are on the almost flat or single digit.
[Analyst]: Okay. I'll join back this one.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Lohit Saini with Jay Ram Stock Brokers. Please go ahead.
Lohit Saini: Hello. Thank you for the opportunity. Recently the company has increased its app subscription price from INR 149 to INR 199. So what is the current revenue contribution from paid subscriptions in Q2? And how has the price hike impacted our subscriber growth and retention? One more question regarding the upcoming UP elections. How is the company positioning its digital business to capture the ad opportunities there?
Girish Agarwal: Let me answer one by one. First of all, the price hike, which we have taken from INR 149 to INR 199, this is all the experimental basis. It is not a flat. Some places we have even tried slightly lesser, even monthly price and all that. As we mentioned to you, we are doing multiple experiments in digital. The advantage is that I can do an experiment on a cohorts of almost 1 lakh subscriber also.
Girish Agarwal: So that is the experiment we are doing, and happy to inform you that the results are pretty decent and good. This experiment will continue. Taking the second question of yours, that what will be the impact on the revenue, it is too early to say because this is all just the experiment phase right now. So in couple of quarter this will get settled and then we will get the real number out of it.
Girish Agarwal: Coming to the third questions of yours, which is about UP election. As we mentioned to you in couple of calls earlier also, the election advertising is uncertain. Though we are working hard for it in terms of readers' engagement in UP, today we have got huge connect with the readers in UP.
Girish Agarwal: We have got very sizable downloads of our monthly active users as well as DAU. Also we have got a huge network of our journalists in UP. I can proudly boast that today, compared to any news organization, our ground coverage on UP would be far, far, far higher. We are very hopeful that during the election time, our subscriber base in UP will certainly go up.
Lohit Saini: Okay. And are you seeing any recovery in FMCG ad spends?
Girish Agarwal: If I look at this quarter, FMCG right now is at -2%. But as I mentioned, this quarter would be wrong way to comparison. So I would say almost single digit growth, even considering the festival in this quarter.
Lohit Saini: Okay. Thank you.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you, sir.
Operator: Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, you may press star and then 1 to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Pavi Chauhan with Care PMS. Please go ahead.
Pavi Chauhan: Good evening. My question is related to digital apps. Our MAU have declined from 20 million in Q4 to 18 million in Q2 currently. There is a consistent decline from past 2 quarters. Any key reason for this, and how management is looking forward to increase our MAU growth?
Pawan Agarwal: Two things just to let you know the reason is this. We have tried to reduce the marketing spend on this entire activity because we believe now brands should be able to sustain the readers based on their own merits and the organic model. So we have reduced the marketing spend. There is some impact because of that also.
Pawan Agarwal: Furthermore, we are trying to do many experiments, as you just mentioned, about the subscriber value. So there is some impact of here and there of that. But as you will appreciate between 18, 19 and 20, the difference on, if I look at the quarter-on-quarter, is around 3% to 4%.
Pavi Chauhan: Okay. Another question that our other expense have been increased, like in both on absolute term and in a percentage of revenue. So could you please define that which cost are driving this? Is it major with the freight cost which company is bearing right now?
Pawan Agarwal: Sorry, I am not able to hear this question of yours. Can you go again, please?
Pavi Chauhan: If I look at our other expense, so it have increased in both as a percentage term and in the absolute terms also. So could you please provide the breakup that which led to this increase in cost?
Pawan Agarwal: If you look at this cost of the other cost, I think you are comparing between Q1 and Q2, correct?
Pavi Chauhan: Yes.
Pawan Agarwal: Yes. Because if you compare from the last year, there is a reduction on this. But between Q1 and Q2, there is an increase because these are the sales-based events. They generate revenue from a particular event, and they also book it as a cost. The full cost is taken as a cost and the revenue is taken as a revenue with the profit margin there. This keeps moving quarter to quarter depending on the events, what they do on the ground.
Pavi Chauhan: Okay. That is it from my side. Thank you.
Pawan Agarwal: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, we request you all to limit to two questions each and rejoin the queue for any further questions. The next question comes from the line of Vivek Ganguly with TCG Asset Management Company. Please go ahead.
Vivek Ganguly: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.
Girish Agarwal: Pleasure.
Vivek Ganguly: In the recent past, you all hired a senior executive for head of revenue or head of business for your digital SBU. We assume that you all continue to invest in the digital initiatives and your digital assets.
Girish Agarwal: Correct.
Vivek Ganguly: Can you give some commentary on that, how it is shaping up and some metrics and at what point you all would be more comfortable giving out how the trends have been so that the investors can better appreciate the good work that you all are doing there.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you very much and very appropriate question you have asked. We have hired a team. They are working hard on it. Unfortunately, there has been an exit also on that because there was an expectation and delivery mismatch over there. Right now what is happening, the whole digital genre, if you look at the advertising is pretty I would say unclear for everybody because at one side there is extra inventory coming from multiple sources.
Girish Agarwal: At the same time, certain brands like us are looking for a premium rather than a commodity advertising. It is yet pretty early to say how it is shaping up but I can assure you it is going in the right direction.
Vivek Ganguly: Right. Also advertisement is not the only source of your digital revenue. You all have subscription and you all also have, I think, contracts with technology companies.
Girish Agarwal: Correct. All three are there. I would say to be very honest, they are all in a nascent stage because advertising also on the app, you must have noticed we have just recently started the advertising on our app from last I think four quarters now.
Vivek Ganguly: Right.
Girish Agarwal: We are again checking that it should not happen that the experiment where I am charging some money from a customer, if he is not happy about the advertising, I am not showing him any of the ads over there. Everything is evolving together because we are pretty clear that going forward, it cannot be only one vehicle of advertising which can give me the revenue going forward on digital. It has to be subscription, tie-ups, and the ad revenue, all three.
Vivek Ganguly: Right.
Girish Agarwal: We are doing all three in such a manner that the consumer experience should not get impacted negatively because of any of the three activity.
Vivek Ganguly: No. We absolutely appreciate the effort that you all have put in and the way you all have gone about institutionalizing the entire Our digital business. But from an investor's perspective, we wanted to have some idea as to at what point would you all be comfortable to give us the trends, the historical trends and the way forward.
Girish Agarwal: I will take your point to my board in the next board meeting, and let's see what board decides. Because if you remember, a couple of quarters back, based on the board recommendation, we took the approval from the investors that we can avoid giving out, because of the competitive scenario, much more details in the marketplace right now. We'll come back to you after the board discussion on this.
Vivek Ganguly: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Himanshu Upadhyay with Statefort Investments. Please go ahead.
Himanshu Upadhyay: Yeah. Hi, good afternoon.
Girish Agarwal: Good afternoon.
Himanshu Upadhyay: I missed first 5, 7 minutes. So if this question has been taken, then I am sorry.
Girish Agarwal: Not to worry at all.
Himanshu Upadhyay: I wanted to know, see, we are not raising prices on the readership. What we are seeing, somehow the readership is not increasing. The advertisement is a function of my readership or how my readership is moving. How are you thinking about the longer term strategy, let's say from four or five years perspective, how will this whole business look like?
Himanshu Upadhyay: Because if readership does not come, one is obviously my circulation, which is a smaller part of revenue, which is not increasing, and we are saying that we don't want to raise the prices also. My advertisement, which is also a larger portion of the revenue, that is a function of my readership. If I cannot show the growth, how will my numbers look like?
Himanshu Upadhyay: How do you think three to five years down the line, the top line, or let's say the organization will look like? Because costs will slowly, steadily increase, means we have reduced the cost and we have done a very good job on that. How do I think about my fixed costs and my revenue line, and some thoughts on that and your longer term strategy from here on, that will be helpful.
Girish Agarwal: Sure. So three things. One is that if you notice, post-COVID, we have gained the numbers which were lost in COVID. Unfortunately, we have not been able to grow from there. Whatever number we gained, we are largely maintaining few percentages here and there only. Nothing major growth happening. I totally agree with you.
Girish Agarwal: At the same time, we understood that it may not be possible, though we are putting all the efforts to grow the circulation numbers. Can we increase our engagement with our readers and impact? Because today we have got 38 lakh copies and we have got crores and crores of readers. That also is a very large number. How do we deliver the response to the advertiser more impactful from that number?
Girish Agarwal: And that is the reason why, in spite of the circulation being flat, we have been able to continue showing the good single digit growth on advertising quarter on quarter, barring out this, which is a festive shift otherwise. So I guess what we have understood is the impact to the advertiser. I think we have been able to deliver it pretty well. Having said that, it is not that we are going to just sit idle and let the circulation be there.
Girish Agarwal: We are putting all our efforts to increase the circulation, increase our market share also. For example, in a particular market, if I am not able to increase the circulation number, but over there I have ensured that if competitor is declining much more, I am at least maintaining the number. So my market share goes up and hence my revenue share and advertising also goes up in those markets.
Girish Agarwal: So I totally understand your apprehension, but I guess this is the formula what we have understood right now, and let us see how it evolves in a couple of years.
Himanshu Upadhyay: And one more question on this only. See, in some of the newspapers which are, let us say, language or let us say niche newspapers. Where they are the dominant players. We have seen the prices increase quite materially for them. Or they are in, let us say, more than INR 10, something. It is INR 15 also. Not I am talking about financial newspapers, but some regional language newspapers here and there.
Girish Agarwal: I totally understood. I know the names also.
Himanshu Upadhyay: And we have gained market share in certain markets. But are we at a dominant stage that in some marketplace we can have a better pricing or increase in pricing, and in certain markets where we are still not that place and hence,
Himanshu Upadhyay: pricing we will not like to touch in those markets? Or you are saying that when you are talking about pricing and you are saying that we do not want to raise prices, so it is for all across the markets or that would be only for a market where you are still, let us say, fighting the challenger or the difference between you and the first person or the second person is very low. So how are you thinking in your strategy on those aspects will be helpful.
Girish Agarwal: Yeah. See, largely our concept is very clear. We do not want newspaper to become unaffordable for any household. Today, our monthly average cost to a consumer is roughly around INR 150 to INR 170. Out of that also, he or she recovers some amount by selling the wastage of the newspapers at home. So the net cost comes to say, 100 bucks. Now, we do not want to create a situation where this becomes much higher and people start rethinking.
Girish Agarwal: Please try to understand, we are talking about a INR 1,200 net annual cost to a consumer. It is not a cheap one. So we do not want to unnecessarily make it much more expensive. Also, if I increase the cover price in any of my market, the delta is not. For example, today I am priced at INR 5. Will I make it INR 10? Answer is no.
Girish Agarwal: So even if I make it INR 6, the delta is not that large. Having said that lever is with us. We can use it any point of time. But as of today, we believe we should not. We should let consumer be happy with the pricing, let the circulation be continued like that.
Himanshu Upadhyay: And, I know you have spoken on this, but some sense on how the paid subscribers are moving. Not in terms of absolute number, but in terms of growth, what you are aspiring and what you would have aspired, let us say 2 years back versus now. So what are you seeing in-
Girish Agarwal: In last-
Himanshu Upadhyay: Yeah.
Girish Agarwal: Yeah. On last two, three years, two years actually, whatever experiment we have done in the market, some were very successful, some were not so successful. But overall, the results are in the right direction, positive direction. That's the reason why we continue to be committed in our digital business. We are spending money in the digital business. We are investing there and making sure that at the right point of time, we get the right dividends out of that business.
Himanshu Upadhyay: Okay. Thanks from my side.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you, sir.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Yash Rangaswamy with JP Associates. Please go ahead.
Yash Rangaswamy: Hi, good evening.
Girish Agarwal: Good evening.
Yash Rangaswamy: My first question is with regards to the copies. We have been at about 38 lakh copies, right?
Girish Agarwal: Correct.
Yash Rangaswamy: But versus our previous quarter, the revenue has gone down. It is at 116, and in last quarter it was reported at 120.
Girish Agarwal: Yeah. Around 30,000 copies lost.
Yash Rangaswamy: But copies are almost the same. So, 30,000, okay. So it is 37-
Girish Agarwal: As I mentioned to you, 38. So it is actually 37.68.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay. Versus that was around 38, more or less.
Girish Agarwal: Correct.
Yash Rangaswamy: That has caused the revenue to go down.
Girish Agarwal: Yeah.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay. What about the advertising pricing? Are we seeing any improvement in that? What are we doing on that? I know the quarter is not comparable, but then have we taken some stand or what happened during the quarter on the pricing front? Because there will be a point where we will have to not just focus on volume, but also get the pricing as well in place.
Girish Agarwal: Correct. What we are doing on the pricing side, we are able to increase the ticket size, which means the advertiser who was advertising on inside page, we have been able to upgrade them, take some extra money from them, and bringing them onto the premium pages or back page, third page, and the front page also.
Girish Agarwal: So that is the way we have been able to increase the unit price with the advertisers. Even on the front page jackets, we have been able to take some margin extra over there. But overall, the focus is both ways, that we get more volume, and wherever possible, we will be able to increase the unit price also.
Yash Rangaswamy: But how are we getting those advertisers to spend on premium pages? Are we giving discounts compared to what the market price would be?
Girish Agarwal: Upgrading them. For example, if somebody is paying me INR 100 for inside page-
Yash Rangaswamy: Right
Girish Agarwal: I'm saying, "Why don't you spend INR 40 and come on the front page?" So they get more exposure, we get more value out of that.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay. But then that 40 or 140 in your example would have some sort of discount, right?
Girish Agarwal: No, that is the prevailing price of that particular page.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay. All right. I just missed one point. I know you have covered this, but I could not gather the entire point that was discussed. The other expenses which seem to be on a lower side for print business by around 10%. You said that is on account of events?
Girish Agarwal: No. The other costs which decreased over last year, but it has increased from Q1 to this year because these are the costs on the sales-based event. For example, if sales is doing a particular conclave, so that the cost of the conclave, which goes under cost and the revenue comes in, sit in the revenue side with the profit.
Yash Rangaswamy: That is a part of the publishing segment, right?
Girish Agarwal: Yeah.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay. That would be the only thing that would be mainly attributable to the lowering of costs.
Girish Agarwal: Correct. But otherwise, if you look at my personal cost, look at my other cost, they are very much under control. In fact, we have taken a cut on most of the cost elements.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay.
Girish Agarwal: Only one thing which is not in our control is the newsprint prices, which has taken a steep of almost 20.8% hike over last year's quarter. So that's a painful thing.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay. What about our major industries or verticals? You mentioned that even though it's not comparable, you said the TLS has grown by single digit. That is in spite of the festive or was it excluding the festive impact?
Girish Agarwal: No, this is in spite of the festive shifting. If I assume the festive was in this quarter itself, this could have been a double-digit growth.
Yash Rangaswamy: Right.
Girish Agarwal: Like jewelry is very good. FMCG is down. Lifestyle is down. Hypermarkets is almost down because the festival season yet to come for them. That's why I think it's a mixed bucket.
Yash Rangaswamy: But apart from real estate, which other sectors have done well in spite of the festive being different?
Girish Agarwal: Jewelry has done well in spite of the festive shift because they start early. The banking and financial service, IPO business has done a fantastic job compared to last-
Yash Rangaswamy: Double digit.
Girish Agarwal: Yeah, very much double digit. 50% to be very honest.
Yash Rangaswamy: Oh, okay. 50. Okay.
Girish Agarwal: 50. But let's not get carried away by that because the volume is not much.
Yash Rangaswamy: Yeah. It was the IPOs that was a definite.
Girish Agarwal: Correct. Healthcare is doing very good, again, a strong double digit. What else? Automobile is flat. Education is single digit because last year, if you remember, because of the NEET issue and all that, the advertising came to Q2.
Yash Rangaswamy: Okay.
Girish Agarwal: For that.
Yash Rangaswamy: All right. That's about it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Vikram Hirawat with Hirawat Holdings and Investments. Please go ahead.
Vikram Hirawat: Good evening. Am I audible?
Girish Agarwal: Yes, very much, sir.
Vikram Hirawat: Yeah. Hi. I am trying to understand the industry structure, and I would love your perspective on it. Although the results over the mid terms seem to be stable, I am worried about the long-term problem of the print media industry. I am trying to compare it with Western publishers, and they have had a major decline in the long run.
Vikram Hirawat: What makes the Indian market different, and will the next generation continue to read the newspapers? Do you have any sort of demographic breakup if the next generation is reading newspapers, and how will the structure evolve over the next 7 to 15 years?
Girish Agarwal: I appreciate all your questions. I would request you, sir, to have a meeting with us, our investor relationship team, one-on-one, because this is a much loaded and larger discussion. So I would encourage you to get in touch with us, and we can have a one-on-one meeting with you to explain you much more in detail, which we keep doing with other investors on a timely basis.
Vikram Hirawat: Okay. Thank you.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Alok with SW. Please go ahead.
Alok Deshpande: Am I audible?
Girish Agarwal: Yes, sir.
Alok Deshpande: Okay, sir. My question was regarding the Q2 result only. Actually, the first caller also asked a similar question, but I have the same question. Like in Q2 now, the main reason with these results, the dip is due to the festive season getting postponed or half completed. That was one of my main question. Also along with that, in other income also, we have some INR 11 crore or something as part of this one. I wanted to get clarification on that part.
Lalit Jain: Let me explain you the other income which has come. This income has come because as you know, our registered office, which is in Ahmedabad, was on a long-term lease basis where we have paid the security deposit at the time of commencement of the lease. The same has been recognized as present value.
Lalit Jain: Lease agreement of Ahmedabad has been terminated because the builder from whom we had taken the promise, they are going for redevelopment. So we have derecognized the ROU assets and lease liability, booked the gain of around INR 13.39 crore under the head of other income as per the Ind AS 116/109 regulation.
Alok Deshpande: Got it. Yeah. Sir, regarding this festive impact, is it like only going to be the short term or like how long will it be?
Lalit Jain: Sir, there is just a shift of around INR 40 crore rupees in Q3. Now the most important thing, what we are focusing, and I am sure, looking at the overall economy, that the festival season should do good for everybody so that we are able to continue the momentum.
Alok Deshpande: Okay, sir. Sir, one more question. Can I go ahead with that or should I come back in the queue?
Lalit Jain: Totally your call, sir.
Alok Deshpande: Sir, only one question was that, will cash actually reach the shareholders going forward? Because now I also heard in last few quarters you are increasing the CapEx and digital spend also. So keeping that in mind, for a long-term shareholder, how will this have an impact? Mainly on three things I wanted to ask. One is the CapEx cash flow. Please go ahead, sir.
Lalit Jain: CapEx cash flow, as I mentioned to you on the call in few quarters also, that we don't have any large CapEx planned because all the machines, production equipments, and all are all in place. So we don't foresee any major CapEx coming in couple of quarters or maybe four, five quarters ahead.
Lalit Jain: As on today, company has a total cash and bank balance of around INR 1,120 crore. And as you know, the company have already paid INR 5 per share as the first interim dividend in the Q1. Now the board will decide how we want to further distribute the cash lying in the company to our stakeholders and shareholders.
Alok Deshpande: Okay, sir. So based on the meeting only, then you'll be deciding on the dividend part. Okay.
Girish Agarwal: Correct, sir.
Alok Deshpande: Any update on the digital, sir? From last 2 to 3 years, we had even one strategic advisor from US that came soon.
Girish Agarwal: Correct.
Alok Deshpande: A few developments were happening.
Girish Agarwal: Happy to inform you, we are on the right track. We are doing multiple experiments on the subscription also, and overall things are in a good shape, I would say.
Alok Deshpande: Got it, sir. Sir, just for the previous caller, you told you can get in contact with the investor relation. Is it through email or through the direct call? If you want to have some detailed conversation, how to get in touch, sir?
Girish Agarwal: Mail it to us, we can fix up a time with you. Our team will certainly reach out to you on that.
Alok Deshpande: Okay. So through the investor relations email only I need to set up this, right?
Girish Agarwal: Yes, sir.
Alok Deshpande: Okay, sir. Got it, sir. That is all. I have one, how can I say, one strategic input also. How to increase the revenue through the ads only. Also you were already saying to another caller, even though we have the same viewership or readership, you are trying to improve the connection with the viewers. I think I have one really good plan. Maybe we pause this call or anytime once you are free, I want to connect with you and share it with you directly, sir, if possible.
Girish Agarwal: It'll be a pleasure to discuss with you on this idea. Lalit Ji, you can reach out to this person, and we can fix up a call with him.
Alok Deshpande: Yeah. My name is Alok. Yeah, I will be really looking forward, sir. Yeah.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you. Thank you, Alok. Thank you.
Alok Deshpande: Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yeah.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as our last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Pawan Agarwal: Thank you, everyone, for your participation today and time on this earnings call. I hope we have responded to your queries, and we will always be of assistance to you through our investor relation department headed by Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey and our CFO, Mr. Lalit Jain, for all your further queries. Thank you, and have a great evening. Further wishing you and your family a very happy and prosperous Diwali in advance. Thank you.
Girish Agarwal: Thank you, everybody. Wishing you a very happy Diwali in advance. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of D.B. Corp Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you, everyone, for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.
