Thank you, and good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Q4 and FY '26 earnings call. We will begin with a brief overview of our financial performance for the quarter and the full year ended March 31st, 2026, followed by key operational updates across our businesses.

Despite the global geopolitical uncertainties during the quarter gone by, our print business continued to grow steadily, supported by improving advertiser sentiment across key sectors such as education, real estate, healthcare, automobile, and government. Our consolidated advertising revenue in Q4 FY '26 grew by around 6% year-on-year to INR 4,067 million, compared to INR 3,841 million in Q4 FY '25, along with stable circulation revenue at INR 1,162 million.

The consolidated total revenue grew by 4% year-on-year to INR 5,896 million, and EBITDA for the quarter grew by 15.6% year-on-year to INR 1,176 million, while profit after tax grew by 18.8% year-on-year to INR 622 million, underscoring the resilience and operational strength of our business model. For FY 2026, our performance was largely flat compared to the last fiscal, with consolidated total revenues at INR 24,408 million, compared to INR 24,212 million in FY '25, EBITDA at INR 5,736 million, and PAT at INR 3,320 million.

However, on a like-to-like basis, that is after excluding last year's election impact, our print advertising revenue delivered a healthy growth of 6.3% year-on-year and EBITDA growth of 7.1% year-on-year, with EBITDA margin expansion of 66 bps to a robust 28% in FY 2026. On the cost side, newsprint prices witnessed some upward trend during the quarter due to factors such as raw material cost pressures, global supply dynamics, and logistics cost and demand-supply imbalances.

We believe the current trend is temporary and may continue for the next couple of quarters. Moving on to our digital business, digital continues to be a focus business area for the company.

As of March 2026, our news apps recorded around 20 million monthly active users, maintaining Dainik Bhaskar's leadership position as the number one Hindi and Gujarati news app. Our focus continues to remain on high-quality content, better user experience, and strengthening our technology platform to improve engagement as well as retention.

We continue to see strong traction in hyper-local content, visual storytelling, and personalized content formats across our markets. In the radio segment, advertising revenues for the quarter stood at INR 358 million, while EBITDA stood at INR 95 million.

During the year, MY FM expanded its network with seven new stations, extending our presence now to 37 cities across India. Happy to share that all new seven stations have become EBITDA positive within three months' time only.

We continue to focus on strengthening listener engagement through innovative content and on-ground activations. With this, I would now like to hand over the call to Mr.

Girish Agarwal for his comments. Thank you.

Over to you, Girish-ji.

Thank you, Pawan, and good evening, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. Print as a medium continues to perform consistently for us and continues to demonstrate resilience despite the perception in some sections that print is declining medium.

Over the last few years, our company has consistently delivered robust performance across businesses. Between FY '22 and FY '25, our advertising revenue has grown at a healthy CAGR of around 13%, while our continued focus on operational efficiencies and cost discipline helped deliver a consolidated PAT CAGR of around 38%.

During 2026 also, we witnessed the momentum continuing as reflected in the performance highlighted by the Pawan. Our focus on maintaining strong reader connect and market leadership in circulation also continues.

We're happy to share that our circulation revenue remains stable and our on-ground activities and initiatives are able to engage the readers. On the editorial front, our focus continues to remain on impactful and responsible journalism.

During the quarter, several of our editorial initiatives received strong responses from readers. Our investigative journalism efforts also continue to create impact across states by highlighting issues related to people, corruption, and public interest.

Two of our journalists were awarded the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award, and I'm happy to share with you that this is the first time that any Hindi language newspaper journalist have been awarded this prestigious journalism award. Not only this, there are few other awards our journalists have received in last one year.

It is very, very encouraging for us. With that, now we can open the floor for the question-and-answer session.

Thank you very much.

Hi. Sir, there are two questions, the two parts.

Am I audible, sir?

Yes, sir, very much.

Yeah. The question is regarding the future prospects.

The state elections were there, are we going to see in the next quarters a bumping on the other incomes or something like that, or is there any plan to achieve 18% or 16%-plus EBITDA margin or something like that?

Sir, if you noticed, last year our performance, if I take the election revenues out, was around 6.5% on the advertising, and same was the quarter number. Now, this year in the month of April, we have seen a very good double-digit strong growth.

Looking at the fundamentals of Indian market, the ground numbers, I'm very confident that this growth should continue of a strong single-digit number even for this year also. Now, my EBITDA margin last year was, this for the year what we closed was 24%.

Before this year, we were at 26%. We believe that the maintaining of this number, this margin, should be should be achievable.

Okay. Sir, the other thing is in last 6 to 12 months, the promoter, one of the promoter was constantly buying from the open market shares.

Is there any plan to reach beyond 75%? If you reach, then you have to go for the open offer for the delisting or something like that.

Is there any plan for that or it's just to cap up till 75% only?

Yes, you are right. Just to cap up till 75%, sir.

Okay. That's fine, sir.

That's all from my side.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you for good set of numbers. My first question is in regard to the segmental numbers.

Hello, am I audible?

Yes. Thank you for your compliment.

Yeah. Sir, first of print advertising, we've done phenomenal 7.2% YoY returns.

Could you help me break up between the segments where sectors and segments where this growth is coming from?

Barring out the government, including the election advertising, every other segment has shown a growth from single digit to some of them to a double digit also.

Okay. How has auto performed predominantly?

Auto had a single-digit growth, real estate had a double digit, jewelry had a double digit, healthcare had a double digit.

Okay. Thank you.

Sorry?

FMCG was flat.

FMCG was flat, right. Now coming to our cash flow, basically there is some capex which we are doing of 120 crore.

Could you help me where is this money going to?

Largely, this money is going into buying out the existing properties what we have rental. For example, in most of the places, we have rented out the properties for our printing presses and offices.

We are slowly and gradually trying to buy out these properties so that we don't have to pay the rental.

Got it, because it is a good sum of 140-odd crore for the full year.

Correct, right. This includes our Bhopal office.

We are making an Bhopal office, Jaipur office, Kota, Aurangabad printing unit, Nashik, Jalgaon, all these places where we have rented properties, we are buying them out.

What would be the key thesis why we are going through this approach, while looking at the rental yields would be very less there, would it not make sense?

For two purpose: the land appreciation and the property appreciation in these places are really decent. If I add the rental and the appreciation, I'm better off than keeping the money.

Got it. There are also intangible asset addition of around 13-odd crore.

Could you help me what is that?

No, they're not intangible asset. That money going into the repair and maintenance of IT, upgradation of IT, upgradation of few existing furniture of the existing offices and all.

Right. Also in terms of digital, I think across the industry around May 2025, we had almost 22 million MAUs.

It has slightly reduced. What can be the particle?

Is it a monthly phenomenon or should I read into it? Have we increased our rates?

What could be the key reason for this?

If you look at the overall number, there's been a constant growth. Now, in one particular month the number goes up because of any local event, but otherwise we are on a steady pace of a growth.

Okay. Nothing to see or read into it, right?

No.

What are our plans with the cash? Are we planning any buyback or something on those lines because--

We certainly will be looking at thinking that what is the best tax-efficient manner to do with the cash.

Got it. Thank you, Girish, so much.

I'll get back in queue for further questions.

Thank you. Appreciate.

Hello. Thanks for the opportunity.

My first question is that last year the company has dividend payout of 60%, whereas this year there is no such dividend declared right now. Is there any change in our dividend policy?

There is no change in the policy. I think board is evaluating more tax-efficient manner to use the cash.

Okay. My second question is there have been news on the platform such as Google and other media.

We are not getting any revenue from them right now. Is there any update of getting that revenue?

All the platforms put together have gone to the Competition Commission of India filing a case against Google and others. We are still awaiting.

Nothing has happened so far from there.

Okay. I'm done with my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, sir. My name is Tanushree, and I'm an individual investor interested in investing in DB, and I have a few questions I would like to ask.

Please go ahead.

Could you share the sectoral growth rates and their contribution for the Q4?

Okay. 1 second.

Q4. Yes.

See, in Q4, most of the categories like education has grown big time, but most of the categories have shown a decent growth in the Q1. Barring out government is not that high.

Also real estate, there has been a slight dip on the Q4. It is Q4.

Not dip, flat actually. Most of the other categories have seen a decent number, single digit, some of them double digit.

Yeah.

If possible, could you please provide the numbers?

We don't give the exact number sector-wise and all that because of the competitive reason. I hope you will appreciate that.

Okay. The contribution for quarter four?

In terms of contribution, education remains in the mid-double digits, real estate in a double digit, automobile in a strong single digit, government in a decent double digit, jewelry in a single digit. Yep.

Okay. The next question is: what was the ad yield growth percentage in quarter four?

There is no major yield growth in quarter four. The yield has largely remained the same, largely.

The growth has come from the volumes. Some minor percentage growth in yield, but nothing worthwhile.

Okay. Can you also provide the circulation copies reported in the quarter four?

Quarter four copies are almost 39 lakh.

Okay. Thank you.

What was the newsprint mix between the domestic and the imported in quarter four?

In quarter four, the mix has been 80/20: 80% Indian, 20% imported.

Okay. Also the last question: how do you see the newsprint rate outlook evolving in the near term?

Our last year overall rate was at almost INR 48,000 per ton, the average mix of Indian and imported. In quarter four, this number has become 49,000.

Going forward, we believe this number will further go up maybe by 6% to 8% going forward in the quarter one itself.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening.

Good evening.

Congratulations on a good set of numbers for Q4.

Thank you, sir.

Now, my first question is with regards to the ad revenue. Now, you mentioned that excluding the election impact, we have grown by around 6-odd percent, 6.3% to be precise, as far as print is concerned, print advertising revenue is concerned, right?

Correct.

Overall on a yearly basis, I think we are more or less flat. Just trying to gauge the impact.

Is it around 80-odd crores? Because, we have around 1,500 crores of revenue that you're reporting, and out of that, if we take out around 5%, that comes to around 80 80-odd crores.

Correct. You're right.

You just got the right number.

Okay. What is the government share?

Because last time we had reported it was around at 24%, if I'm not mistaken.

17%, got your share.

Yes.

The entire money, see, what happened, the entire money is not the election money. There's a regular advertising of the government, and there's a central government advertising money which came, election money came that way.

Total, it remained same at around 17, 18%, or has it changed in the--

All same number, 1 percentage here and there.

Okay. You mentioned that for few sectors during the beginning of the call that they have grown by double digit, let take for example real estate, healthcare.

Those are for the full year, right?

Yes, for the full year. If I tell you the number, like jewelry has grown by strong double digits, real estate has grown by mid-double digit, education has grown by single digit, automobile has grown by single digit.

Okay. I can see that the copies, we were just informed that the copies have gone down, right?

It was 40-odd lakhs in the previous quarters and now you mentioned 39 lakhs.

Close to 39 lakhs, almost 1 lakh copy.

What's happening? Because we've been spending on getting these copies up.

I think it's been for the past five or six quarters, if I'm not mistaken. What has gone wrong, or what is happening in the market?

I think what is happening in most of the places, we believe that with all our efforts, we are able to maintain this number. We are able to maintain the engagement of the readers.

Because if you notice, couple of quarters back, a concern was raised by couple of people that if we look at other markets, people are seeing the newspaper declining. I think with all our efforts, at least we are able to maintain, and I think I would call it a decent achievement actually to maintain the circulation numbers.

It has gone down by around 1 lakh, right? That's around 2, 2.5%?

Yeah, 2%, yes.

Okay. What about the competitors, any update on that?

We can only share that in most of our markets, we are gaining the market share.

The overall market is declining, is what seems to be the case.

Looks like that couple of the markets the competitor are not able to really hold the copies, we are able to gain the market share there. Though we are still losing like couple of as you can see the numbers, 1.5, 2%, but the competitors are losing more.

Okay. Newsprint prices, like you just mentioned, you see an uptick of around 6% to 8% in the coming quarter, right, because of the close geopolitical tensions that are going around?

Correct.

Okay. All right.

Nothing further from my end at this point. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening.

Congrats on good set of numbers. My question again was on circulation only.

I think four, five quarters back we had announced that we are working and are having new schemes to increase the circulation copies, okay? What is the progress and how are you thinking about that even after investing and having schemes and putting more efforts, circulation is not increasing, it is just reducing?

What is your thought process and how are you planning ahead from here?

Two things very clearly in this. All the markets are not behaving the same.

Some of the market we are able to maintain, some of the market we are showing a small growth also, while in some of the markets the numbers are shrinking. Overall, as you see, the impact is 1.5, 2%.

Now, it clearly indicates that with all the efforts on the editorial as well as circulation, we are largely able to maintain the numbers. I think we'll have to do many more efforts to see that how can we further excite people, open up new markets by going more deeper in these distribution furthermore.

We have been noticing certain problems in the market. For example, the vendor, the delivery boys, those who deliver the paper in the morning, there has been shortage of those boys also because our newspaper start distributing at 4:00 in the morning until 6:00, 6:30.

Now, what he's earning by doing this two hours job, he's slightly getting better compensated by doing any of the other delivery during the day. There's been a tough challenge what our agents are finding to get the delivery boys.

We are working with them to resolve that also. There are various challenges on the ground, and I guess we'll have to keep making an efforts so that we maintain or grow whatever we can and lose the least.

Are we going to run the similar schemes this year also, or is there any change in your--

See, we are doing multiple things. It's not about the scheme alone.

It's about creating every possible avenue and efforts for reader to make sure that he continues reading paper or even more reader comes and read the paper. Whether it's a brand awareness, whether it's the distribution network enhancement, editorial quality, everything.

One finally on radio. Radio as a medium, what is your thought process and because we took some new radio stations also in this financial year.

How are you thinking about investing and future of that business over a longer period of time, let's say 5 years, 10 years?

Happy to share with you, the radio is all about maintaining it with a very, very low cost and because the revenue upside is not double digit every year because of the inventory. We've been able to control cost to a very, very large extent, and even in the stations that we've picked up, I shared in the opening earlier today, that the seven stations that we launched were EBITDA positive in the first three months itself with a very, very high margin because of the cost and the fact that we've picked up these stations in places where in these seven cities we are the only radio station, actually.

In the balance seven cities, we'll be sharing it with one more person, it's a good market to play, and these are small stations. It will add some value to our top line.

Going forward, we believe as a medium, it is still heard by people. Whenever we check on cars, on traffic signals, we find people listening to radio.

That's the effort that we have to keep making on making sure that the medium still has relevance across our audiences.

Thanks from my side.

Thank you.

Thank you for giving me the follow-up opportunity. Sir, just wanted to understand that what would be the difference in pricing in domestic and international paper, and what would be the month-on-month growth there?

Just to give you the number of last year, Indian newsprint was at around INR 45,000 a ton and the imported was at around INR 54,000 a ton. Now, both these prices have changed.

Now, what happened in the price is imported newsprint whenever they increase the price, because imported also got impacted for dollar value also. In the beginning of the year, dollar was at rate, and today dollar is already lost around 8 8% in that.

That also played a role. Now, Indian newsprint manufacturers follow the parity pricing with the imported.

Whatever is your imported landing parity price, they try to adjust their price accordingly. Since imported has gone up because of the freight and all that, they have also taken three cuts.

What would be the current rate for domestic and imported?

The Q4 rate as I mentioned to you, as the average has gone up to 49,000 already.

Average is 49,000, okay.

Yeah.

Specifically domestic, how much that would be?

I don't have exact breakup here right now, but you can adjust if the 47 was the average of that, which has gone up by 49, both of them have increased.

Fair, fair. We expect this to a further increase going forward, right?

In the Q1, we believe this has already gone up by 7, 8% because we have the forward orders with us.

Got it. We would have 2 to 3 months of inventory with us for both?

We utilize whatever best we could do in the month of March and February, and some of it in the month of April.

Got it, got it. In terms of the digital business, I think we're doing a lot of efforts there.

Could you elaborate more on what is going there currently and when do we see that business maturing enough to start giving numbers?

As you have seen the number, we have got almost 20 million MAUs now. We opened up new market which is Uttar Pradesh, which is giving us good results.

We are very optimistic about Uttar Pradesh because the largest population market in state, 23 crore population. We expect this 20 million should grow year-on-year substantially.

There are multiple efforts being made in terms of product quality, editorial content, and the videos, so that the user experience really enhanced and gives the delight to the reader, so that in future, whenever we want to monetize it, we are able to do that.

Got it. All right, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate.

Hi. There seems to be small uptick in the other operating income by around 10-odd crores going by my calculation.

Could you please help us understand what is this difference?

The other operative income is largely on job work as well as the wastage sale, the newsprint wastage sale. Because since the newsprint prices have gone up, there is some uptick there also.

Okay. All right.

Thank you.

Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulation for a good set of numbers.

My first question is regarding one of your talent acquisition, Mr. Piyush Thakur.

Sir, can you share some of his insights on what Mr. Thakur thinks from his decade-old experience, see what we can do differently to scale this digital business profitably?

Okay. Mr.

Piyush Thakur has joined us from a good organization where the CPM and all were very healthy. He has just joined, he has made first presentation to the board this Saturday itself.

We are going to roll out the whole thing from this month, he'll take at least, I would say, a couple of months to start showing these results, but we're very optimistic on that.

Okay. Do we have the technical team ready if say we start advertising or we will be first recruiting more in the future?

Just understanding some bottleneck perspective.

No, our technical team is all ready. Nothing.

We just need to go and sell more creatively to our advertisers and run their ads.

Okay. Has the war situation given us more traction on the app side?

How do you see the scenario given our advertisers are concerned, as our PM also recently said to restrain buying jewelry and discretionary spending? Any light on the same?

Now it's okay. Two things.

Has the war given us some major traction on the app users? Slightly, because people are in India unfortunately more concerned with the things next door rather than the global things.

That is one. Second thing, the concerns raised by the Prime Minister yesterday, I think the whole nation is grappling with those concerns.

Let's see how it spans out. Really nobody's clear how it'll unfold.

Do we have any plans of acquisition of other media houses as they are struggling to keep up the business?

No, sir, we have no any such plan to acquire any other media business.

All right, that's it from my side. All the best.

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you, everyone, for your participation today and time on this earnings call. I hope we've responded to your query, and we'll 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.