DB Corp Ltd. share price target

We maintain our BUY rating on DB Corp with a revised target price of Rs368. We believe the ad growth for the company in FY19E would be back ended driven by volumes and uptick in selective categories. Further the company would benefit in medium term as the increase in circulation would translate into readership leading to ad yield increase. Circulation revenue would continue to grow at double digit on the back of increase in copies while new radio stations have turned ebidta positive in Q4FY18 translating in margin expansion. We believe near term margins would be impacted with steep increase in newsprint prices....

Overall revenues came in at | 567.3 crore (up 9.7% YoY), marginally above our estimate of | 557.7 crore, on account of a better performance from the radio business and higher other operating revenues while advertisement and circulation revenues were almost in line with our expectations. Print advertisement revenues came in at | 337 crore (up 8.8% YoY), in line with our expectation of 9% YoY growth. Circulation revenues came in at | 132 crore (up 8.5% YoY) vs. our expectation of 8.2% YoY growth. Radio ad revenues were strong...

DB Corp once again disappointed with 15% miss on EBITDA, which was led by 6.2% higher-than-estimated opex. Print advertisement revenue growth of 8.8% was in line with estimate and was aided by a favorable base. Circulation revenue growth of 8.5% yoy was driven by an aggressive expansion strategy in Bihar and other key markets. Circulation expansion strategy and rise in newsprint prices...

We maintain our BUY rating on DB Corp with a target price of Rs435 as we roll forward to FY20E and value the company based on our conservative Adj. OCF based methodology. Ad growth declined during the quarter on the back of early festive season and higher base in last year pertaining to private treaty. We expect the ad growth to bounce from Q4FY18 while circulation revenues would be double digit given the aggressive expansion in the state of Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Despite decrease in margins, we have modelled margin expansion on...

ICICI Securities Ltd | Retail Equity Research Overall revenues at | 598.6 crore (down 4.6% YoY) were much below our estimates of | 633.8 crore. Print advertisement revenues came in at | 377.5 crore, down 5.8% YoY, below our estimate of 1% YoY growth. We note the print ad decline is disappointing considering that HMVL reported ~5% growth in Q3FY18. The radio ad revenue was also weak with decline of 7.4% YoY (| 33.6 crore) vs. our estimate of 12% YoY growth. Digital revenues, which declined 4.9% YoY, were...

Consolidated revenue declined 4.6% YoY to INR6.0b (8% miss) due to subdued print ad revenue growth. Consequently, EBITDA fell 30% YoY to INR1.4b (32% miss). Excluding last year???s one-offs related to festival billing and private treaty, ad revenue grew in mid-single-digits. EBITDA margin shrunk sharply by 830bp to 23.3%. EBITDA disappointment boiled down to PAT, which fell 34% YoY to INR781m. Print ad revenue fell 6% YoY to INR3.8b, led by (i) lingering effects of GST and (ii) preponement of festive season to 2QFY18. Sector-wise, real estate ad revenue declined 40%, while education/electronic ad revenue fell 7%/20%. Circulation revenue grew 6% YoY to INR1.3b, with overall circulation copies growing 5.3% YoY to 5.64m. Radio ad revenue declined 7% YoY to INR336mdue to weak ad spend from the real estate and government sectors.

Management plans to expand to additional 27 districts of Bihar and also increase circulation across other legacy markets. Management targets to take total copies to 6m by March 2018 from 5.6m in October 2017. Also, yield improvement taken in the...

ICICI Securities Ltd | Retail Equity Research Overall revenues at | 568.3 crore (up 7.5% YoY) were largely in line with our estimate of | 554.5 crore. Print advertisement revenues came in at | 350.3 crore, up 6.1% YoY and higher than our expectations of 5% YoY growth. We note that print ad growth of 6.1% YoY, despite pre GST led uncertainty, is noteworthy and bodes well for the company. The radio ad growth continued to outperform print at 16.7% YoY (| 34.9 crore) vs. our estimate of 9% YoY growth. Digital...

We maintain our BUY rating on DB Corp with a target price of Rs445 as we value the company based on our conservative Adj. OCF based methodology. We believe the ad growth has bottomed out and expect an uptick in H2FY18 as key sectors begin to advertise. Real Estate is expected to bounce back as RERA has been notified in most of the key states. Further management strategy on increase circulation would pay dividends and help in ad growth in medium term coupled with strengthening market share. Stable newsprint cost and prudent cost...

Higher RM cost dragged down PAT: Consolidated revenue grew 5.4% YoY (4.4% QoQ) to INR5.7b (3% beat). Adjusted for the INR104m one-off income (profit on the sale of Gitanjali Gems shares) in 2QFY17, revenue grew 7% YoY, led by increase in print revenue. Consolidated EBITDA declined 7% YoY (25% QoQ) to INR1.4b (7% miss); adjusted EBITDA declined 11% YoY (adjusting for music royalty provision reversal). EBITDA margin contracted 330bp YoY (675bp QoQ) to 24.6% (275bp miss). Adjusted margin shrank 490bp YoY, impacted by 9% YoY increase in RM cost and 20% YoY jump in other expenses. PAT fell 11% YoY (29%...