Media company D B Corp today posted a marginal growth in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs 45.4 crore, as against Rs 44.99 crore in the corresponding period last year.
The company's consolidated revenues, however, grew 13.63% at Rs 360.62 crore as compared to Rs 317.36 crore in the year-ago period.
"The growth in total income is mainly on the account of increase in advertising revenues in print as well as radio segments," DB Corp Managing Director Sudhir Agarwal said in statement.
The print business income grew to Rs 343.1 crore as against Rs 302.8 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year, while the revenues of the radio business increased to Rs 14.6 crore from Rs 13.3 crore.
The growth in print business was driven mainly by increase in advertising revenues to Rs 246.5 crore from Rs 236 crore, reflecting a growth of 4.4% on Y-o-Y basis.
Net circulation revenues grew 16% to Rs 62 crore from Rs 53.4 crore in the corresponding period last year, a company statement said.
"On an overall basis, the quarter has been in step with the momentum we set off at the start of this fiscal-focus on strategic expansions and consolidation," Agarwal said.
For the fiscal year 2011-12, DBCL posted a 16% revenue growth at Rs 1,463.8 crore as against Rs 1,265.2 crore last year.
However, the company's profit after tax for the year dipped 21% to Rs 202.1 crore from Rs 258.5 crore.
"This factors DBCL's one time pre-operative expenses of Rs 13.25 crore for Jharkhand, Jammu and Maharashtra launches as well as forex loss of Rs 10.1 crore," the statement said.
DBCL publishes eight newspapers with 65 editions, 191 sub-editions in four multiple languages (Hindi, Gujarati, English and Marathi) across 13 states in India.
"Over the year, we accomplished roll-out in major markets of Maharashtra by launching five new editions from Aurangabad, Nashik, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar and Sholapur.
"We have consolidated our positions in mature markets where we maintained our leadership rank. Therefore, with all new region expansions and launches underway, our strategic focus now is to enhance monetisation and to fully capitalise on our leadership in all markets," Agarwal said.
On the macro economic challenges, he said, "Globally and in India, the weak economic environment continues which has sustained the strain on overall media spend especially on the back of a declining GDP.
"We continue to be optimistic and believe that this trend is expected to turn around this year and remain confident that the long term story will continue to be driven by the potential of increasing consumerism of the tier 2 and 3 towns housing 1.1 billion of the Indian populace," he added.
Shares of the company closed at Rs 205, down 1.42% over their previous close on BSE.