D. B. Corp Limited (DBCORP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you, and good evening to everyone. We welcome you to the DB Corp Limited Q2 and H1 FY '22 Post Earnings Conference Call. We have with us today the senior management team of DB Corp Limited. Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director; Mr. Girish Agarwal, Non-Executive Director; Mr. P.G. Mishra, Group CFO; Mr. Mushtaq Ali, Vice President, Finance and Account; Mr. Lalit Jain, [ CGM ], Finance and Account; and Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, Head, Investor and Media Relations, who will represent DB Corp Limited on the call. We will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter and half year ended 30th September 2021, followed by question-and-answer session. Before we begin, we would like to state 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 and are available on the website of Stock Exchanges and the company's investor website. We trust you have been able to go through the same. Now I would like Mr. Pawan Agarwal to share his outlook on DB Corp's performance for the quarter. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Hina, and good evening to everyone, and thank you for joining the quarter 2 FY 2022 DB Corp Earnings Conference Call. Hope you and your family are in the best of your health and spirit in this festive season. We will begin the call by highlighting the key financial performance for the quarter ended September 30, 2021, followed by operational updates during the quarter. While the first quarter was defined by the impact of the second wave, which halted the rebound momentum achieved in the second half of fiscal 2021, the second quarter witnessed a very strong economic rebound, owing to the accelerated vaccination drive and declining active COVID-19 cases, which boosted consumer sentiment and reintroduced a sense of optimism among businesses, as evidenced by DB Corp's much improved quarter 2 FY 2022 performance. Consolidated advertising revenue stood at INR 3,029 million in quarter 2 FY 2022 on a comparative higher base of last year. Circulation revenues stood at INR 1,159 million, and the total revenues came in at INR 4,513 million. The operating profit stood at INR 1,054 million, aided by stringent cost control measures and despite large investment in the digital business for our future growth. Our PAT stood at INR 538 million in Quarter 2 FY 2022. Radio division continued efforts towards augmenting Audience Connect and listener engagement activities through new content creation are bearing fruit. Happy to share with you that our market share has increased by around 2%, 3% Y-o-Y to 37% in H1 FY 2022, further solidifying our leading position in our key markets. MY FM has outperformed its operating market in terms of ad volume growth. Our ad volume growth increased by 68% in H1 FY 2022, while the industry's ad volume increased by 57%. Major business saw a very strong growth in several key sectors, including real estate, banking and finance, FMCG, education and health care. In Quarter 2 FY 2022, radio advertising revenue was INR 287 million with an operating profit of INR 87 million. Let me share with you on the digital front now. We continue to invest in our digital business, which has grown significantly over the last year on a steady, sustainable manner. We have remained committed to our strategy of providing the best in-class journalism packaged in a world-class leader experience on our advertising free digital art. According to current Comscore data, Dainik Bhaskar apps' monthly users have climbed up by almost 7 times since the beginning of 2020, owing to the high-quality content development and a highly personalized product experience. With this, we have achieved a significant lead and stand as a dominant #1 Hindi and Gujarati news apps player while continuing to remain committed to strengthen our positions even further. Our continuous endeavor remains to establish a loyal user base in order to establish a long-term growth and monetization strategy. To achieve this goal, we recently onboarded Mr. Mark Thompson, the former CEO of The New York Times to our Advisory Board. He will work closely and exclusively with us in India to help us in the building of our digital news business. Mark was instrumental in changing The New York Times into a digital news giant powered by high-quality journalism and subscription revenue, positioning it as the world's #1 news business success story in the new global order. We have also strengthened our team with members having consumer product and technology background from some of the top start-ups across India. And we are investing in up-coming or top journalists to become digital savvy and create news content in real time. The other area of focus is technology, where we are investing heavily to build personalized news experiences in real-time basis and provide best app experience, which is key in user retention as well as growth. And the third area, which is also the foundation of group's philosophy is the editorial strategy. We continue to provide users with original content and hyper-localized content. And to further strengthen the reader's connection, Dainik Bhaskar added a feature called video news. The first news app that makes mobile native vertical video news with a magnificent content library that is renewed every single day. And I would now request Mr. Girish Agarwaal to update us on the operational front.

Thank you, Pawan. Good evening to everyone, and I hope that everyone continues to stay safe and healthy. Several early indicators suggest that consumer confidence is increasing and economic activity is accelerating across the board. With the current festive season, the sector's growth momentum has intensified further. And advertisers continue to gravitate towards the more scalable medium to reach out to their audience, resulting in an upsurge in demand for print advertising space. On the editorial front, our editorial team stay steadfast in their commitment to courageous and honest journalism, providing our readers with unbiased, very courageous and accurate news. Our inherent commitment to responsible journalism has not only been bolstered our leadership but also helped us in attaining the status of India's most regarded and recognized newspaper. We continue to integrate our reader-centric approach by exploring numerous topics that contain knowledgeable information for our readers. We believe that our reader-centric editorial strategy will continue to further help increasing our standing in the markets where we operate. On the circulation front, while the second wave of COVID-19, lower circulation by around 10% in the first 2 months of Quarter 1 of fiscal 2022, our well-calibrated circulation strategy enabled a remarkable recovery. And we are now almost nearly at around 94% to 95% of our then March 2020 levels along with our cover price increase in select markets. We are pleased to share that our calculation drive efforts not only resulted in the recovery of the lost copies, but also, it has helped us expand the market share and an average around 2% to 3% growth in market share Y-o-Y in various markets where we operate. We believe that our superior product offering, efficient distribution network and strong trade connection, our group is well poised to further expand its market share going forward. Most importantly, on the advertising front, as the economic activities are accelerating, advertisers are increasingly starting to hyper local Indian language newspapers to maximize their connection with the consumer on the ground. Local advertising for us, which constitute almost 70% of our overall advertising revenue is growing in the current month by almost double digit. In few cases, strong double digit. Almost every sector is experiencing a resurgence in demand, which is further intensified by the current festival season. Non-metros, the markets in which Dainik Bhaskar Group operates, are once again driving this economic revival in the country with most sectors experiencing a similar trend of growth. As a result, our advertising revenue from January to March 2020 level has been almost achieved. And we are almost at around 85% of our pre-COVID level in terms of advertising. I would also like to mention here that this 85%, which we talked about is also including the decline of the government advertising, which we are seeing in various states. If I take that out of the calculation that we are 94%, 95% of our pre-COVID level number. As all the other sectors like real estate, education, banking, finance, health care, they all are really, really dominating the advertising space across new papers. On a lighter note, these days, we get called from advertiser asking for our favor for a particular page position. So this is happening after a period of many months. It's a very nice feeling. Our cost optimization efforts continue to aid in improving the margins. The print business EBITDA in Quarter 2 of FY '22 came in at around INR 1,219 million with an EBITDA margin of 29% compared to INR 873 million in Q2 of FY '21. We continue to remain committed to keep our costs under control and are expected to do almost 50%, 60% of last year's cost saving of INR 195 crores in our margin growth going forward. This is all from our side. And further more, my colleagues and I will be now happy to respond to your questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from the line of Himanshu Upadhyay from PGIM.

Yes, congratulations on good set of numbers. It's really heartening the margins and everything have improved. One question, first question I had was we were seeing some amount of raw material price moving up, okay. What is the trend on that side? And how are we able to maintain the margins? Or are you seeing the paper prices remaining [ Indiscernible .]

So, the newsprint prices, let me give in detail. In the last year, this quarter were at around INR 35,000 per ton, blended of Indian and imported, which has, in this quarter, came up to almost 41,500, like INR 41,500 roughly around that. So there has been almost 16% growth in the newsprint price per ton. And to be very honest, going forward in the Q3 and Q4, these prices will further go up by almost 7% around because in this quarter, we still had some stocks tied up at the earlier rate, but the rates are increasing or already increased. So the impact will come in the Q3 and Q4 also. At the same time, we've been able to maintain the margin on 2 fronts. One is that we are able to cut down certain cost and the advertising revenue has gone up. I think the biggest savior is the growth in the advertising revenue, which we are very confident about going forward also. Second thing we have taken our cover price increase. So almost by 7.5%. So our average cover price, which was at INR 4.30, which has gone up to INR 4.62 in this Y-o-Y quarter. The net realization was INR 2.72 around, which has come up to around INR 3. So there's been a growth of around 8% to 9% in the cover price realization for us. So that's how we've been able to manage it. Thank you.

Okay. Sir, 1 question. We -- and this is a slight confusion, okay? We have said that circulation copies, we are back to 90% to 95% of pre-COVID level, okay? And...

Jan, Feb of 2020. March.

And we have taken a price rise of, let's say, 5%, 6%. And current revenue, if we take, let's say, in a similar quarter of Q2 of FY...

Let me explain you. Our circulation revenue has gone up by 12%. Our average cover price realization has gone up by around 9.5%, and our circulation has gone up by 1%.

This is in comparison to Q2 FY '21?

Yes.

And in Q2 FY comparison to Q2 FY '20, how would it be? That was what I was trying to understand.

Exactly, I don't have the 20 quarter right now with me, but we can certainly get back to you with that detail.

Okay. And 1 or 2 questions on the annual report, okay? In our annual report, we have said that the number of journalists are currently 2,200, okay? And in 2000, it was around INR 3,000, okay? So we've reduced the number of generalists?

No, no, I think there's a confusion on that. When we say 3,000 people, we mean the people those who are working in the department. Some of them are journalists, some of them are photographers, some of them are news supporting team and all that. But if you talk about the people those who are pure journalists, that's the number.

Okay. So that number remains the same?

Yes.

Okay. Because in 2017 annual report it is around 3,000 employees. That was the confusion. Okay. And as the advertisement revenue and the things are improving, do we think it will need to hire more employees? Or do you think this many employees will be sufficient and costs moving ahead?

To be very honest with you, as of now, this looks very sufficient. But if my advertising continues to grow the way it is growing, I'll be more than happy to hire more people.

Okay. Okay. And in our annual report, we have said that cost optimization focus will lead to 55% to 60% savings, okay?

So last I could remember, we had done a saving of INR 195 crores. And we believe that out of that INR 195 crore, almost INR 100 crores plus savings will continue even going forward.

And the nature of it will be majorly fixed cost reduction?

Some fixed costs, some variable costs also, for example, a couple of supplements got merged into the main paper. So that's a saving as a newsprint cost in a particular market. So that will continue with us. The production cost saving will continue with us on those markets plus certain areas we have merged, certain optimization we have done in that system of recovery and all that. So that will continue with us.

And that's why where we have been able to reduce printing prices from 56 to 53 in the last 2 years?

Yes.

We will take a next question from the line of Jayesh Jain from Edelweiss.

First, congratulations on getting some outcomes on advisory board. One question on this front is that I want to understand what value add or what is our direction that we are looking at with him on board? And how do we think that our digital footprint will increase in coming years? If any guidance around that.

So I really appreciate your question. But you will understand this is slightly -- I would like to keep it within the company until the time we show some more results to you.

Okay. So we are looking to expand our digital footprint, I mean, considerably well.

See the whole idea is that if we have been able to grow 7x from January 2020 until September of 2021, this momentum should continue and whatever it takes for that.

Okay. Got it. And any guidance around your margins for overall business because day on were the prices -- I know it's a continuation of a previous question, but how are we looking to maintain this?

Currently, on a consolidated basis, we are at 23% EBITDA margin. And while in print alone, we are at 29% EBITDA margin. And our effort will be to improve this from here or at least maintain this number unless until some major thing comes out in the newsprint and the prices further goes up and all that. But overall, things are looking pretty good. The third wave, what we all were hearing about the grace of God, that wave has not passed away -- passed on very swiftly, so no damage done to the country as such. So I think we are on the right path as a country and as our industry also.

[Operator Instructions] Next question is from the line of Ankit Shah from White Equity.

Can you share the cost incurred on the digital piece during the quarter. I mean, and considering additional hiring for digital that we are planning. Where do we expect the quarterly employee cost to settle?

Sir, with due regards, if you remember, we took the permission from all of you that for digital front, we don't want to disclose too much right now in terms of number of employees, the cost and all that. And you've all been kind enough to allow us that. And keeping that in mind, we had done some disclosure this time of giving you the momentum in terms of number of people, those who come and look at our app on a monthly basis, we have given that. So maybe Humbly request you that further disclosure on the digital should be kept confidential for a while more, please.

Sure, sure. Sir, on the employee cost side, if you can throw some light, the prospective employee cost on a quarterly basis around where should it settle at?

Sir, our employee cost was around INR 90 crores in last year Q2, which has come up to INR 95 crores this year. This increase of 6% actually is not an increase. If you remember last year, we had taken some cost-cutting measures, which we rolled back this April itself so that there is no pinch on the employees because the numbers were improving. So we thought why should we unnecessarily penalize them. So -- and as a company, we believe we need to announce a nominal increment for our employees, maybe in the next quarter. Post-Diwali, we should do that. So there will be some cost increment of on-term percentage on that also going forward.

Okay. Sure. Sir, on the digital side, in our understanding, the entire IP revenues cost assets of the digital piece, are under the listed entity only. One, is that understanding right? And is it safe to assume that all future investments, monetization in any form, revenues, expenses, everything of DB Digital will be routed through this listed entity only?

100%, sir. What your understanding is right. And in future also, we intend to do so. And if any change, we will certainly come to you, all of you, for your advice and guidance on that.

And sir, in the initial remarks, you shared something on advertisement revenue growth in the festive season compared to last year. So can you repeat what you shared? I missed that piece.

Yes. What we are trying to say the growth this year in the -- if I have to compare the festive growth like-to-like from Navratri Day 1 till now because we compare like-to-like days. And I'm not comparing of 2020, I'm comparing '19 actually because 2020 was still in mid of COVID. So '19 was the year which was very clear. Some comparing over '19. In that case, we clearly have our growth in various states in a strong single digit and a couple of states in a double digit also. So that indicates that the festival season is really strong.

Okay. And sir, if you can help us on a blended basis, so this would be of selective states, some states would have done exceptionally well. And some states may not have reached the pre-COVID levels, et cetera. So on a blended basis, how is it looking like?

So overall, we are on a single-digit growth. If you talk about the October month number, festival growth number.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Yogesh Kirve from [ ada wealth. ]

This is -- I have a couple of questions. One is broadly to understand the newsprint industry, from a macro level. So it's been like -- it's a dying industry, et cetera, et cetera, And post this COVID period, there has been quite a bit of change in the behavior like we have seen a lot of repagination. There is a cost-cutting exercise, which has built up vigorously. And you have been mentioning that a good part of it will be retained. And after maybe quite a few years, there has been some increase in newspaper prices. So is there a thought within industry that now this calibrated view will continue and profitability would be a priority for this industry? Going forward also, even when people start growing significantly. At the same time, there is one more thought that because of COVID, quite a few smaller players actually had to close down their shops. So first is from macro level. Is there a change in the thought process of the newsprint industry?

But I want to understand newsprint industry or newspaper industry?

Newspapers, sorry.

Yes. So sir, with folded hands, very humbly, I would like to say, you made a remark that this is a dying industry.

No, not me, sir. This is what we have been reading, sir.

No, I think you've been reading a wrong publications or whatever. We are not a dying industry at all. By any means. We are growing, though it's a single-digit growth in spite of the COVID and all that, there have been a single-digit growth. And not only for me, even my peers, if you look at other listed publications, they all are showing a number and a healthy profit. So by any parameter you look, we are not a dying industry at all. So humbly put in for that.

My apologies for this misunderstanding sir. I was just reading articles from that. So my apologies.

Not at all, sir, I'm very happy that I'm able to clarify this confusion in your mind. That's one. Second thing, as for the overall scenario that we faced, the COVID problem, English newspaper face the major distribution issues and all that and all that. But I think our industry has been able to come out very strongly from that. And that's why the numbers what we are showing you are showing a healthy number. At the same time, we all are cognizant of the fact that there are challenges. We need to address that. We need to ensure that the reading habit continues and grows. At the same time, to stay much more relevant, like people talk about digital news and all that. But who are growing in the digital. These are the newspapers only through their apps, look at my app number. So it's a news app, which means a newspaper news goes into the app, which is further growing. So I think going forward, there will be an extension of business, which is what we are talking about in the digital format and other formats also -- So I think overall, things are in a decent situation. And we are -- we can assure you one thing that not only Dainik Bhaskar group, but all the other newspaper publications are doing whatever best they can to stay healthy and grow. You also mentioned that some publications had to shut shop and all that. To be very honest, I haven't heard a single name in last 18 months where a particular newspaper has shut shop. No, not a single case. Thank you.

Okay. And there was -- because I don't have this industry so well, actually, there was some news around 6 months back with regards to some sort of revenue sharing or something with this new generation apps actually, okay, like Facebook and WhatsApp and -- can you throw some light on that?

I think that's a regular business practice that when we share our news with any other platform. We charge them a particular revenue for sharing that news. So -- and they pay for that. So that's been an ongoing thing with various platforms.

So is there a possibility that there could be a long-term tie-up with these sort of guys going forward?

Yes, I think we all are talking to that, but let's see when it happens.

Okay. And lastly, from my side, sir, because we have been monitoring the results of the industry, actually. And there's a big mismatch between the cash generation and the valuation that this company enjoys. So any thought process from your side means how do you use this cash? And how has an industry would you like to communicate to existing investor, prospective investors because there's a huge gap between whatever the cash we generated.

And I totally agree sir, and this investor call is one of our small efforts from our side to communicate our strategy, our strength, our numbers to you so that you understand it better and then communicate to the people further down sir.

Okay. And lastly, sir, sorry, again, lastly, there is always a decent size of receivables. So what is the policy receivables like?

Our industry receivable generally happens in a period of 60 to 90 days, and this is within the policy, sir.

Okay. So we should not fear about any write-offs or something?

Not at all. We have a policy that any receivable which is beyond 3 years in a private sector is being provided for. And if the government sector beyond 5 years will be provided for. So you don't have to worry about any such number further more.

But it's a very long period, 3 years and 5 years?

Yes, sir.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Ayaz Motiwala from Nivalis Partners.

So the first question that I have is on the progress that we've made as we see in the numbers, in terms of September of last year up to this year, there's almost a consolidated basis, about INR 100 crores change in the revenue base. And the 2 line items which have hurt you. One is the raw materials, which you partly explained and I would like to get some clarification on that. And the other one is the other expenses, which may or I'm assuming, have an element of the digital spending. But Girish, it would be great if you could express this a little bit more, both for the newsprint side of the business, primarily raw materials. Any other expenses barring the digital ones, which has seen a very sharp spike. You explained the employee expense part already.

But in the Q2 of last year, the other operating expenses were INR 86 crores. This year, they are at INR 122. There has been an increase of INR 36 crores. Out of this INR 36 crores, around INR 8 crores is the additional cost, which we have incurred in digital this quarter because of the marketing and other things. There has been a INR 3 crore cost incurred extra for the extra pages production because if you notice the number of pages has gone up, so the page production cost in plate and all that, is that cost. INR 3 crores business promotion costs this year we have undertaken because it's been quite some time, we haven't really connected with our advertisers and all that. So we took that cost. And around INR 2.5 crores is the cost increase on the rent and traveling and insurance. And INR 1 crore is the power cost, which went up. And ForEx, there has been an impact of around INR 2 crores, INR 2.5 crores on ForEx. And we sold 1 machinery in Surat which we shifted there which was a loss of INR 2 crore that has also been booked. So these are the breakup of the cost.

Good. So this is a break of the INR 36 crore change. There's the other part, which is unexplained by these breakup numbers would be the other unexplainable cost at this moment?

So the other is like general cost. There has been some CSR cost 1.5 crore increased and a few more things. If you see that total is almost 30 crores on that.

Yes. This number is about 23 crores, 24 crores. But I mean, I take your point, sir. And in terms of the newsprint inflation, you quoted that the price running during the quarter was about INR 41,000 per ton.

Yes, sir. This quarter is around 41.5.

The quarter gone by, that is ended in September.

Q2 of '22.

Yes. So -- and that would be what level of inflation, sir, that you took in, I mean, on a comparable basis? Because obviously, there is an element of pagination with changes and you have this cost control program. So we appreciate that. But on a like-for-like basis, what would be the...

This is the newsprint prices increase, 16% is a price increase over the last year and this year. And if you talk about the overall cost, then the -- one second.

So the INR 41,000 sir, the newsprint cost -- what is that percentage change?

Yes, that's the overall percentage change on this. But the overall newsprint cost, if you see, was around 10 crores last year in this quarter. And in this current quarter is around 13 crores. So there is a 29% jump in the overall cost. Out of that 16.5% is the price and balance is in the terms of the number of pages and increased copy. Sorry, sorry, my mistake, not 10, it was INR 100 crores last year, not INR 10 crores, INR 100 crores, which has become INR 128 crores this year. So the increase, 29%, 16.5% came from the newsprint prices and balance was because of the increased number of pages and the print order.

Pages and the yes, the higher print trend, yes.

So our number of pages last year was 17 pages average in the last -- in the quarter last year and this quarter, been around 18.5. So there has been a growth of around 7.5% to 8% on the number of pages, sir.

Right. Okay. Okay. This is very helpful, sir. In terms of the -- just a sense of the outlook, sir, you shared a bit on the kind of advertisers who have come on. So you quoted 2 things, and I quote you, sir. You said that 70% of the business on a consolidated basis is local and there is a lot of action in terms of whether it's new age advertisers trying to woo Tier 2, Tier 3 customers as well as the existing advertisers and that is showing you some buoyancy in a few industries that you called out. So if you were to give us a flavor in terms of where the utilizations are in terms of -- because you can obviously add pages, which you are gradually adding as you mentioned a couple of pages that you added. Where would you say you are in terms of the core sort of ad-edit ratio and keeping that integrity. You still have a lot of room to go, sir?

Our adjusted ratio generally stays at 30% of advertising and 70% of the news. And as you know, we are flexible in the number of pages. So more advertising comes in, we increase the number of pages. So the ratio is maintained largely 70%, 30% only.

Right. And sir can you -- so the question then is that as you roll out more into the festive season and towards December, are you getting order from your system on higher pagination and printers?

Yes, sir. We are very much. I have said today is Guru Pushya Nakshatra, a very auspicious day. And today, most of our additions have gone beyond 30 pages because there was enough advertising for us to carry those 30 pages.

Right. Yes. So that was -- just to get a flavor of that. So that's...

Very much.

And so the industries -- yes, and the industries that you called out, I think, [ picked ]. You mentioned about 4 industries of its consumer was 1 of them and real estate was the others, which are the others which are -- which have been affected in the past such as and are coming back, maybe autos, real estate...

Also a bit of consumer durable, everybody is showing a growth. And government, obviously, for different reasons. But apart from that, if you see auto guys have some issues because they have not been able to supply the demand in the market. So obviously, they are not advertising much. And same is by consumer durables also. A lot of consumer durable companies are not able to supply in the market. But apart from that, every single category is showing a growth. If I can read out the numbers to you. For example, education, that's on a much higher growth because the season got shifted by a quarter for that. But if I see real estate is at almost 70% growth, FM3D had 14% growth, banking and finance at around 80% growth. Jewelry, jewelry has done fantastic this year, almost 100% growth in jewelry. So every possible category. In Government, certainly, there is a decline, a strong double digit for us. And yes, otherwise, the category is growing. Auto is also growing, but at 16%, which is nothing major.

Sure. And lastly, this question on government. You qualified it in terms of your longer-term run rate. And you said, if you were to adjust for that, it's 94% or 92% or 94% there and that it has declined also. So could you throw some light on what is the issue at hand and how this would sort of mend itself?

So what happened, the decision of advertising and releasing an ad in a particular newspaper, stays with the government, that local government, state government. We've been trying to pursue them. And I'm sure, going forward, they will see the merits in advertising through our newspaper to reach out to our readers also for their messages.

Our next question is from the line of Himanshu Upadhyay from PGIM Mutual Funds.

Yes. My question was on ad realization. How has the ad realization behaved and for both radio and newspaper? And are we seeing a trend of improving ad realizations? Are we back to pre-COVID or they are low? And secondly, on the utilization in radio business. How is it versus pre-COVID in terms of ad occupancy or...

If I'm allowed to answer this question in Hindi. Then I would -- am I allowed to?

Yes, you can speak.

[Foreign Language] So we are ensuring right now that he stays peacefully with us, spend more money with us as an advertiser. So we are not looking at current in quarter, we have not kind of pushed them for any rate increase to be very honest, because they are also coming back into the market. They are also kind of investing in the market because they were also not too sure about the response from the market because there were a lot of talks happening about the third wave and this and that. So I think the whole confidence in the advertiser or the any particular category has really come back in last month, I would say, where they know that the consumers are out in the market and shopping. So now after maybe a month or 2, we can still go and nudge them for some kind of rate increase, sir.

And on the capacity utilization on radio business means what is it currently?

So we are still sitting at about 13, 14 minutes of minutes per hour. So we are still comfortable. However, we are -- this next quarter, we will now start requesting our advertisers to go back to the same yield as 2019.

So radio will happen at a earlier pace than, let's say, the newspaper in terms of ad rate improvement. Slight utilization is improved -- utilization is higher.

Yes, because radio has a limit of inventory and hence radio will try and do it better earlier.

Okay. And one last thing. We have investment properties worth 100 crores, in our balance sheet. And any scope to reduce it and generate cash as real estate market is booming? And again, when this market is booming, our advertisements -- real estate advertisement are coming with these schemes or most of them are ready to pay cash for the ad?

Yes, what is.

When we brought into this scheme, the idea was to provide the liquidity benefit to the category. And since this category anyway had a lot of liquidity from last 1 year's time. So we have taken a call that most of the advertising is on the cash and carry basis in terms of cash, no barter. And whatever barter we are sitting at right now, we are putting all our efforts to ensure that we liquidity faster. And I'm very confident that in this quarter, which is Q3, we should be able to liquidate at least INR 5 crores to INR 7 crores of properties in this quarter, sir.

Okay. Okay. And one small thing on newspaper or digital addition of our newspaper. Currently, the newspaper is online free. At what point of time will we like to start charging? And if this free newspaper goes on for a very long period of time, is there any risk of people not starting -- being ready to pay? Because once habituated to getting a free newspaper, how tough will it be to start getting payments from them?

You have a very pertinent question and the whole industry is grappling to find an answer on this. And so I think everybody is waiting for a critical mass to come on to the new platform so that we could start charging them some money. So we all are grappling with this problem. And let's see how going forward, maybe in 6 months' time, 1 year's time, we get some answer on that.

Okay. And one small thing, we say that governments are not ready to advertise on our platform or not that much. But I was just going through our Patna edition and some of those editions. So the municipality advertisement for the local things are happening, okay, our municipality or...

You're right, sir. So some of the state governments are finding merits in our paper to advertise and some of them are not. So we are trying to convince the one those who are not.

So it is political edge where it is a problem or we are seeing the edge and all those is also a problem in some of those states?

It's a mix of both.

Our next question is from the line of Yash from JP Associates.

Yes. So my question is with regards to the buildup of a question that was asked previously with regards to the staff cost. Now you answered that there has been an increase of 6% over previous year. But what about the increase over previous quarter? You're seeing an increase from 88% to 95%, so that's around 8% hike.

Yes, that is because of that only, as we told you that we rolled out the cost, the salary cut, which we had taken some of them in the first quarter, some of them second quarter.

Okay. Now with regards to the copies that we have on a pre-COVID level on a monthly basis, it was around 54 lakhs. Some of the season?

Yes, you are right, 54 lakhs, but that was in the year 2019. But if you see that immediately pre-COVID, we were around 50 lakhs -- around 50 lakhs. So we are currently -- we're not targeting that number. So we are almost at 90% of that. Around 45 lakhs. We are around 44 lakhs, 45 lakhs, sir.

Our next question is from the line of Ankit Shah from White Equity.

Sir, considering the consistent cash generation and no intent to kind of hold or accumulate cash. Would the company consider moving to a quarterly dividend mode, if you can share whatever your thoughts on this?

Sir, our dividend policy, as we have declared earlier also and shared with all of us, all of you, if that company, as you rightly mentioned, have no intention to keep too much cash on the books. So whenever there is a cash generation and the Board decides, we give it out as a dividend to all the stakeholders.

Okay. Sir, you have shared Comscore MAU data this quarter. Can we request you to continue providing that data going forward? It's useful.

That will be our endeavor.

So we will also provide you the competitive numbers. As you would have experienced this time, we also shared numbers of all the other Hindi media companies. Happy to share with you that we have build a lead of almost 2x to 3x over the #2 player and almost a lead of almost 15x over some of the other newspaper companies that operate in our markets.

Our next question is from the line of Pavan [ Nagan ], an individual Investor.

More than a question. I wanted to congratulate the management for several things, whether it is the digital numbers or the print revenue or the revenue EBIT radio profits. Every or the time you all have been taking to answer all the questions every quarter. So thank you so much. As a shareholder, we feel very happy.

Honor for us to receive this kind of comment from you.

Only to say this, I actually wanted to speak. Second, now that I'm speaking, I just wanted to say earlier participants made a point of considering a quarterly dividend. Of course, you all have been very, I would say, liberal in paying out dividends. And it doesn't matter whether you pay quarterly or annual or half yearly. But I think it's just maybe a good way and a stronger message to send out with the markets. I just feel that if unless it's too much of a -- I mean, unless it's too much of effort or cost. A quarterly dividend may be a good thing to consider. And the third thing, I was looking at the revenues, and we are about INR 100 crores lower than September '19, actually not INR 100 crores, more like INR 80 crores lower than September '19. I understand there could be this festival thing. When do you think we will -- again, it's okay if you don't answer, but when do you think we would be able to cross the pre-COVID revenue number. Like let's say, December, it was -- December '19, it was close to INR 600 crores. ballpark, you are doing INR 600, INR 2,400 crores full year pre-COVID.

I think, sir, let me answer your -- both the questions. One is the dividend thing. I will certainly put up your point to the Board with the request that -- can it be considered quarterly? And to be -- let me assure you, from our side, there is no efforts issue, and there is no cost issue. I think Board need to reconsider this request and decide on that. Coming on to the revenue front. I think what has been happening in the market when we speak from to the advertisers, the 100% clarity of the response from the market and from the supply chain has not been achieved by most of them. So like when we speak to one category guy, they were very, very excited in the month of August, and they said we are going to go all out this year. But suddenly, their supply chain became a constant and they had to withdraw the entire pricing campaign. Some of the people were very skeptical about the market response that, will people come out to shop or not or the third wave will happen or not. So I think we are grappling with such issues in the market. And -- but fortunately, for India, these last two months have been fantastic. Every sector is doing amazingly good. So we are hoping that this momentum continues and that the confidence in the advertisers continues. And then maybe from next quarter, this Quarter 4, we should be able to show much better numbers. But one thing I can assure you, our entire team, those who are into sales are not leaving any stone unturned to really generate the revenues. And you must have seen our special mega shows which people are bringing out from these smaller markets. Some additions have done unbelievable work to gather that kind of revenue from the local clients and all that, which is -- so that goes on assuring you that we will do whatever best possible in the market to make sure that we get the revenue, which is required.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we are now closing the call. I now request the management team to add a few closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Thank you for everyone for your participation today and time on this earnings call. And I hope that we have responded to your queries adequately today. And as always, we'll be happy to be of assistance through our Investor Relations department headed by Mr. Prasoon Pandey for any further queries. Take care, stay safe and happy Diwali to everybody.

Happy Diwali to everybody.

Thank you. On behalf of DB Corp [Audio Gap]