DB Corp exhibited a slight revenue decline in FY 2025, totaling INR 24,212 million compared to INR 24,821 million in FY 2024, influenced by a high election-related base. Advertising revenue was INR 16,899 million, with a promising 13% CAGR over three years. Despite a challenging Q4, where revenues dropped to INR 5,668 million, improved circulation strategies led to a modest increase in subscription numbers. The EBITDA margin held at 26%, with a net profit of INR 3,710 million. The company forecasts a return to growth, inspired by anticipated consumer-driven economic boosts and strategic market engagement【4:1†source】.
D.B. Corp Limited reported total revenues of INR 24,212 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, a slight decrease from INR 24,821 million in the prior year. This drop is attributed to a high base from election-driven advertising growth in the previous fiscal year. However, advertising revenue over the last three years has seen a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%, amounting to INR 16,899 million in FY '25, while circulation revenue remained relatively stable at INR 4,734 million.
In Q4 FY '25, the company faced headwinds with total revenues of INR 5,668 million, down from INR 6,418 million in the previous year's Q4, which had benefited from significant advertising during the elections. Advertising revenues specifically declined to INR 3,841 million from INR 4,457 million in Q4 FY '24. Nonetheless, the company anticipates a recovery trajectory starting April '25, where advertising growth has already shown signs of improvement with double-digit growth observed during the month.
The company's EBITDA for FY '25 reached INR 6,270 million, reflecting a margin of 26%, with the print segment achieving an impressive margin of 30%. Net profit for the year stood at INR 3,710 million, which is marginally lower than the previous fiscal year but represents a significant 38% CAGR growth over the past three years. The improvement in profitability was attributed to effective cost management, favorable foreign exchange trends, and lower newsprint prices, which are expected to remain stable or may decrease slightly in the future.
The circulation strategy implemented, particularly the 'Jeeto 14 crores' Reader Scheme, has yielded positive results, contributing to an expansion in copies across various markets during Q4 FY '25. This initiative aligns with the company’s objective to regain market share lost in circulation numbers in prior years.
D.B. Corp's digital business is thriving, boasting 19.6 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of March 2025. This positions them as the leading Hindi and Gujarati news app. The company plans to experiment with various monetization strategies, including advertising and subscription models, as it continues to expand its digital reach across 14 states, including new markets like Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
The advertising revenue breakdown highlights mixed growth across sectors. The banking and financial services (BFSI) sector saw a modest growth of 3% to 4%, and jewelry advertising grew by 11%. Unfortunately, the government sector saw a substantial decline of nearly 25% due to the absence of election-related advertising, which was previously a significant revenue contributor for the company.
Looking ahead, the management expresses optimism regarding the outlook for the domestic economy, bolstered by several positive indicators such as anticipated income tax reforms likely to increase disposable income, the upcoming rollout of the 8th Pay Commission, and a forecast for a normal monsoon, which may stimulate demand in rural areas. The company aims to sustain circulation growth, with an optimistic target of 3-4% growth in the next fiscal year.
In terms of shareholder returns, D.B. Corp has increased its dividend payout from 55% to 58%, signaling a commitment to returning value to its investors. This consistent dividend policy underscores the company's confidence in its long-term financial health and outlook.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening, and welcome to D.B. Corp Limited Q4 and FY '25 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] . Please note that this conference is being recorded.
We have with us today the senior management team of D.B. Corp Limited, Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Deputy Managing Director; Mr. Girish Agarwal, Non-Executive Director; Mr. Lalit Jain, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Mushtaq Ali, Senior Vice President, Finance and Accounts; and Mr. Prasoon Kumar Pandey, Head, Investor and Media Relations, who will represent DB Corp Limited on the call.
The management will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter and full year ended March 31, 2025, followed by a question-and-answer session. 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 e-mailed to you and are available on the website of Stock Exchange and Company's Investor Section. I 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.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the Q4 FY '25 D.B. Corp Earnings Conference Call. We will begin the call by highlighting the key financial performance for the quarter and full year ended March 31, 2025, followed by key operational updates. For FY '25, we reported total revenues of INR 24,212 million, compared with FY '24 revenues of INR 24,821 million on an election driven high base of last year.
At a CAGR of 13% in the last 3 years, the advertising stood at INR 16,899 million in FY '25. The circulation revenue stood at INR 4,734 million in FY '25.
Our EBITDA stood at INR 6,270 million, reflecting an EBITDA margin of 26% with a print business continuing to deliver industry-leading EBITDA margin of 30% for the fiscal year gone by. The net profit came in at INR 3,710 million, marginally lower than last fiscal for registering a 38% CAGR growth over the past 3 years. The improvement in profitability has been driven by efficient cost management, favorable ForEx trend and soft newsprint prices.
Coming to Q4 FY '25, our advertising revenues faced headwinds; however, we are starting to observe encouraging signs of recovery and anticipating returning to our growth trajectory in the upcoming quarters. The total revenue for quarter 4 FY '25 stood at INR 5,668 million as against INR 6,418 million last year, which had benefited from elections.
The advertising revenues came in at INR 3,841 million as against INR 4,457 million last year while circulation revenue remained flat at INR 1,172 million. The EBITDA stood at INR 1,017 million and net profit for the quarter was INR 523 million.
Notably, our circulation strategy proved successful with an impressive addition of copies across markets during the quarter 4 FY '25. This was a result of our team's robust ground level acquisition efforts and success of our innovative 'Jeeto 14 crores' Reader Scheme.
Our radio business continues its strong run, leading industry growth with advertising revenues of $1,663 million for FY '25, a 4.5% Y-o-Y increase and EBITDA rising to INR 558 million up 1.3% Y-o-Y.
With regards to our digital business, we are very happy with the progress as our MAUs increased further to 19.6 million as of March 2025, making Dainik Bhaskar a clear digital news leader -- we're the #1 Hindi and Gujarati news apps. Our focus markets have now increased to 14 states, including Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand for our digital mobile app market outreach.
With this, I would now request Mr. Girish Agarwal to update us on the operations. Girjish-ji, over to you.
Thank you, Pawan. Good evening, everybody, and thanks for joining us. Our full year results reflect a slowdown especially in the quarter 4. This decline is primarily attributed to 2 key factors: One, high base effective, which was stemming from the last year's election-driven surge, which we saw last year and the challenging economic conditions in the Q4 -- especially in Q4 because in Q1, '23, we were in a good shape.
However, there are some encouraging highlights what we still see is that starting this fiscal April, we are observing a decent improvement in the market. Like in April month, we saw double-digit growth -- a strong double-digit growth in the advertising.
The other notable and reassuring achievement has been the growth in our circulation number. As you know, from last couple of years, the circulation number has been on a weaker ground. We were also contemplating what is to be done. Finally, we thought that now we need to go all out since the newsprint prices are supporting us to gain some more copies. And we did the scheme of INR 14 crores. And I think after a long time, there was a slight uptick in the overall numbers. I can't say very encouraging numbers, but still uptick in the numbers, and based on that, we believe this whole year we'll continue driving this, and there will be a growth in the overall circulation number. And this will also help us to arrest any kind of decline, which may happen going forward in the circulation.
Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the outlook for India. We believe that the domestic economy is poised for consumer-driven growth in the near to medium term. And this view is supported by the several positive triggers on the horizon, including the income tax relief measures that is expected to boost the disposable income, anticipated rollout of the 8th Pay Commission and the forecast of a normal monsoon, which will support rural sentiment and spending.
We remain focused on consolidating our market leadership, delivering consistent value to stakeholders and exploring meaningful opportunities for expansion and innovation. With continued focus on our operational efficiencies, reader engagement and monetization strategies, we are confident in our ability to return to growth trajectory in the upcoming quarters.
With that, we could now open the floor for questions-and-answer session. Thank you once again for joining, and over to you now.
[Operator Instructions]. The first question is from the line of Amit Doshi from Care Portfolio Managers.
Sir, I mean, we understand that we have increased the copy of circulation -- number of copies. However, the same is not reflected in the numbers. So can you share what exactly is the reason?
So we started this 'Jeeto INR 14 crores' scheme in the first week of January, and we started seeing some uptake happening from February and March. So if I see the Q3 and Q4, there is a growth. But suddenly, from the last year Q4 to this Q4, it's almost flat. But from Q2 and Q3, the Q4 numbers are better. And going forward, you will see further reflection on that.
Okay. I mean, in terms of percentage, what kind of circulation growth that we are looking at?
We are talking about 2% right now.
Okay. And expectation for, say, next financial year '25, '26?
Yes, expectations are much more, but looking at the practical -- because what's happening at the same time, there is a single -- double -- single digit or maybe 1% or 2% decline also in the few markets. So considering all that, even if we are able to close the market at 3%, 4% growth, that will be a big achievement.
Okay. Understood. Your press release mentions that, of course, year-on-year figures are looking very negative in terms of ad revenue because of last year high base, obviously, especially because of the election campaign year that it was. But if you can just give some sort of a break up or some color, like what has been the reduction in the government revenue versus nongovernment revenue, so it gives some more color because the numbers are quite different -- I mean, quite low in that revenue.
So if you look at last year, full year, the automobile category were able to grow at 16%, the real estate category grew at 17%. The jewelry category grew at 11%. The education category grew at 2%. The Banking and Financial Services grew at almost flat. So other categories were negative. But the top of it was the government category and the political advertising, which went down by almost 25%. I think that 25% hit was not able to take be taken care of by the others. And hence, we were overall down.
And especially in Q4, because in Q4 what happened my Automobile also became flat, actually negative -- 5% negative. My Education became flat, my Real Estate became flat. So because of that, I think the Q4, I don't know for what reason the market was not really supporting the growth However, we were able to at least close the other categories on flat. But yet because of the big blow on the government advertising and the politic advertising, which happened in the Q4 last year, we were not able to show the desired response in the growth.
Okay. So basically, you would want to say that the fall is almost 60% to 70% because of the government reduction?
More than that because other categories did...
Actually, yes, so others actually grew, sorry, more than 100%, okay understood. Sir, you launched this Bhaskar English app in January first or second week, I believe. Any update that you would want to share in terms of the response or any -- the MAUs that we saw a slight increase. So can you slightly give color on that?
English Bhaskar App received very well, but the numbers are too small, too small to be very honest. We are still giving some more time for the eam to at least have some respectable numbers where we can come and talk to you on that. But however, I'm happy to talk about the numbers of the Hindi and Gujarati app. If you look at the Hindi and Gujarati app in the March of '25, the numbers which were disclosed by the ComScore, we are jointly at around 19.6 million MAUs, which was higher than the January '25.
And the most heartening number is that -- in the app number if we are at 19.6 million, #2 player, which is Aaj Tak, is at 2.6 million. So we have -- you can see the lead difference from 2.6 million compared to 19.6 million.
Right, right, right. So you believe now this number of 20 million is a fair number that you've achieved because the kind of gap that you have between #1 and #2, before you kind of start monetizing in a slightly larger way. I mean you have never disclosed your digital plan so far, but just trying to understand in terms of -- your mind -- in terms of the number of MAUs that you would look at before taking some right direction?
Our internal target is that we must go to 50 million MAUs, but at the same time, for monetization purpose, we are doing certain experiments in different markets, different cohorts. And we are getting a decent response. But we will not take any blanket call until the time we have a critical mass, which we believe is still a long way to go.
Okay. And sir, any -- what is the reason for sharp jump in other expenses?
Two things. One is the circulation promotional expenses, which went up -- as we mentioned to you, we did this 'Jeeto INR 14 crores scheme'. And we have decided that this year, full year, we are going to run some schemes or other -- maybe this is a summer fall month, we'll not do much on April, mid-June, but starting from the August onwards, we will do again some circulation scheme to make sure that their circulation is either growing or staying intact, that's one.
And second thing we are doing on digital promotion in various markets. So that is the 2 costs, which is largely. Apart from that, around INR 20 crore cost is the regular expenses increase in the system.
Okay.
If you look at the numbers, the total cost of other expenses went up by almost INR 98 crores, INR 97 crores, correct? So in that INR 97 crores, INR 20 crores [indiscernible] increase in productions and other things, then [indiscernible] is a big cost and digital promotion is a big cost.
Okay.
And if you look at...
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Amit, could you please fall back in the question queue for further questions.
The next question is from the line of Rakesh from Nine Rivers Capital.
Sir, I just wanted to know on the digital piece. We -- from the last couple of years, we are seeing that business and now it has become a sizable business, it has grown very well. First of all, congratulations on that. Sir, I just wanted to understand when you are thinking to monetize that -- first is when you are thinking. Second, what will be the ways? Will it be through the advertising? Or will it be through the subscription model? What is your thought process? Because we are seeing a couple of companies in India, which are focused on advertising, a couple of companies focused on subscription, what is our thought process on this piece? That will be very helpful.
As we mentioned to you earlier also, that company is experimenting in different markets, different cohorts on the monetization. And so far, the response has been decent. Currently, we are at 19.6 million MAUs, which we believe should go up substantially going forward, go up.
And then only we should be able to take a call whether we want to do a blanket monetization. And as for the advertising and circulation subscription goes, I think it will be a mixed strategy. There'll be a subscription revenue and also advertising revenue. So it has to be a mix of both.
Okay. And sir, with respect to the other expenses you mentioned, the increase in other expenses, led by circulation expense promotion that we were doing, the advertising with respect to the digital, and there are other expenses you mentioned. Can you please talk about that again, I couldn't understand that.
Out of this INR 97 crores, INR 98 crore increase in the expenses, roughly around INR 20 crores are the routine expenses increase, like the production costs, traveling costs and all that. Then there is a big chunk of similar amount from these circulation, promotion expenses for the entire schemes, for the surveys and all that. Then there's a large chunk on the digital promotion.
Next question is from the line of [Pradyumna Choudhary] from JM Financial.
First question is -- so you spoke about the revenue decline, which has happened in Q4 outside the government as well, like our fuel sectors have been flat and sectors like automobile have actually seen a decline even in Q4, so what really since then has changed, like April, you're talking about seeing double-digit growth. Do you think is it happening due to maybe a low base or the ad spends are actually coming back since then?
To be very honest it is confusing because in the month of January, February, the market was down. March onward, we saw some uptick in March and April has been a good month in terms of education, real estate and jewelry. Also one of the reasons why April was good because Akshaya Tritiya this year was on -- it was in April, 30th April. Last year, it was on 11th of May. So maybe some benefit of Akshaya Tritiya went in the month of April also.
All right. Understood. So we'll have to see probably for another month or 2 before we can actually establish whether the the uptick is actually happening on a more sustainable manner or?
If I pick a base of government advertising of last year, which is '24, '25 and the other market, I think this year, we should be in a decent position.
Okay. And sorry, just one more question -- last year, Q4, what percentage of total ad revenue was government advertising?
Last year, I don't have the exact percentage, but that was the highest chunk because just before the lok sabha election.
The next question is from the line of Riya Mehta from Aequitas Investments.
I would like to ask that how is Auto doing for us? Because I think you mentioned it was negative 5%. So what kind of absolute amount of Auto ads are we seeing?
So if you look at the annual number for the automobile category, we grew at around 16% -- if you look at the annual number. But when you look at the quarter 4, the auto was negative by 3%, 4% [indiscernible], I think that this year auto.
So 10% of our revenue -- 10% of our total ad revenue.
Auto last year was 9% of the total revenue.
9% of the total revenue. Okay. And I think what we saw negative during the year or maybe during the quarter was real estate and education, but is it generally that this quarter, Q4 is not heavy for education?
No, no, no. This year, in fact we were surprised, education and real estate would have grown much higher. But I don't know, there was a lull in the market in the month of December, January, February, all the 3 months are bad.
Okay. And the kind of, I think, last Q4, we had mentioned that around 9% of the ad growth was coming from our election spend. So that will come on a broad basis around INR 35 crores to INR 40-odd crores. So is my calculation right?
I don't remember the exact number, but overall, if you see last year, we have grown -- we have gone down by INR 62 crores in our advertising, from a base of INR 1,752 crores, we went down to INR 1689 crores, which is a INR 62 crores decline and the government decline was more than this.
Okay. So maybe some part of it was election driven and some more was even organic government advertisement spends have gone down, is it fair to assume?
I really can't say, we have to see this year whether the other numbers have gone down accordingly or not.
Okay. So April, we are not seeing any decline in government spend?
No.
The next question is from the line of [Falguni Dutta] from Mansarovar Financials.
What was the number of copies in circulation for Q4?
Around 40 lakhs.
Okay. And what were the newsprint prices for Q4? And how are they now?
So the Q4 prices this year is at around INR 47,500, which is down by almost 4% over last year. And going forward, we believe that this price should stay or come down by maybe 1% or so.
Okay. And they would be almost similar now, is it?
Yes, slightly decline possible, maybe 1% or so.
Okay. And sir, any comment on the dividend you are going to make?
As you know, last year -- last to last year, it was 55% for the payout. This year it is 58% of the payout. So our policy continues like this.
The next question is from the line of [Agastya Dave] from CAO Capital.
Am I audible?
Yes, very much, sir.
Sir, can you share the annual number for circulation revenues?
Almost the same -- in the line of around INR 40 lakhs.
Okay. Okay. Perfect. Sir, I wanted the actual revenue number, but it should be flattish, right?
Revenue number circulation is roughly around INR 473 crores.
Okay. Perfect. Sir, most of my questions have been answered, and you've explained everything fairly clearly. But as things stand, do you think for this coming year, you will be able to negate the entire drop that we'll see in government expenditure. Because obviously, this year, there's no Lok Sabha election? So again, there will be -- compared to last year -- there will be some drop off. So will we see a growth this year?
We will see growth for sure because last year the government advertising all happened until March -- because on April code of conduct came in picture. So we will have some, I think, overall growth over the government advertising. Because when the code of conduct happened, even the state government advertising stops.
Right. So sir, how does the cycle actually work for you? Do we -- how long do we take up to Lok Sabha elections to catch up to the Lok Sabha level of advertising? Because I'm assuming that every year the advertising is actually growing, if you like, normalize it for elections.
Yes. But the government advertising is very difficult to predict. Yes, it's very difficult to predict the government approach to advertising.
Sir, given the trends that you have seen so far in the first quarter, would you say that we see probably double-digit growth overall for the company for this year? Or is it too early to say?
Our endeavor is for that only, sir.
The next question is from the line of [Mohit], an individual Investor.
This quarter our inventory turnover has been high compared to previous quarters. Is it because the dealers are facing difficulties in pushing forward? Or is the consumer still hesitant to pick up the newspaper and read as circulation revenues has also dipped. And what I recall from previous con call is that we were seeing positive response from the readers because of the various schemes?
As I mentioned to you, from Q3 to Q4, we have seen some uptake in circulation numbers. Now it's a task for our team to maintain and grow this number from here onwards.
Okay, sir. And also, sir, there is an increase in cash every quarter. Are we looking at an opportunity to deploy it?
Our -- if you see dividend payout strategy has been the same, as I just mentioned. This year, we paid 58%. Last year, we paid 55%, so we continue doing that, sir.
Sir, on the acquisition part, is there anything?
If you have something in mind, please do let me know offline.
The next question is from the line of Rakesh from Nine Rivers Capital.
Sir, with respect to the other expenses you mentioned it was due to the promotion expenses with respect to the digital as well as the circulation. What will be the -- so what we should take the growth for the other expense in the coming years? It will be what number?
So whatever is the Q4 number, if you analyze that for the next year, it will be slightly lesser than that only.
Okay. And sir, your thoughts, again, I'll come to the digital piece. You said what is the current profitability or the -- has the breakeven reached digital business? What is the loss or something you can talk about digital business?
Based on our board recommendation, we took the request to all the investors. I took the liberty of not disclosing the digital numbers in detail. considering the competition around. And hence, we are not disclosing those numbers, sir.
The next question is from the line of Amit Doshi from Care Portfolio Managers.
Yes. Sir, you mentioned that the newsprint price you expected to be slightly same or lower. With this rupee appreciating, do you believe there is a likelihood of kind of returning -- I mean, reversing the price trend. And I also noted that the COGS -- the ratio of gross margin, there is a bit of a hike. So is it because of newsprint prices or something else? So just wanted to confirm on that?
See, as you know, 30% of my newsprint is imported. And now if the newsprint price get impacted because of dollar, then it will impact the Indian also. Because Indian newsprint manufacturers do the parity on the imported one. So I really can't comment on the volatility of the international market and impact on the rupee.
Yes. Okay. I just wanted to confirm as you mentioned it is you're likely to expect to reduce. So that's the reason.
I'm assuming it will stay the same, then we'll have a benefit, but if the rupee depreciates, then it will be a problem.
The next question is from the line of Riya Mehta from Aequitas Investments.
Sir, my first question is in regards to the shipping and the freight. So basically, we've been hearing the availability of containers have been an issue. So are we facing something on those lines? And what kind of inventory levels should we have for imported papers?
We also were slightly concerned on this. Based on that, we have done some stocking for the next quarter. So as of now, we don't have much of concern on that. But let's see how the next 2, 3 months goes.
Okay. So for one quarter, we have surplus -- we have sufficient inventory.
Yes.
Got it. And yes, sir, apart from auto, real estate and education, could you help me with what other sectors did good for this quarter?
Unfortunately, most of the other quarters went on a single-digit growth, like health care, single-digit; electronics, electrical, single-digit. Hypermarket went on a slight decline. Entertainment, cinema unfortunately went on a big decline. Most of the GEC channels have stopped advertising because they are facing the heat. So yes.
The next question is from the line of Khushi, Individual Investor.
Yes. My first question to you is what is the ad yield rate growth for the quarter and for annually.
Sorry, what is the...
Ad yield rate growth.
Ad yield ratre growth, unfortunately, is nothing significant. Nothing significant, to be very honest. This is one area where we have to really work hard along with the industry to increase the rates.
Okay. My next question to you is, as you have mentioned that 30% imported news in mix, was the number quarterly or it was annually?
Same, generally number varies from 25% to 30% quarter-on-quarter.
So this is quarter number, what would be the annual number?
So as I mentioned to you, like, for example, the Q4, the number was 77% to 23%, but if you look at the annual number, it was 75% and 25%. So it keeps varying from quarter-to-quarter. So the range is anything from 75% to 25%, to 80% to 20% or 70% to 30%.
Okay. My next question is, what is the growth and contribution of government sector, BFSI and jewelry, quarter as well as for the financial year.
So government quarter actually has gone down, as I mentioned to you, in fact, the whole discussion from last half an hour was this only that because of the election not being there, we lost quite a money from the government business. So unfortunately, that one. And other 2 category, which one you said?
BFSI and jewelry?
BFSI -- banking and financial services -- there has been a 3% to 4% growth on that particular segment.
And jewelry, there has been a growth of almost 11%.
Quarter number?
Quarter number growth jewelry is higher because the Akshaya Tritiya, which was last year -- sorry, the quarter 4, you're talking about. So quarter 4, the jewelry growth was 14%, yearly growth is 11%.
[Operator Instructions]. Next question is from the line of Meghna, an Individual Investor.
Am I audible?
Slightly blur. Can you use the handset directly, please?
Is it better now?
Yes.
Like you mentioned all the sector, may I know the contribution of each sector in quarter 4?
So if you look at the contribution on the -- I can give you the annual number, it is a little better. So annually -- sorry.
Sure, annual number would work.
Yes, annual number, government contribution was the highest with almost 30%, then education was at 12%, 13%; automobile 9%; real estate, 10%; Jewelry, 6%; FMCD another 5% -- yes, so on and so forth.
The next question is from the line of [Amit Kumar].
Just 2 questions at my end. I mean the first one, you sort of mentioned the ad growth improving in April. So could you sort of help us, I mean, is this a base effect kind of thing because I simply remember consumption last year was slightly muted. The consumption economy was broadly sort of muted. Is this a base effect playing out in your opinion?
Yes, you're right. You're right. This is a base effect also.
Okay. And then the second point is that the last couple of years, clearly, the government focus has -- post-COVID -- the government focus has also been a lot on the CapEx side. And I think after some time we saw fairly monumental changes on the income tax side. And I think the finance minister talking about going almost INR 1 lakh crore kind of revenue will go into the hands of consumers on that amount. And you will be sort of talking to CMOs on a fairly regular basis. Do you sort of get that sense of that money in the hands of consumer in April and May, basically a little bit of opening of purse strings at the customer's end and then at the corporate AdEx.
I mean I know this is just barely the beginning right now, do you sort of get that sense that things will sort of build up as we go towards the festival season, things will sort of build up better than certainly what we saw last year?
Unfortunately, the quarter 4 number that you look at of the other industries also has not been very good, whether it's FMCG or auto and all that, real estate. So it looks like that the ground is stretched. Now all the measures taken by government in the last couple of months, hopefully, they should work. As I mentioned about the 8th Pay Commission and all that. So that money is yet to come out in the hands of people and then in the market. So I'm confident that going forward, this will certainly help.
In your conversations with your clients, do you sort of see any sort of -- any of those or any which ways, I mean that's water under the bridge now, right? Because any which way the tax -- the income tax changes are applicable from 1st of April, so we're talking April, May, essentially. But now in your conversations with your clients, do you sort of see the consumers sort of opening up their purse things a little bit on the back of lower income tax rates and some additional benefit -- that some tax benefits that we are getting starting to get from April onwards.
People are hoping for that, but on the ground it was until March, but from yes, people are hoping for it.
Okay. My second -- my last one point was on the real estate side, specifically, so again, all of a sudden more metro and tier 1 people, do you think in Delhi, Mumbai, what we saw post-Diwali a little bit of a correction in the real estate market in terms of sentiment, in terms of pricing, in terms of volumes. But so 2 points really. One is that have you sort of also seen a little bit of correction in Tier 2 to Tier 3. I mean, you're sort of saying fourth quarter real estate was also down. Advertising was also down. But again, what are the kind of trends incrementally that you are seeing? I mean is that correction sort of over. Are you seeing sort of, again, green shoots of recovery on the real estate side as well, 6 months broadly basically?
I think in Tier 2, 3, what happened, the real estate guy did a bumper sale during Diwali. This Diwali was bumper for real estate guys. And most of these are the owner-driven companies, owner-managed run companies. So I think they had enough -- so they went slow in their mind. And if nothing happened for 3, 4 months, they were not bothered about it. But from, I think, February onwards, they all are concerned. So April went okay. So let's hope that should continue now.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today's conference call. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for your participation and time on this earnings call today. I hope we have responded to your queries 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. On behalf of D.B. Corp Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.