The group’s advertisement revenues saw an increase of 13%, circulation revenues up 6%
Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL), publishers of Dainik Jagran, has reported consolidated operating revenue at Rs 1856.17 crore, up by 14.9% from Rs 1615.95 crore in FY22
The group’s advertisement revenues saw an increase of 13.3% at Rs 1290.40 crore from Rs 1138.95 crore. Similarly, circulation revenues grew 6.1% to Rs 373.22 crore from Rs 351.64 crore.
Other operating revenues were at Rs 192.56 crores, up by 53.1% from Rs 125.76 crores. Meanwhile, digital revenue up by 16.1 % at Rs 85.66 crores from Rs 73.77 crores. The profit after tax stood at Rs 196.79 crores, up by 13.6% from Rs 216.88 crores in FY22.
Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, JPL said, “The financial year began with worsening geo-political conditions causing uncertainties and disruption in the supply chain but India successfully managed to contain its impact on the economy by controlling inflation and ensuring supplies to its citizens with minimum disruption. The Media and Entertainment Industry thrives on discretionary spends and suffers when there are challenges like high inflation, lack of jobs and uncertain outlook.”
He further added that these adversities weaken the demand in general which have a direct correlation with the industry’s performance. The company has reported growth twice of estimated growth in the economy during the year.
“As the numbers show, all the businesses recorded significant growth in revenues. Outdoor and Event & Activation businesses deserve special mention as the delivery in terms of growth in revenues and profit exceeded those reported in the pre-pandemic financial year. I am glad to report that they are constantly increasing their share in the total pie and creating value for the stakeholders, which is not yet captured in the market capitalisation of the company.”
According to Gupta, both these businesses are self-dependent on funds required for meeting increased working capital requirements due to increased scale of operations and also inorganic growth and he hopes and trusts that they would continue to do so unless there is an opportunity for larger investments.
The radio business also performed satisfactorily and recorded strong growth though they are still behind pre-pandemic revenues by about 35%. “Radio being primarily fixed cost business model not needing any significant additional capital deployment in business for growth, its profits and cash generation will grow higher than the growth in revenues. Going forward, yield is also expected to improve with consumption picking.”
Speaking about the Print business, Gupta said, “It was stable reporting satisfactory growth in revenues on a high base. Midday registered robust growth in revenues catching up fast with its revenues in pre-pandemic times and turning into operating profit as well from significant operating loss. The company continues to maintain its market share and will embark upon increasing the same in fiscal 2023-24 on expectations that a slowdown in consumption will reverse in the next 6 months. Revenue of print business will take another a year or so to reach pre-pandemic revenue level but the profits will improve significantly with moderation in exceptionally high newsprint prices and normalisation of high inflation in other costs that impaired the profitability for the year under report.”
