INM expects profit to exceed €350m

IRISH newspaper and publishing group Independent News & Media (INM) expects cost cuts and rising advertising revenue from growing markets to boost its operating margin to 20% by mid-2007, top executives said on Friday.

The group posted an operating margin of 17.6% for the half year to September and expects it to reach 19% by the year-end, and then 20% "within the next 18 months", chief operating officer Gavin O'Reilly said.

INM, with businesses spanning nine countries, expects group profit for 2005 to be "north of around €350 million", chief executive Anthony O'Reilly said.

"Our aspiration is to be a low-cost provider. We are trying to put papers together cheaper," he said.

INM, which bought 26% of Indian newspaper group Jagran Prakashan for about 1.5 billion rupees (€27m) this year, sees strong growth in advertising revenue in Asia's third-largest economy.

Kanpur-based Jagran Prakashan owns Dainik Jagran India's largest selling Hindi-language newspaper with a readership of 21.24 million.

"The fastest-growing (advertising) market in the world is Hindi and it is in India," Gavin O'Reilly said. "It is a market that is about the same size as the enlarged European Union."

"We are talking about (Jagran's) business here which will have a turnover of around €100m" for the year to March 2006.

Jagran Prakashan, which is planning to raise about 3 billion rupees (€55m) in an initial public offering, saw revenue grow 20% last year.