Media giant JPL profits rise by 56% to €7.4m

MULTI-DISCIPLINED Indian media giant Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL) – in which Independent News & Media (INM) holds a 13.5% stake – has reported a 56.4% year-on-year increase in first-quarter after-tax profits to €7.4 million.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) came in at €10.6m, for the six months to the end of June, representing an annualised increase of 42%. Advertising revenue hit €24.2m for the quarter, up on a year-on-year basis, by 14.9%.

Mahendra Mohan Gupta – JPL’s chairman and managing director – summed up the quarter as “very heartening, as it posted the highest profit in the history of the company”.

Earlier this month, INM announced that it had raised €22m through the sale of 7.3% of its holding in JPL – decreasing its shareholding from 20.8% to 13.5% in the process.

Meanwhile, INM’s other planned disposals – price comparison website, Verivox and the South African-based outdoor advertising company, INM Outdoor – are still expected to proceed before the end of September.

In a rare press interview, last weekend, INM’s second largest individual shareholder, Denis O’Brien said that he was against the sale of INM Outdoor, adding that both the South African market and the subsidiary company, itself were in good shape. He added that as a Class-1 transaction (a sale of any subsidiary which is worth more than a quarter of its parent company), it would need shareholder approval and that he isn’t in favour.

But industry sources suggested yesterday that it would only require a simple 50.1% majority, making it a very achievable aim.