Jagran's revenue and profit dip marginally in Q1FY20

Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL) has reported a drop in its revenues and net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2019.

Stand Alone Q1FY20 (all comparisons with Q1FY19)

• Operating Revenues at Rs 488.78 crores as against Rs 500.26 crores.

• Advertisement Revenues at Rs 342.33 crores as against Rs 348.97 crores.

• Circulation Revenues at Rs 102.70 crores as against Rs 103.71 crores.

• Other Operating Revenues at Rs 43.75 crores as against Rs 47.59 crores.

• Digital Revenue at Rs 10.33 crores, up by 14.5% from Rs 9.02 crores. (Included in advertisement revenues)

• Operating Profit at Rs 115.01 crores as against Rs 132.66 crores.

• PAT at Rs 59.45 crores as against Rs 75.84 crores.

Consolidated Q1FY20 (all comparisons with Q1FY19)

• Operating Revenues at Rs 584.28 crores as against Rs 602.57 crores.

• Advertisement Revenues at Rs 431.34 crores as against Rs 445.34 crores. (Represents advertisement revenue from print, radio and digital.)

• Circulation Revenues at Rs 108.60 crores as against Rs 109.69 crores.

• Other Operating Revenues at Rs 44.34 crores as against Rs 47.54 crores.

• Digital Revenue at Rs 10.91 crores, up by 14.2% from Rs 9.56 crores.

• Radio Operating Profit at Rs 22.37 crores as against Rs 26.05 crores.

• Radio Operating Profit Margin at 32.05% as against 34.42%.

• Operating Profit at Rs 141.10 crores as against Rs 163.55 crores.

• PAT at Rs 65.75 crores as against Rs 88.36 crores.

Commenting on the performance of the company, Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, JPL, said, "Economic headwinds continued causing increased stress on consumption and in consequence on advertising spend by the advertisers. Auto industry, being one of the largest advertisers, recorded the highest degrowth in their sales since 1995. Similarly, revenues from the election were also far below the expectations and could not compensate the loss of revenue from auto sector and government. However, we could contain the degrowth in advertisement revenue to less than 2% at the back of growth in certain categories such as education as well as near 14% growth in digital revenue.

The industry was feeling some respite from moderation in newsprint prices but levy of custom duty will reduce the benefit oflower newsprint prices significantly.

Performance of outdoor and activation business was positive for the quarter as both reported profit and are proceeding in the direction of achieving targeted EBIDTA of 10% by the close of the year.

Radio business for the first time reported fall in revenues and profits primarily because of the loss of government revenue which could not be compensated by the election revenues and loss of certain volumes due to taking rate hike in certain markets in addition to impact of adverse macro environment on categories like real estate.

This is an aberration and I hope and trust that radio business will soon be back to the path of growth. I am happy to report that the definitive agreements for acquisition of Big FM have been executed and we are awaiting the MIB approval for completing the acquisition.

In terms of cost, we have continued to be prudent. As a result, there was reduction of 3% on QoQ basis and no increase on YoY basis in the total expenses (excluding finance cost and depreciation). Let us hope that environment turns positive and sentiments improve at the earliest.

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