Jagran Prakashan Q4 jumps 51.10 per cent to Rs 58.16 crore

Jagran Prakashan Ltd, publishers of leading Hindi daily newspaper Dainik Jagran, today reported an increase of 51.10 per cent in the standalone net profit to Rs 58.16 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.
It had posted a standalone net profit of Rs 38.49 crore in the January-March period of 2012-13, the company said in a statement.
Total income on standalone basis stood at Rs 391.51 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 342.84 crore in the year-ago period.
However, Jagran Prakashan's consolidated net profit for the financial year 2013-14 decreased to Rs 226.15 crore from Rs 255.08 crore in the previous fiscal.

Its consolidated total income for the year increased to Rs 1,702.73 crore from Rs 1,521.79 crore in 2012-13.
"In continuation of Q3 FY14, Q4 FY14 once again witnessed a steep growth of 17 per cent in advertisement revenue with further improvement in per copy realisation. On cost front, we continued to keep check. However, increase in newsprint prices partially due to depreciating rupee was unexpected and it lowered the operating margins by 3 per cent," Jagran Prakashan CMD M M Gupta said.

Its advertising revenue on standalone basis was Rs 264.74 crore in the quarter under review, up 16.31 per cent from 227.62 crore of the fourth quarter of last fiscal.

On the future outlook Gupta said that almost all businesses under investment phase have given improved performance and would improve further.
"In particular, Naidunia and Digital performed incredibly and strengthened their respective market positions," he said.
Shares of Jagran Prakashan today closed at Rs 115 on the BSE, up 2.18 per cent from its previous close.