Bennett, Coleman and Co Ltd (BCCL), the company owning the largest-selling English newspaper in the world, is India’s most profitable media company, with what it claims is a 47 per cent market share of English dailies in the urban markets.
It closed the 2008 financial year (FY08) with sales of over Rs 4,000 crore, a net profit of close to Rs 900 crore and an earnings per share of Rs 271 — a healthy jump over FY07 figures.
But there was one big change on the liability side. From almost a zero-debt company in FY07, BCCL had over Rs 1,000 crore of loans on its books a year later. It has not specified the purpose of this borrowing.
Advertising sales made up over 80 per cent of the company’s revenue. The directors’ report gave more insights into its FY08 operating performance. The Times of India, the flagship brand, grew 11 per cent, with average daily net sales up 500,000 from FY07 to almost 3,700,000. Most of this growth came from the east and the south.
The Economic Times, its business news daily, grew by a modest 6.7 per cent, with average daily net sales up by 100,000 to 775,000 copies. Mumbai Mirror’s circulation grew by 16 per cent, to almost 700,000 copies.
The directors’ report acknowledged it was not an entirely rosy picture. The report said: “There is sustained competitive pressure in the general interest English dailies and also the business dailies’ segments in several markets. However, the inherent strengths of the company’s publications, and the marketing, display and brand strategies, should enable registering of decent growth in the coming year.”
The salary bill for FY08 increased marginally to over Rs 400 crore. The top three salaried employees, not surprisingly the promoters of the company — the Jain brothers and their mother, Indu Jain — each drew a whopping Rs 16 crore per annum in remuneration.
