Listed on the National Stock Exchange, the Jagran Prakashan group publisher of the leading Hindi daily Dainik Jagran and the Urdu daily Inquilab released its numbers for the financial year ending March 2021. Jagran Prakashan’s consolidated total income from operations in FY21 declined by 38.53% to Rs. 1,289.19 crore in comparison to Rs. 2,097.32 crore in Fy 2020. The group’s net profit after tax declined by 69.44% to Rs 84.72 crore in FY 20-21 from its net profit of Rs 277.18 crore in FY 2019-20. (From the extract published as a display ad in The Business Standard of 29 May 2021)
Nevertheless, Jagran reported a marked improvement in its consolidated net profits at Rs 39.90 crore for FY 2021 Q4 compared to the previous year’s January to March quarter (Rs 5.72 crore). For Q4 of FY 2021, the total income declined by only 8.8% to Rs 406.37 crore from Rs 445.56 crore in Q4 of FY 2020. This can be seen as evidence of the economic recovery before the second wave of the pandemic hit the economy and advertising revenues. Moreover, in the recent FY 2020 Q4, expenses were 18.1% lower at Rs. 357.57 crore compared to expenses of 436.56 crore in last quarter of FY 2020.
From the numbers reported, employee costs have not been slashed by the group while they have declined by 10.94% to Rs. 371.46 in FY 21 from 417.09 in FY 20 and the Rs. 419.23 in FY 2019. The Jagran group’s reserves, however, went back up during the year to Rs. 1.939.67 crore, almost reaching the levels of FY 2018 when it reported reserves at Rs. 1,967.94 crore.
The figures that we find most interesting are of raw material consumption since that is a way to gauge a composite of total circulation and pagination in the year and a good indicator of newsprint consumption and offset plates, blankets, inks, and chemicals. The raw material consumption of the group in FY 21 was Rs 305.37 crore in comparison to Rs. 600.92 crore in FY 2020 and Rs 730.10 in FY2019.
| March 2021 | March 2020 | March 2019 | March 2018 | March 2017 | |
| Income from operations in Rs crore | 1289.19 | 2097.32 | 2362.65 | 2303.98 | 2282.95 |
| Consumption of raw materials | 305.37 | 600.92 | 730.10 | 664.08 | 652.44 |
| Employees cost | 371.46 | 417.09 | 419.23 | 400.31 | 373.99 |
| Source: Moneycontrol.com |
Jagran Prakashan’s chairman and managing director, Mahendra Mohan Gupta, said, “While commenting on the results for Q3FY21, I was quite hopeful that the pandemic was nearing the end, at least in India. The second wave and its intensity, in particular, shook all of us, impacting businesses once again in an unprecedented manner and pushing large numbers of people to below the poverty line.”
Speaking about the coming year, Gupta remained optimistic, “I am confident that FY22 is going to be better than FY21, which was satisfactory in the light of extended lockdowns which were not envisaged at the beginning of FY21.”
The company has also announced a share buyback of Rs 118 crore at Rs 60 a share. The company’s current market cap is Rs 1516.74 at Rs 57.45 per share, each with a face value of Rs 2.
