Jagran Prakashan reports Rs 68.57 cr profit for Q3

Jagran Prakashan, which publishes leading Hindi daily newspaper Dainik Jagran among others, today reported a standalone net profit of Rs 68.56 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2013.
It had posted a standalone net profit of Rs 65.36 crore in the October-December period of 2012-13 fiscal, the company said in a statement.
Total income on standalone basis stood at Rs 427.43 crore during the quarter as against Rs 348.90 crore in the year-ago period.
According to the company, the results are not comparable as it completed acquisition of Naidunia Media Ltd along with its print business and assets last year.

"The highlights of the quarter are growth in advertisement revenue of 15 per cent and further improvement in per copy realisation. This has made possible for the company to report highest ever operating profit in spite of steep increase in newsprint cost," Jagran Prakashan CMD M M Gupta said.
Advertising revenue was at Rs 300.04 crore in the quarter under review against Rs 261.56 crore in the third quarter of last fiscal.
"Our investment to expand publication and non-publication businesses such as digital has started showing results and these businesses have significantly reduced their losses," he said.
Shares of Jagran Prakashan today closed at Rs 88.45 on the BSE, down 0.17 per cent from previous close.