Detailed Rationale

Crisil Ratings has reaffirmed its ‘Crisil AA+/Stable/Crisil A1+’ ratings on the debt instruments and bank facilities of Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL; part of the JPL group).

 

Music Broadcast Ltd (MBL; ‘Crisil AA/Stable/Crisil A1+’) and Midday Infomedia Ltd (MIL; ‘Crisil AA-/Stable’) are subsidiaries of JPL and all three entities are collectively referred to as the Jagran group (JPL group).

 

The ratings continue to reflect the leadership position of Dainik Jagran, the company's flagship daily, its healthy market position in the radio business and strong financial risk profile. These strengths are partially offset by exposure to risks arising from industry headwinds, competition and volatility in newsprint prices and economic cycles.

 

The operating performance was modest in fiscal 2025, on the back of healthy advertising (ad) volume in fiscal 2024, driven by the general elections, which tapered off by the first half of fiscal 2025. The revenue of JPL remained largely stable at Rs 1,893 crore against Rs 1,940 crore in the previous fiscal. While the operating margin was impacted, it remained healthy at 15.60% in fiscal 2025 (19.20% in fiscal 2024). The impact was on account of increased operating leverage and higher investment in employees and technology by the company to drive growth in the digital segment.

 

The digital, outdoor and events segment are expected to drive growth in revenue and margin in this fiscal and over the medium term. The sustenance of the operating margin along with growing revenue will be key rating monitorable as the print industry continues to face headwinds with growth in digital.

 

The financial profile will remain strong as reflected by the expectation of continued minimal debt and healthy cash balance over the medium term. As on March 31, 2025, the group has net cash of Rs. ~1083 crore.

 

Crisil Ratings continues to be cognizant of the ongoing litigation amongst the promoters of JPL. Mr Mahendra Mohan Gupta (Chairman of JPL) along with Mr Shailesh Gupta (Whole-time Director of JPL) and VRSM Enterprises LLP (collectively, the petitioners) had filed an oppression petition before the National Company Law Tribunal, Allahabad, on July 10, 2023. The petitioners have 16.18% shareholding in Jagran Media Network Investment Pvt Ltd (JMNIPL), which holds 67.97% shareholding in JPL. The petitioners’ indirect and direct shareholding in JPL aggregates to 11.29%. The shareholding of JMNIPL is completely held by the members of the Gupta family, which includes the petitioners. The petition raises issues concerning oppression of the minority shareholders that is, the petitioners, by the majority shareholders that is the other members of the Gupta family, both at the JMNIPL and the JPL levels. However, the petition does not allege any mismanagement in the affairs of JPL.

 

Crisil Ratings understands that the ongoing litigation amongst the promoters is unlikely to have any material financial implications and should not have any material impact on the credit risk profiles of the group companies that are rated by Crisil Ratings, including JPL, MBL and MIL. However, Crisil Ratings will continue to closely monitor the developments around the issue. Any adverse outcome, impacting the credit risk profiles of these rated entities, will remain a key rating sensitivity factor.

Analytical Approach

Crisil Ratings has combined the business and financial risk profiles of JPL, its subsidiaries – MBL and MIL, and associate companies – Leet OOH Media Pvt Ltd, MMI Online Ltd, and X-Pert Publicity Pvt Ltd. This is because all these entities, collectively referred to as the JPL group, have strong links and are under common promoters. Crisil Ratings has also amortised the goodwill arising from MBL over 10 years.

 

Please refer Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated, which captures the list of entities considered and their analytical treatment of consolidation.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description

Strengths:

• Leadership position of the flagship daily, Dainik Jagran: Dainik Jagran is amongst the highest read and circulated newspapers across India. The JPL group enjoys a competitive position, aided by the established presence of this daily in the Hindi belt (across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, the National Capital Region, central and other regions). Strong position in the print media segment should also sustain, underpinned by Dainik Jagran and supported by Nai Dunia, Mid-Day and Inquilab.

 

• Healthy market position in the radio business and strong growth in out-of-home (OOH), events and digital segments: The JPL group runs 39 radio channels under the established Radio City brand. It is the second largest radio player with around 19% market share (in terms of volume) in the last quarter of fiscal 2025. The company has a diversified reach with strong presence in tier-2 and tier-3 cities as well. Focus on growth in revenue from non-free commercial time segments, such as digital media and events, will also help diversify revenue streams.
   

The OOH, event and digital segments for the company have reported strong revenue growth reaching ~16% of total revenue in fiscal 2025, as opposed to 8% in fiscal 2019. This complements JPL’s offering to advertisers.

 

• Strong financial risk profile: The financial risk profile is supported by strong liquidity of over Rs 1083 crore as on March 31, 2025, against total debt of around Rs 104 crore. With gearing estimated to be below 0.15 time as on March 31, 2025, there is sufficient headroom to build leverage, though there are no such immediate plans.

 

With expectation of improvement in operating profitability going forward and repayment of preference shares in the current fiscal, the interest coverage ratio is expected to improve from current levels of 17 times. However, JPL is unlikely to raise further debt and shall use cash accrual and existing liquidity for payouts to shareholders, if any, while maintaining overall liquidity at Rs 600-700 crore over the medium term. Thus, the financial risk profile is likely to remain strong over the medium term.

 

Weaknesses:

• Susceptibility to volatility in newsprint prices and economic downturns: A substantial share of operating income is derived from ad revenue, which has a strong linkage to economic activity and is affected by economic cycles. Recessionary cycles and uncertain market conditions lead to a slowdown in spending, constraining the ad revenue for print as well as radio media.

 

In addition to linkages with overall economic activity and corporate spending, the operating cost of the company also depends on the movement in newsprint prices, which accounts for 30-35% of the operating cost. Newsprint prices have softened in the last fiscal, from their peak in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and are expected to remain stable in fiscal 2026. Thus, operating margin for the print segment is expected to improve this fiscal.

 

Movement of newsprint prices, sustenance of recovery in ad revenue and their impact on the operating profitability of the company going forward will remain monitorable.

 

• Exposure to competition from other Hindi dailies: JPL faces competition from other Hindi dailies, such as Amar Ujala and Hindustan, which have healthy circulation in the core markets of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The industry is facing significant headwinds with a declining demand-market size and downward pressure on prices. Profit margins have also decreased as companies are investing in digital technologies to remain competitive. The ability to withstand competition and drive revenue growth will remain monitorable.

Liquidity: Strong

Cash and equivalent were over Rs ~1083 crore as on March 31, 2025. Along with healthy cash accrual, this should suffice to cover the principal debt obligation of Rs ~108 crore in fiscal 2026. Available liquidity and cash accrual will comfortably cover any dividend/buyback and moderate capital expenditure (capex) over the medium term.

Outlook: Stable

The JPL group is likely to maintain a strong business risk profile, aided by its robust market leadership position in the Hindi belt and healthy contribution from the radio business. Improvement in cash accrual should further boost the financial risk profile.

Rating sensitivity factors

Upward factors:

• Significant and sustained growth in revenue, in terms of businesses and geographies
• Sustained rise in operating margin to 25-30% while maintaining the financial risk profile 

 

Downward factors:

• Weakening of market position and operating performance due to competition or industry headwinds, resulting in reduction in revenue by 0-5% and weakening of operating margin
• Any large, debt-funded acquisition or capex, weakening the capital structure or debt protection metrics
• Any adverse outcome of the ongoing litigation amongst the promoters, leading to significant impact on the credit risk profile

About the Company

The group is a media conglomerate with interests spanning printing and publication of newspapers and magazines, FM radio, digital, outdoor advertising and promotional marketing, event management and activation businesses. JPL is the flagship company of the JPL group that is based in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. It was promoted by the late Mr PC Gupta and his family members. The group publishes 8 publications from 13 states/union territories in 5 different languages. JPL acquired MIL in a 2:7 equity-swap ratio in fiscal 2011. In April 2012, JPL acquired Suvi Info Management (Indore) Pvt Ltd (Suvi) at an enterprise value of Rs 225 crore. Suvi was the holding company of Nai Dunia Media Ltd (NDML), which published Nai Dunia. NDML merged with JPL effective April 1, 2012. In fiscal 2016, the JPL group acquired MBL, which has grown to 39 radio stations.

Key Financial Indicators (JPL; consolidated)

As on/for the period ended March 31	Unit	2025*	2024
Operating revenue	Rs crore	1893	1940
Adjusted profit after tax (PAT)	Rs crore	94	165
Adjusted PAT margin	%	4.9	8.5
Adjusted debt/adjusted networth	Times	0.11	0.11
Adjusted interest coverage	Times	17.2	16.46

* Provisional numbers

These are Crisil Ratings-adjusted numbers and may not match directly with the numbers reported by the JPL group

Any other information: Not applicable