Amar Ujala set to go public

According to sources, the Maheshwary family, owners of Amar Ujala, is likely to offer 15% stake of the company through the IPO. In addition, Pun Undertaking, a strategic investor in Amar Ujala, is expected to sell 9% stake, lowering its ownership to 9%. The fresh issue of shares is expected to account for another 6% of the share sale. 

 

The fourth largest Hindi daily has 19 editions in seven states and one union territory. It reported a net profit of Rs 41 crore on a turnover of Rs 570 crore in the nine months to December 2014.

 

In 2010, Amar Ujala diversified to printing outside jobs (contract printing) with its existing web offset machines. As the initiative proved to be both successful and profitable, the company moved into commercial printing, including printing of magazines and books, among others. Now, the company wants to expand this model in all its 18 print production centres. In 2014-15, the company reported a turnover of Rs 28 crore, and now it is targeting Rs 50 crore in 2015-16, from only commercial printing. In future, there are also plans to diversify into packaging printing in paper and paperboard segment.

 

With this IPO initiative, Amar Ujala now joins the big league of Hindi newspaper publishers DB Corp, Jagran Prakashan and Hindustan Media ventures, who have gone public.

 

The newspaper market in India remains bullish, being the second country after China with double-digit growth figures.