Jagran Prakashan promoters to sell 2.6% stake to Blackstone-backed holding firm

By Bhawna Gupta

  • 16 Jun 2015

Promoters of Hindi media publication house Jagran Prakashan Ltd are to sell 2.63 per cent stake held in the public listed firm to Jagran Media Network Investment Pvt Ltd, a privately held holding firm, according to a stock market disclosure.

The promoters will sell around 86 lakh shares on June 23 at a price not exceeding or below 1 per cent difference to the closing price of the stock a day ahead of the transaction.

They also said the deal would be struck at a price within 25 per cent of the average weighted average price of the company two months before the disclosure. This is currently pegged at Rs 120.12 a share.

The proposed transaction would be worth around Rs 100 crore.

Kanpur-based Jagran Media Network is backed by PE giant Blackstone Group which invested Rs 225 crore in the company for a significant minority stake.

Currently Jagran Media Network holds 57.60 per cent stake in Jagran Prakashan and post the inter-se transfer, its holding will increase to 60.23 per cent. Total promoter holding would remain unchanged at 60.76 per cent but direct holding of the Mahendra Mohan Gupta-led promoters would shrink to 0.54 per cent.

Jagran Media prints and publishes newspapers and magazines. The media company is primarily known for Hindi daily Dainik Jagran but it also publishes a dozen of newspaper brands like i-next, a bilingual daily; City Plus, a weekly English tabloid; MiD-DAY, an afternoon newspaper; MiD-DAY Gujarati, a Gujarati tabloid; Inquilab, an Urdu newspaper; Naidunia, a Hindi daily newspaper; Sakhi, a women’s magazine; and Punjabi Jagran, a Punjabi language daily newspaper and others.

It has 75 editions and over 250 sub-editions across 15 states in five different languages.

Recently, Jagran Prakashan acquired Music Broadcast, which operates the popular Radio City FM station and is present in 20 stations across seven states.

Jagran Prakashan scrip rose 1.44 per cent to close at Rs 115.95 a share on BSE in a strong Mumbai market on Tuesday.