| Established market position, long track record of operations and healthy brand recognition with stable reader base.
EPMPL has more than six decades experience in print media business, the company is professionally managed by Board of Directors headed by Shri. Manoj Kumar Sonthalia as managing director and three directors, Mr. S.S Poddar, Ms. Lakshmi Menon and Mr. Sreekumar Karunakaran. The extensive experience of promotors helped company in establishing strong relationship with its suppliers. Express Publications Madurai Private limited is the flagship company of The New Indian Express Group and is publishing Newspapers and Periodicals in the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Delhi and Union Territories of Pondicherry. EPMPL brings out its publication of newspapers and periodicals from 31 printing and publication centres. Company has marketing centres across South India, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. EPMPL publications includes The New Indian Express, The New Sunday Express, The Morning Standard from New Delhi & NCR, The Sunday Standard, in addition, EPMPL also brings out Samakalika Malayalam Vaarika, a weekly in Malayalam and, The Morning Standard, weekly tabloid magazine at Kolkata. EPMPL’s flagship newspapers ‘The New Indian Express’, ‘The New Sunday Express’ and ‘Dinamani’ has an established market position in South India and enjoys patronage from a niche reader base. Company also receives healthy share of advertisements from government and private sector. Other publications of the company The Sunday Standard, The Morning Standard and Samakalika Malayalam Vaarika also enjoys stable reader base. The revenue of the company has remained stable through last three years supported by healthy brand recognition and stable readership base.
Moderate financial risk profile albeit weakened debt protection metrices
The financial risk profile of the company is moderate marked by net-worth of Rs. 88.07 Crore as on 31st March 2025 against Rs. 80.52 Crore as on 31st March 2024 due to steady accretion to reserves and an increase in subordination of USL to bank loans. Further, the total debt of the company stood at Rs. 205.70 Crore as on 31st March 2025 against Rs. 213.68 Cr. as on 31st March 2024. In Q4FY25, the company has availed two new term loans of Rs. 10 crore and Rs. 11.90 crore from HDFC Bank and Indian Bank, respectively, for working capital requirements. The capital structure of the company is marked by gearing ratio, which stood at 2.34 times as on 31st March 2025 against 2.65 times as on 31st March 2024. The interest coverage ratio stood at 1.15 times in FY 2025 as against 2.07 times in FY 2024 and debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) stood at 0.78 times in FY2025 as compared to 1.34 times in FY 2024. The TOL/TNW ratio of the company stood at 2.95 times as on 31st March 2025 against 3.52 times as on 31st March 2024 and DEBT-EBITDA of the company stood at 5.47 times as on 31st March 2025 against 2.97 times as on 31st March 2024. Acuité believes that going forward the financial risk profile of the company is a key monitorable.
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| Decline in scale of operations
The company has witnessed the decline in the revenue from operations by ~11.41% which stood at Rs. 243.73 Cr. in FY25 against Rs. 275.11 Cr. in FY24. The operating margins declined to 10.69% in FY2025 from 22.79% in FY2024. The decline in revenue and operating margins is mainly due to decline in the advertisement revenue which stood at Rs. 197.01 Cr. in FY25 against Rs. 228.63 Cr. in FY24. Therefore, PAT margin stood at 0.23% in FY 2025 as against 11.34% in FY 2024. The company has achieved the revenue of Rs. ~179.85 Cr. till November 2025 in which Rs. ~145.33 Cr. are from advertisement. Acuité believes that going forward the company’s ability to ramp up operations, along with improvement in profitability, will remain a key monitorable.
Intensive working capital operations
The working capital operations of the company is intensive marked by GCA days which stood at 174 days as on 31st March 2025 against 171 days as on 31st March 2024. There is a stability in the GCA days due to the debtor days of the company which stood at 116 days in FY25 against 118 days in FY24, inventory days stood at 13 days in FY25 against 16 days in FY24 and creditor days of the company stood at 103 days in FY25 against 159 days in FY24. Acuité believes that the working capital operations of the company will remain intensive over the medium term.
Profitability remains vulnerable to newsprint prices, increasing competition from digital media and significant dependence on advertisement revenue
The main cost element for a newspaper company is the newsprint cost. Newsprint prices have been volatile, and it may not always be possible to pass on the increase to the customers through an increase in cover price or higher advertisement tariff. The newspaper publications are witnessing gradual slowdown in circulation and readership due to the increasing penetration of the digital medium, market saturation and changing media consumption habits. As digital penetration increases, the circulation volumes of newspapers may undergo significant changes. Major portion of the revenue comes from advertisement through print media. Furthermore, the operating margin of media houses remains vulnerable to economic downturns as advertisement revenue is linked to economic conditions.
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