'Dainik Bhaskar' publisher set to launch IPO

DB Corp, the most successful Indian-language media company in terms of reach and profitability, popularly known as the Bhaskar Group, will launch its IPO in the second week of December.

The company will be looking to divest up to 1.81 crore shares out of which 1.27 crore shares would be a fresh issue, while the remaining would constitute an offer for sale by Cliffrose Investment Ltd, an affiliate of private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

The offering constitutes 10% of the fully diluted post-issue capital of the company. 
Warburg Pincus holds a 7.14% stake in DB Corp, which was bought at an enterprise value of Rs 2,100 crore in 2005.

Valuations for the IPO have not yet been revealed. However, company sources said investors can expect it to be “reasonably priced”.

“We haven’t decided on the price band yet, but it will be our endeavour to ensure that those who come on board are benefited,” Girish Agarwal, director of DB Corp, said.
The company has been on a fast-growth path since 1995. At that point in time, DB Corp had a presence in only one state but now it is there in eleven. The number of languages that it operates in has risen from one to three. And the number of readers has risen from 32 lakh to 1.55 crore.

DB Corp enjoys the No. 1 position in most of the large markets it operates in such as Indore, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Chan-digarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

As per Audit Bureau of Circulation, Divya Bhaskar, another product from the DB stable,  is the largest circulated Gujarati daily in Gujarat. The Hindi daily  Dainik Bhaskar is the No. 2 daily across languages in India, according to the Indian Readership Survey.
DNA is published by DB Corp in Ahmedabad and Jaipur, while Diligent Media Corporation publishes it in  4 other centres — Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Surat.
“For us to get into any other language will not be that difficult,” Agarwal said.

Most of the issue proceeds would be used to set up publishing units in new markets.
The rest of the money will go towards reducing working capital loans and prepayment of term loans.

(Disclaimer: DB Corp has no involvement with Diligent Media Corporation Ltd (DMCL) which publishes the DNA. But the promoter of DB Corp is also the promoter of DMCL)