Infomedia’s revenues plummet

News this week: Earlier this week, India-based media company, Infomedia Press, announced its financial results for the year ended 31^st March 2014. Revenues in the period were US$6,200, compared with US$6.1 million in 2013. The management attributed the drop to the discontinuation of its printing operation in the previous year.

The operating loss in 2013-2014 was US$566,000, compared with a loss of US$2.01 million last year. The net loss for Infomedia in the year was US$1.7 million, while net loss in the previous year was US$4.04 million. Infomedia’s management is currently evaluating various options, including starting a new line of business to move the company forward, and has appointed external consultants for assistance.

For the quarter ended 31^st March, revenues were US$2,900 with an operation loss of US$89,000.

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Infomedia Press quarterly revenue drop 100%, faces uncertain future

News this week: India-based media company, Infomedia Press, announced its financial results for the quarter ended 30^th June 2013. The company’s revenues in the period were US$333, compared with US$168,000 in the same quarter of 2012, or down 100%. The management attributed the drop to the discontinuation of its printing operation in the previous year.

The operating loss in the quarter was US$29,000, compared with a loss of US$22,000 last year. The net loss for Infomedia in the period was US$169,000, while the net loss in the same period of last year was US$23,000.

Infomedia’s management is currently evaluating various options, including the sale of certain assets of its Printing Press division, along with starting a new line of business in the company. The company also claimed the proposed conditions may cast significant doubt on the company continuing as a going concern.

This post is excerpted from BSG's weekly e-newsletter which is part of our subscription research service, BSG Tracker. Visit our website to find out more about this service. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.

Network18’s publishing unit posts ‘steady’ revenue

News this week: Indian media group, Network18, parent company of B2B publisher Infomedia18, announced financial results for the quarter ended 30^th June 2011. Group revenues were US$87.8 million, an increase of 35% over the same quarter in 2011. The group reported a net loss of US$16.4 million compared with a loss of US$11.5 million in the same quarter last year.

Mumbai-based Infomedia18, who recently restructured to incorporate its publishing business under new division Network18 Publishing, reported “steady performance” with revenues of US$4.3 million and an operating loss of US$880,000 during the quarter.

This post is excerpted from BSG's weekly e-newsletter which is part of our subscription research service, BSG Tracker. Visit our website to find out more about this service. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.

Infomedia18 publishing business restructured

News this week: Indian B2B publisher Infomedia18 announced a restructuring that sees its publishing business, which includes special interest magazines and business directories portfolio, consolidated with Network18 under a new division ‘Network18 Publishing’. The company’s printing press business will continue to remain with Infomedia18.

The new Network18 Publishing will comprise of three sub-divisions:  business to consumer (B2C) magazines, business to business (B2B) magazines and business directories division (BDD). Network18 Publishing will be headed by Sandeep Khosla, former CEO of Magazine Publishing of Infomedia18.

B Sai Kumar, group CEO of Network18, commented, “We believe that the special interest and B2B spaces will be one of the key drivers for publishing in India, both in print and new media. With Network18 Publishing, we’ve aligned our assets to capitalise on this trend both from a community building as well as a commercial perspective.”

This post is excerpted from BSG's weekly e-newsletter which is part of our subscription research service, BSG Tracker. Visit our website to find out more about this service. You can also follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.

The action's in Mumbai

A lot of the interesting activity so far this year seems to be happening in India. We are particularly interested in the emergence of Network 18 within six months as a key player. In a December round-up, we noted three interesting moves including a tie-up with Forbes and the acquisition of ICICI's stake in Infomedia.

Today, we read that Infomedia and Alibaba are tying up. That has the makings of something really interesting. Alibaba's CEO David Wei is quoted in the Livemint piece saying "“We believe this alliance media will help us become the dominant online B2B marketplace in India by the end of 2008". We will be interested to see how Indiamart.com (#12 in our Online B2B Top 50) and Tradeindia.com (#11) respond to this serious step forward by the #1. Who wants to play with them?

Network 18 muscles into India business media

I have to confess that, until two weeks ago, I'd never heard of Network 18 or its previous incarnation, TV18. In a very short period, however, the company has muscled its way into the heart of India's business media scene. Three key deals have been announced:

1. The company took a strategic stake in Infomedia, buying up, as a first step, 40% of ICICI Bank's controlling share in the company.
2. It announced a joint venture with Forbes to produce an Indian edition of that magazine.
3. And now, today, I see news of a proposed Hindi business newspaper to be produced in a 50:50 joint venture with Jagran Prakashan.

This looks like a company to watch, having moved from zero presence to a position close to market leadership within a matter of weeks.

PE firms look to India to continue the fun

With major private equity deals drying up in the US and Europe in the current much more hostile environment, eyes are turning to Asia. More specifically, they are turning to India. We noted at the beginning of the month that ICICI bank is looking to unload its 63% of the Infomedia business.

The story continues to evolve - relatively slowly it must be said. The Economic Times reports:

Notz Stucki, one of the largest asset managers in Europe, has joined the race for ICICI Venture’s 63% stake in Infomedia (formerly Tata Infomedia). Private equity funds such as General Atlantic, Blackstone and Warburg Pincus have also shown interest to buy out ICICI Venture’s stake in the media firm.

The article suggests that a price of Rs400 crores which, if I've got my lakhs and crores right, is around US$100 million.

Reed Business - which has a joint venture with Infomedia (not with ICICI at the newspaper article reports) - is reportedly interested in this deal too. Given the circling funds, however, they'll probably struggle to match what the financiers are willing to pay if this really heats up.

Infomedia in play

India's Economic Times has reported that one of the country's leading directory and specialist magazine publishers Infomedia is likely to move into private equity ownership. A 63% stake in the company, formerly part of the Tata empire, has been controlled by Indian bank ICICI since 2003.

The article reports that General Atlantic, Blackstone and Warburg Pincus are all thought to be interested in the business which, if sold, will record a tidy profit for ICICI:

Given the fact that whoever buys the stake will have to make an open offer and also pay a controlling premium, the buyer should sell out upwards of Rs 400 crore. Infomedia’s market capitalisation is Rs 474 crore and its shares closed at Rs 240 at the BSE on Wednesday.

There was no confirmation of any of this from either ICICI or Infomedia boss Prakash Iyer.

Infomedia and mobile search

India's Infomedia becomes the first business media company in Asia of which I'm aware to take a serious position in mobile search. Regular readers will know I've banging on about this for a while but watching in vain for companies to start to take advantage of the obvious business opportunity offered by the approaching 600 million mobile phones in China and India.

Contentsutra.com reports that Infomedia will be one of the providers of mobile search for Nokia's new service. It notes that "the same local content is being distributed across several partners - STAR, for the mobile application PLUS; Guruji, which is a local search engine with a mobile service that hasn’t yet been launched". So, maybe it's finally coming and it's coming through search.