Sunday, November 9, 2014

How Did The Times Group Perform and Pay in FY13

While we read about salaries, corporate performance and company outlooks in the various outlets of the over 175 year old Times Group, let us find out how unlisted BCCL itself paid and did in financial year ended March 2013!

If you are a reader of newspapers or a voracious listener of news on the TV, you must have heard of The Times of India, The Economic Times, Times Now etc. They are the biggest and arguably the best in the country.

Unlisted Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL) is primarily engaged in the business of publication of newspapers. It publishes the highest selling English broadsheet daily in the world, i.e., The Times of India.

Apart from this, the company publishes newspapers like The Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, etc. It also houses television channels zoOm, Times Now and ET Now. BCCL has subsidiaries which are engaged in the areas of internet, e-commerce, radio, television, out of home, etc.

Bennett Coleman And Company Limited (BCCL) has its registered office at Times Of India Bldg, D N Road, Mumbai, Maharashtra. Unlisted companies usually file their annual filings with a delay of 3-12 months.



Profits:

For the year ended March 31, 2013, BCCL reported a net profit of Rs 739.62 crore. This is over 37 per cent higher than Rs 537.32 crore in the year ended 31st March, 2012.

Sales:

For the year ended March 2013, BCCL logged a total revenue of Rs 5,057.52 crore. This is marginally higher than the Rs 4,946.93 crore reported a year ago.

The FY'13 revenue of Rs 5,057.52 crore includes :- 1) Sale of Publications :- Rs 536.78 crores 2) Television Distribution Revenue:- Rs. 9.51 crores 3) Advertisement Revenue :- Rs. 4,190.72 crore.

For every 100 rupees earned in 2012-13, BCCL earned 82 rupees from advertising in FY'13. Also, importantly advertising revenue's share on overall pie came down from 84 rupees (of every 100) in fiscal year 2011-12. About 10 rupees came from sale of publications. This is why possibly many argue that BCCL looks more like an advertising firm.  



The year gone by:

During 2012-13, the company's flagship brand, The Times of India achieved  overall good circulation growth. Four new editions were launched -- Aurangabad, Raipur, Kolhapur and Vizag, thereby extending its reach into new markets.

Circulation of The Economic Times was down compared to last year. Maharashtra Times launched two new editions in Nagpur and Kolhapur.

Navbharat Times remained same as in the previous year.

The company launched an entirely new mast-head in the form of a Bengali paper 'Ei Samay' (Bengali for These Times) in October 2012.



Performance of BCCL subsidiaries:

The company has listed about 50 firms as subsidiaries.

Zoom Entertainment Network Ltd runs the the first TV channel of the group -- zoOm TV (Editor: Omar Qureshi). It posted revenues of Rs 108.64 crore in FY13. It appears to have posted a loss.

Led by CEO Satyan Gajwani Times Internet Ltd operates a portfolio of web and mobile properties that claims to engage millions of users globally. Gajwani happens to be the son-in-law of Samir Jain -- Vice-Chairman & MD of BCCL. Mobile and web are among the company's priorities.

The arm posted a total revenue of Rs 417.91 crore in FY13 and a profit after tax of Rs 116.05 crore -- about 28 per cent net profit margin.

Times Global Broadcasting Company Ltd. It runs TV channels Times Now and ET Now. Posting revenues of Rs 213.9 crore in FY'13, it posted a profit of just Rs 10.73 crore -- barely 5 per cent profit margin.

Also led by Satyen (as per BCCL website), Times Business Solutions runs TimesJobs.com, MagicBricksMagicBricks.com, SimplyMarrySimplyMarry.com and Ads2BookAds2Book.com, among others. It earned revenues of Rs 320.76 crore and a good Rs 59.3 crore net profit -- translating to 18 per cent profit margin.

Another interesting BCCL arm is Brand Equity Treaties Ltd. It is called Brand Capital these days. Basically, its the latest avataar of 'Times Private Treaties' which germinated with the idea of offering advertising for assets. This subsidiary reported revenues of Rs 160.59 crore but its profit after tax was in the negative (Rs 34.97 crore loss).



Salaries:

Now, comes the most important part. BCCL has disclosed pay packet (gross remuneration subject to tax and comprises salary, perquisite, incentives and commission, provident fund, super annuation fund etc) of as many 69 people. Any extra amount paid has not been captured in the figures below.

The highest paid appears Indu Jain, BCCL, Chairperson. She was paid Rs 15.56 crore for the period 1st April 2012 to 31st March 2013. This appears to be marginally higher than Rs 15.45 crore paid to her in FY'12.

BCCL VC and MD Samir Jain was paid Rs 15.17 crore in FY'13 against Rs 14.82 crore during 01/04/2011 to 31/03/2012. Next in the pecking order is his brother Vineet Jain who got Rs 14.90 crore in FY'13 compared to Rs 14.57 crore in FY'12.

The youngest member of the Jain family Trishla Jain, an artist, received Rs 3 crore in FY'13 compared to Rs 2.8 crore in FY'12.

Salary details of Satyen, Trishla's husband, could not be accessed.

So, all in all, the 'family' in BCCL was paid about Rs 48 crore in FY13 as remuneration. This would be about 6.5 per cent of annual profits.

BCCL Executive Director and CEO Ravindra Dhariwal was paid Rs 11.34 crore in gross remuneration (FY'13) compared to Rs 3.4 crore in the fiscal ended FY'12. This easily translates to a whopping an over 3-fold pay jump. Some say this jump could be because Dhariwal was paid bonus etc in FY13 that was missing in FY12 when the company's total profit had slumped about 42 per cent year-on-year.

Next, we will look into salaries of other key staff. Readers are requested to excuse my inability to get previous year compensation details.

On the editorial side, gross remuneration of Arindam Sengupta (Executive Editor - TOI), Jaideep Bose (Editorial Director - TOI), Rahul Joshi (Editorial Director - ET), Santosh Ramachandra Menon (Associate Editor), Nikunj Dalmia (Senior Editor), R. Sridharan (Executive Editor) and Shailendra Swaroop Bhatnagar (Chief Editor-Markets & Research) are mentioned.

Sengupta, who is known to have played the role of a deputy to Jojo aka Jaideep Bose with elan, was paid the princely sum of  Rs 10,833,280.94 (Rs 1.08 crore)  in FY'13. On the other hand, Jojo was paid Rs 2.45 crore.

ET's Joshi got Rs 1.34 crore, Menon received Rs 62.07 lakh, Dalmia (Senior Stocks Editor at ET Now) Rs 97.42 lakh, Sridharan (Executive Editor News & Trends, ET Now) Rs 90.08 lakh and Bhatnagar (responsible for Editorial Content during the Morning Band of ET NOW) Rs 85.90 lakh.

Salary details of Arnab Goswami -- Editor-in-Chief and News anchor of the Indian news channel Times Now -- could not be accessed. So, enlightened readers are requested to share the data :)

Read more on previous years' employee costs here and finances here.



'Response':

Let us look at FY13 salaries of key Times Response staff. 'Response', as many of you would be knowing, is the prime mover among all other media marketing solution providers in India. It just not the advertising department!

Arunabh Das Sharma, Executive Director & President Response, got Rs 2.92 crore. Nandan Srinath, Director - Response, got Rs 2.02 crore.  R Sundar, Director - Response, got Rs  1.84 crore. C R Srinivasan, Director - Response, got Rs 1.29 crore. Ranjeet Kate, Director - Response, got Rs 1.17 crore.

Indira Diesh, Vice President - Response, got Rs 72.80 lakh. C G Varughase, Vice President - Response, got Rs 70.39 lakh. Teena Singh, Vice President - Response, got Rs 66.42 lakh. Jnan Prakash Dsouza, Vice President - Response, got Rs 62.01 lakh.

Among other key BCCL businesses, S Sivakumar, CEO - Brand Capital, received Rs 2.01 crore. Ashok Raparia, Director - Human Resources, got Rs 1.40 crore.



Finances:

This section has been deliberately kept for the last. For those interested in how BCCL manages its finances, I am giving you a simple snapshot. BCCL's assets stood at Rs 8750.81 crore at the end of FY'13 compared to Rs 7758.72 crore in FY'12 end.

The Rs 8750.81 crore assets comprise Rs 2,393.67 crore total current assets and Rs 6,357.14 total non-current assets.

Non-current investments: Let us also look at the list of companies where BCCL, publisher of ToI and ET among others, holds shares. Some of these investments would clearly be via  private treaties.

At the end of March 31, 2013, the list of companies where BCCL held equity stakes was Aksh Optifibre Ltd., Allied Digital Services Ltd., Aqua Logistics Ltd., Austral Coke & Projects Ltd., Avesthagen, Bang Overseas Ltd., Bhagyanagar India Ltd., Birla Cotsyn India Ltd., Birla Pacific Medspa Ltd., Birla Power Solutions Ltd., Bloom Dekor Ltd., Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd., Celebrity Fashions Ltd., Coffee day Resorts Pvt. Ltd., Eco Recycling Ltd., Eveready Industries India Ltd., Flawless Diamond (India) Ltd., Fortis Healthcare Ltd., Future Markets Networks Ltd.(Agre Developers Ltd.), Future Venture India Ltd, Gitanjali Gems Ltd., GMR Infrastructure Ltd., GSS America Infotech Ltd., GTL Infrastructure Ltd., Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd., Himalaya International Ltd., Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Indian Terrain Fashions Ltd., IOL Netcom Ltd., IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd., Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd., Jagran Prakashan Ltd., Jaypee Infratech Ltd., JVL Agro Industries Ltd., Karuturi Global Ltd., Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., KSL & Industries Ltd., Lok Housing & Constructions Ltd., Marg Ltd., Micro Technologies (India) Ltd., (India) Ltd., Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd., MVL Industries Ltd., MVL Ltd., Net 4 India Ltd., Next Mediaworks Ltd.(Midday Multimedia Ltd.), NIIT Ltd., NIIT Technologies Ltd., OK Play India Ltd, Pantaloon Retail (India), Provogue (India) Ltd, Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd., Raj Oil Mills Ltd., Ritesh Properties & Industries Ltd., Sahara One Media & Entertainment Ltd., Sobha Developers Ltd., SQL Star International Ltd., SRS Ltd., Sujana Universal Industries Ltd., Teledata Informatics Ltd., Teledata Marine Solutions Ltd., Teledata Technologies Solutions Ltd., The Sandesh Ltd., Thomas Scott Ltd., Timbor Home Ltd., Today's Writing Products Ltd., Videocon Industries Ltd, Zicom Electronic Security Systems Ltd., Press Trust of India Ltd. and United News of India Ltd, among numerous others.



Shareholding:

Shareholders who hold more than 5 per cent equity of BCCL are Bharat Nidhi Limited (18.02 per cent), Ashoka Viniyoga Limited (5.96%), Camac Commercial Co. Limited (9.75%), Sanmati Properties Limited (24.41%), Arth Udyog Limited (9.31%), PNB Finance & Industries Limited (13.3%), Jacaranda Corporate Services Limited (9.29%) and TM Investments Limited (8.93%). These entities hold 98.97 per cent of BCCL.

As always, feel free to drop your comments/criticism/praise in the "Comment" section below. Till the next time.

Would try to write a post on FY14 BCCL performance soon.

Disclaimer: I worked for The Times of India at Chennai for a year in 2008-09 when the global financial crisis, triggered by Lehman Brothers, hit Indian shores hard.

Images: Sourced from the Internet. If anybody has any objection to use, please notify and it/they will be removed within 24 hours.

3 comments:

  1. Intriguing figures! A very well done piece... Must say, quite an eye opener, too.

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  2. Insightful! Would help if you could summarize them in a table :-)

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