India's Jagran Prakashan Q2 profit falls as input costs rise

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Jagran Prakashan posted a 16.6% fall in second-quarter profit, as the publisher of the country's most read Hindi daily Dainik Jagran was hit by higher input costs.

Despite several brands increasing their advertising spend since the economy reopened, the domestic print industry has suffered from increasing prices of newsprint.

The company's consolidated net profit fell to 515.8 million Indian rupees ($6.29 million) in the July-September quarter, from 618.3 million rupees, a year earlier. Revenue from operations rose 12.7% to 4.54 billion rupees.

Total expenses rose nearly 20% to 4.06 billion rupees, with input cost rising 37%.

Profit before tax at its main publishing and digital business dropped 22%, while losses at its FM radio business widened to 92.5 million rupees from 87.2 million rupees, year ago.

The media conglomerate, which publishes 10 titles in five languages in its print segment, said in its exchange filing that it has approved the proposal for buyback of shares of up to 3.45 billion rupees via a tender offer route.

($1 = 82.0680 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nishit Navin and Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)