HT Media Ltd is selling its entire 51 per cent stake in HT Burda Media Ltd to JV partner Burda Druck GmbH, Germany, or its nominee for around Rs 60 crore ($11.12 million), according to a Bombay Stock Exchange filing.
"We set up a modern, ultra-high speed printing facility in partnership with Burda. However, HT Media is primarily a media company and after mapping our long term strategy, we felt that the printing business would not add significantly to our shareholders' value in the long run," said Rajiv Verma, CEO of HT Media.
HT Burda Media Ltd, which was formed in July 2008, claims to be the first rotogravure printing installation in India, a facility equipped to print large volume of magazines, catalogues, books. The pre-press facility of HT Burda Media Ltd is equipped to handle advertising campaign and magazine pre-press work.
Many large publications worldwide are being printed on rotogravure for speed and quality.
HT Burda Media counts as its clients Unitech, Cairn, Spicejet, Tata Motors, ABB, Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, Sahara, DLF and Lupin.
HT Media, which publishes the English daily Hindustan Times besides the Hindi daily Hindustan and the business daily Mint, reported total revenues of Rs 547 crore, up 4.3 per cent in the quarter ended December 31, 2012, over the year-ago period. Its net profit rose 11.3 per cent over the year-ago period to Rs 53.6 crore, largely due to higher profit in the core printing and publishing business.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)
