Brief Rationale JANUARY 14, 2015 CARE REVISES THE RATING ASSIGNED TO BANK FACILITIES OF ANANDA OFFSET PRIVATE LIMITED Ratings Amount Facilities Ratings1 Remarks (Rs. crore) CARE A- Revised from CARE A Long term Bank Facilities 17.05 (20.20) (Single A minus) (Single A) Rating Rationale The revision in the rating takes into consideration weakening in the financial profile of ABP Pvt. Ltd. (ABP; rated CARE A-/ CARE A1, revised from CARE A/CARE A1), a group company with whom AOPL has strong operational linkage since it derives majority of its revenue in the form of printing income from ABP. The aforesaid rating continues to draw strength from considerable experience of the promoters having an established track record, moderate financial performance in FY14 (refers to the period April 1 to March 31) with comfortable gearing levels. The rating is, however, constrained by relatively small size of the company and intense competition in the private radio FM industry. The ability of the company to increase advertising revenue from the radio business in the face of stiff competition & improve its profitability and capital structure will remain the key rating sensitivities. Background Ananda Offset Pvt. Ltd (AOPL), incorporated in 1970, belongs to the ABP group - an established media conglomerate of the country. The company was promoted by Late Mr Ashok Kumar Sarkar, son of Late Mr Prafulla Sarkar, the promoter of the group’s flagship company, ABP. AOPL is engaged in the business of printing various magazines/publications and newspapers of ABP on job work basis. The company is also into media and entertainment business through radio station ‘Friends 91.9 FM’. ABP group is the leading publisher of Bengali daily and English daily (‘AnandaBazar Patrika’ and ‘The Telegraph’ respectively) in West Bengal. Besides print media, the group has presence in electronic media via Media Content & Communication Services (India) Pvt. Ltd. (MCCS; rated ICRA BBB+), which owns three renowned news channels – ‘ABP News’ (Hindi), ‘ABP Ananda’ (Bengali) and ‘ABP Majha’ (Marathi). Further, the management of the ABP group intends to carry out a financial restructuring exercise within the group, whereby certain debt funded non-yielding exposure appearing in the books of ABP is likely to get transferred to AOPL by FY15. AOPL is currently looked after by Mr Apurba Kumar Sengupta, Executive Director, under the overall guidance of Mr Aveek Sarkar and Mr Arup Sarkar, the current promoters of ABP. In FY14, AOPL earned PBILDT and loss of Rs.4.83 crore (Rs.3.57 crore in FY13) and Rs.0.26 crore (loss of Rs.1.29 crore in FY13), respectively, on total operating income of Rs.39.11 crore (Rs.36.03 crore in FY13). During M8FY15 (refers to the period April 01 to November 30), AOPL reported a PAT of around Rs.0.48 crore on a turnover of Rs.30.0 crore. Analyst Contact Name: Ayush Poddar Tel: 033-40181637 Mobile: 9831139739 Email:[email protected] **For detailed Rationale Report and subscription information, please contact us at www.careratings.com 1 Complete definition of the ratings assigned are available at www.careratings.com and other CARE publications 1 Credit Analysis & Research Limited Brief Rationale CARE has classified instruments rated by it on the basis of complexity. This classification is available at www.careratings.com. Investors/market intermediaries/regulators or others are welcome to write to [email protected] for any clarifications. Disclaimer: CARE’s ratings are opinions on credit quality and are not recommendations to sanction, renew, disburse or recall the concerned bank facilities or to buy, sell or hold any security. CARE has based its ratings on information obtained from sources believed by it to be accurate and reliable. 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