JSM Financial: U.S. based Blackstone Group to invest $50 million into India’s Jagran.

April 7, 2010 - PRLog -- JSM Financial has learned of reports that U.S. based alternative asset management and financial services company The Blackstone Group LP is to invest around $50 million into the parent of Indian media company Jagran Prakashan, as the firm looks to secure a slice of the strong growth in India’s print media market.

Neither party was prepared to disclose the size of the stake that Blackstone is acquiring in  Jagran Media Network Pvt Ltd, but after the announcement of the deal broke, shares of the media rose by almost 9 percent.

"Print media in Indian languages is poised to experience significant growth in the coming years, driven by increasing personal consumption levels in the Tier II/III cities as well as rural India," JSM Financial believes the chairman and managing director of Blackstone Advisors India Pvt Ltd recently said in a note.

At present Jagran publishes 37 editions of its lead brand Dainik Jagran through 11 states as well as I-Next, a bilingual compact newspaper and City Plus, the firm’s weekly English language tabloid newspaper.

The investment is believed to be earmarked for improvement of Jagran’s liquidity, JSM Financial has learned, as well as improving its printing capacity. Snajay Gupta, Jagran Prakashan’s CEO also indicated that some of the money would be used for acquisitions in a recent TV interview.

After seeing a dramatic 60% drop in 2009, private equity investment in India has shown strong signs of recovery in recent months.

JSM Financial’s research shows that earlier this year a group of investors including the infrastructure arm of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and General Atlantic committed to an investment of $425 million into Asian Genco Pte Ltd, a firm with stakes in Indian power generation assets.

In total 2009 saw around $4.1 billion invested by private equity firms in India through 269 deals down from $10.3 billion and 452 deals in 2008.

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