Pure-play Indian Publishing Service Providers Have Seen a 34% Decline in Revenue [Report]

Thursday September 27, 2012 , 3 min Read

ValueNotes, a market intelligence and consulting firm, based out of Pune, has called for financial prudence from Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) players to overcome declining revenues in outsourced publishing services. India leads the outsourced publishing services market globally, accounting for more than 80% of the business from leading academic and scholarly publishers based out of Europe and the United States, providing varied services for their journals, books and digital products. The global financial crisis has adversely impacted the KPOs in this niche sector. The following summary highlights the situation:

Pure-play Indian publishing service providers have seen a revenue decline of 34% in the past two years.
In 2011, the revenue of large-sized service providers dropped to less than half of that in 2009.
Knowledge Global Limited topped the service provider evaluation ranking in 2011, showing strong financial credentials across parameters.
Other companies that have stood out for their financial performance are Altivolus Infotech, Integra, Quadrum, and KiwiTech.

A press release issued by ValueNotes says, “Since 2008, providers of outsourced publishing services in India have been adversely affected by the global economic crisis. The impact is evident in their financial performance, which has deteriorated over the last couple of years from the pre-crisis highs. The gloomy economic forecast for the next few years has made financial prudence even more critical. The future existence and success of companies in this industry will be greatly influenced by their financial management during these difficult times.”

Its report titled “Outsourced Publishing Services: Financial Performance Review” analyses the 10 key financial ratios of companies that constitute the outsourced publishing services segment. The companies covered in this report are pure-play KPOs with operations in India, which exclusively provide outsourced publishing services.

Large-sized companies prove resilient; mid-sized firms flounder

“While the sharp slowdown in revenues has impacted profitability across the outsourced publishing services industry, the larger players have been better able to manage the downturn,” saysArjun Bhuwalka, Project Manager at ValueNotes.

The large sized service providers (INR 500+ mn) have been most affected, with their revenues in 2011 being less than half of that in 2009. Despite being affected by the fall in revenue, they have responded quickly to optimise their financials to maintain healthy margins. This will allow them to emerge stronger in the next growth phase. Medium-sized firms have not been able to do this and if they want to survive the economic crisis, they need to act now.

Knowledge Global Limited (KGL) has reported the highest revenue, backed by industry leading margins and high returns to its shareholders. Other companies that have stood out for their financial performance are Altivolus Infotech, Integra, Quadrum and KiwiTech.

Website: ValueNotes

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