Business News
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February 2012
RELIANCE MEDIAWORKS RESTRUCTURES
Anil Ambani'S Reliance MediaWorks (RMW) board has approved transfer of the company's cinema exhibition, and film and media services into separate 100% subsidiaries.
"The subsidiarisation step is a precursor to invite strategic and private equity investors who have expressed a keen interest in investing in specific businesses," Reliance MediaWorks said in a statement.
Reliance MediaWorks has plans to launch a R500 Crore rights issue by March. It is also in talks to raise R400 Crore to R500 Crore from global private equity firms and other investors to cut its debt of R1,500 Crore, chief executive Anil Arjun had earlier told the press.
ZEEL APAC BIZ HEAD QUITS
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) business head - APAC Region Tarun Mehra has quit. Mehra had joined ZEEL in 2005 as VP - marketing for the flagship Hindi general entertainment channel Zee TV. Later he was elevated to business head in 2007. Since April 2009, he was given the responsibility of the Asia Pacific region.
VIACOM18 SELLS 500 MOVIES TO STAR
Viacom18 has postponed its plans to launch its own Hindi movie channel.
Viacom18, which runs Colors, has sold its rights to 500 Hindi movies to Star India for an estimated Rs 450 Crores. The films include blockbusters like Salman Khan's Dabangg, Ready, Golmaal 3, Tees Maar Khan, Thank You, No One Killed Jessica, Guzaarish, Kites and Raavan.
Star India already had more than 700 movie rights before this purchase. STAR has begun premiering big-ticket movies on its Hindi Movie Channel - Star Gold. Further, it has reduced ad breaks and airs 6 movies every day.
Colors spokesperson said, "As part of our overall strategic plans, we have off loaded part of our film library. We still have a large library and have also kept enough runs to take care of our main channel needs. The movie channel is an integral part of Colors' growth strategy and we will revisit our plans at an appropriate time."
OSWAL BUYS NDTV STAKE
In a surprise move, chemical and fertiliser company Oswal Green Tech has acquired a 14.17% stake in NDTV Ltd for about Rs 24 Crore through open market transactions.
Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana sold its entire stake of 51.06 lakh shares at Rs. 26.55 a share, Nomura Mauritius sold its entire stake of 40.30 lakh shares at Rs. 26.75 each.
The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs. 90.80 on 4 January 2011, but has underperformed the market in the past quarter, falling 48.95% as against 11.25% fall in the Sensex.
The small-cap television broadcaster has an equity capital of Rs. 25.79 Crore. Face value per share is Rs. 4.
TV VISION GETS FIPB OK
The Government has permitted TV Vision Ltd, Mumbai, to bring in Rs 2 billion by way of FDI/NRI inflows for induction of foreign investment by way of issue of equity shares through an initial public offering (IPO) to undertake the business of broadcasting a non-news and current affairs TV channel. TV Vision already operates music channel Mastiii.
STAR' AVP MARKETING
STAR India has appointed Sameer Seth as Assistant Vice-President, Marketing.
Based in Mumbai, Seth will drive affiliate marketing for the STAR network in India & also handle marketing of STAR's HD channels across the country.
Prior to this, Seth was General manager Marketing at CNN.
ZEEL: 9% INTERNAT GROWTH
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has targeted a 9% growth from its international business this fiscal., even though international subscription revenues are expected to fall.
ZEEL had posted an international subscription revenue of Rs 409 Crore in FY'11, a fall of 2%.
HATHWAY & DEN SPURT ON AMBANI RUMOUR
On January 16, stock prices of Hathway & DEN spurted on a report that Mukesh Ambani was buying a minimum 26% stake into these 2 MSOs.
Hathway shares closed at Rs 132.80 on BSE, up 12.11% in 1 day. Den Networks' scrip jumped 6.25% to close at Rs 63.75.
While DEN refused to make any comments, Hathway categorically refuted the reports saying "the 2 newspaper reporters never called anybody in our organisation. Hence, the newspaper report is baseless and untrue in relation to whatever has been quoted with respect to our Company."
RIL BUYS 1.14% IN DEN NETWORKS
Reliance Strategic Investments, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has bought a 1.14% stake in DEN Networks, one of the two listed cable distribution companies in India.
"This may be the beginning of strategic investments in cable distribution companies as they will need huge sums to invest in digitalisation, as mandated by the government," said Devendra Parulekar, partner at Ernst & Young India. Another analyst who did not want to be named said RIL could increase this stake to 15% soon and then proceed towards buying out the promoters' stake.
Parulekar added, "The digitalisation law will ensure steady revenues from cable distribution and this revenue remains steady even when there are recessionary trends in the markets."
RIL is now acquiring stakes in media firms.
RELIANCE ENTERTAINMENT CEO QUITS
Rohit Sharma has resigned from his post at Reliance Entertainment where he was the Chief Executive Officer - Digital.
DISNEY INDIA MD RESIGNS
Mahesh Samat, Managing Director of Walt Disney India, has quit.
The move comes soon after Disney's purchase of UTV. Subsequent to Disney's takeover, UTV's promoter Ronnie Screwvala is to head Disney's operations in India while Samat would report to Screwvala as Chief Executive Officer.
Samat had joined Disney India in 2007.
RCOM PLANS $1.5-BN FLAG IPO
Anil Ambani's debt ridden Reliance Communications (RCom) plans to raise as much as $1.5 billion through a Singapore listing of its submarine cable assets.
The telecommunications company may sell 75% of FLAG Telecom in the first half of this year in an initial public offering and is seeking a valuation of up to $2 billion. In December 2009, RCom had hoped to raise around $3 billion by selling the undersea cable business. It found no takers.
RCom plans to use proceeds from the FLAG Telecom sale to repay debt. The company, which had net debt of about $6.5 billion as of end-September 2011, has also been trying to sell its telecom tower business in India to raise funds. n
