News Headline | Indian Television Dot Com

Agrani expects financial closure of satcom venture by year end

Submitted by ITV Production on Nov 23, 2001

The Agrani satcom venture which is promoted by media baron Subhash Chandra is expected to close financially before the year is through, company officials say.

Agrani corporate communications manager Ashish Kaul is also confident of the Rs 1,150-crore satellite project reaching the Rs 690-crore debt-financing target. There are only a few procedures which have to be followed. French satellite major Alcatel Space Industries will supply Agrani with a satellite worth $170 million. The satellite, with a life-span of 14 years, has 24 ?C? band and 14 ?ku? band transponders. For this, it has to get the re-export license for which Alcatel has already made an application to the US Congress.

The license is needed because the components of the satellite which were made in the United States have to be re-exported here. Alcatel Spacecom will invest $15 million for a 9.75 per cent stake in Agrani Satellite Services Limited. Subhash Chandra and associates will hold a majority 51 per cent stake in the company.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has given permission to ASSL to offload upto 74 per cent equity through the FDI route.

Lenders for the project include IDBI and LIC. Agrani has received letters from them approving Rs 3.75 billion of loans, but the cash will be given at the time of the financial closure. In view of the Afghan conflict, however, it is difficult to estimate the time that Alacatel will take to get the license.

Agrani expects financial closure of satcom venture by year end

Nov 23, 2001

The Agrani satcom venture which is promoted by media baron Subhash Chandra is expected to close financially before th

Watch out for Miss Lashkara on 15 December

Nov 23, 2001

Reminiscent India Television's Miss Lashkara 2001 Beauty Contest reaches a climax on 5 December in Ludhiana, where 20

Zee stock soars on rumours

Submitted by ITV Production on Nov 23, 2001

News Headline

It is happening again. Beleagured media major Zee Telefilms (ZTL) which has been under pressure for the last few months, is suddening gaining support - at least, on the bourse.
This time the rumour doing the rounds is that Zee‘s promoters have privately placed shares at Rs 185 with a foreign media major as against Thursday‘s closing price of Rs 118.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The Zee stock had almost hit the upper circuit filter yesterday at Rs 125.40, before closing at Rs 118.

The company that is being quoted as the buyer is none other than AOL Time Warner, whom Zee is reportedly trying to rope in as a strategic partner. Talk within the company surfaced around a month and a half ago that AOL Time Warner was warming up to getting under the sheets with the network. At that time the ZTL share was trading at around Rs 71. Since then, the ZTL share has been steadily on the rise.

A ZTL press release earlier this week, however, denied the rumour of any such placement but reiterated that the promoters‘ decision announced in May 2001 to rope in a global media player as a strategic ally, is still on. ZTL has appointed investment bankers UBS Warburg as advisor in its search for a partner.

Media analysts, when contacted, say they did not believe any private placement had taken place as yet (at the time of writing), but suspect that someone is playing in the scrip.

The stock had earlier been on the decline, going down from Rs 270 at the beginning of the year, to Rs 86 on the day of its AGM in late September. The post AGM period saw the scrip hammered down to Rs 71 (9 October). The average volume, which was 10 million, came down to 4 million. But the scrip has turned around since. Today, the scrip had climbed by 4 per cent and was trading at Rs 121.