An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders gave Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra and the company the go-ahead to acquire 61 per cent equity of Asianet Communications, which runs the Malayalam channel of the same name.
The cost: Rs 2,550 million plus a Rs 1,000 million as a non-compete cash consideration. Zee Telefilms will issue 2.7 million shares to Asianet promoter Dr Raji Menon (amounting to 0.66 per cent of Zee Telefilms‘ capital). The non-compete clause forbids Asianet from launching any regional language channels over the next five years.

Zee Telefilms additionally has the option to buy another 12 per cent of Asianet‘s equity within the next three years if needed. Asianet notched up revenues of Rs 186 million (financial year: 1998), Rs 254 million (1999) and (Rs 355 million: expected for 2000). Its corresponding profit after tax is: Rs 23 million, 30 million, and Rs 69 million respectively.

"Asianet has a good 75 per cent of the Malayalam market," said Chandra. "Additionally, it will launch Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu channels. The Kannada channel should launch by 21 May. We are buying into the whole story and not just Asianet Malayalam."

Zee Telefilms is reconsidering its ADR issue. Chairman Subhash Chandra told investment analysts (at a meet organised by Zee and attended by 200 of them on 11 May in Mumbai) that the company‘s management was relooking whether its idea to go for an ADR issue was the best option available.
"We are relooking the issue," he said. "Could debt be a better option? Or may be divesting Siticable equity? Or E-connect equity? We need about Rs 22,000 million for all our plans of convergence, may be we could raise it differently! In the current run of things with shares sinking to their depths, things do not look so bright for an ADR."

The ADR issue was billed as the biggest from India with a target of raising $1.5 billion. It was later pruned to $200 million and going by current statements, it‘s possible it may be called off totally.

The reason: the Zee stock has been stuck at between Rs 600-800 for the last few weeks. At Rs 1,500 plus last month, it seemed well on its way to cross Rs 2,500-3,000. Around that time it was hit by the meltdown in Internet and media stocks which was worsened when certain operators worked to a plan to pull the stock down from Rs 1,500 plus to less than Rs 600.

"We have committed to not divest more than 10 per cent of Zee‘s equity," said Chandra. "If we have to raise ADR funds at a price of Rs 600, then we will have to divest more than the figure we have committed."

Star TV and ANZ Grindlays have got into bed together with Mastercard International. And the result of the menage a trois: a bonny alive and kicking credit card which was revealed to the world today. It has been christened the ANZ Grindlays Star TV World card.
The card claims to offer owners a host of powerful benefits and services which are being touted as a "first" for the Indian credit card industry. A powerful rewards programme, movie screenings, concerts, and a shot at fame with participation on Star TV shows. This apart there are rewards such as a free Satyam Infoway Net connection (70 hours of surfing), air tickets from Qantas, revolving credit facility, transfers from other plastic, 24 hour call centres, tele-travel, and personal accident insurance.

The card‘s cost: a membership fee of Rs 1200 per annum. The target audience: urban, middle and upper-middle class families. Some 350,000 cards are to be issued this year. Those interested in opting for the card in India can call 9622 800 800.

Cardholders will be in a position to use the ANZ Grindlays Star TV World card worldwide at 17 million merchants and 460,000 ATMs and over 110,000 outlets in India/Nepal. Similar co-branded credit card are to be introduced in other countries in the Asia Pacific region as well.

Rathikant Basu promoted Broadcast Worldwide which will be launching Tara regional channels has initiated a wide based research programmes for its channels.

Tara Marathi will be launched next week and Tara Punjabi will be launched a week after. Similarly Tara Gujarathi will be launched on the 1st of next month. The channel has its research design and framework in place and it will be implemented as soon as the first channel goes on air.

According to Rupa Banerjee, Senior VP Marketing, Broadcast Worldwide, "The research that we are undertaking will have no fixed time frame. The initial time frame is 3 years but it could extend well upto 5 years. The main purpose of the research is to understand the mindset of the regional audience, their aspirations and their demands."

The research will be a multicenter quantitative study. This, the channel claims is the first of its kind in India by any channel, be it regional or national. The channel expects to use the feedback from the consumers for betterment of its programming.

Because of the continuous nature of the research programme the time-frame for any particular viewers response could be as less as 2-3 weeks. According to Rupa Banerjee, the research will focus on understanding the role of television in the life of viewers, viewers perception. The research will also be used to tap viewers aspirations and anticipate trends.

The research will not only focus on programming preferences but will also try to find out channel and band preferences.

The study will be carried on extensively throughout India and Bangladesh. The channel has hired leading research agency IMRB for this purpose.

Wednesday was not a good day for Zee Telefilms stocks. This inspite of the fact that the net profit of the company went up by 160%. Zee stocks hit the circuit of 12% at both BSE and NSE.

Zee stocks fell by Rs 85 to Rs 621 on the BSE. Rumor has it that the India‘s petroleum baron who owns one of the largest companies has waged a war against the New Economy stocks. It is said that Satyam and Infosys shares will also witness the same fate in the coming days.

Zee has already downsized its ADR issue. In fact it will be going in for private placements to the tune of $200 million in contrast to the initial ADR of $1.5 billion.

The fall in Zee prices had an adverse effect on the whole of BSE which fell by over 120 points or 2.62%.