Mauritius fund to buy 7.14% in Bhaskar group

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved the Mauritius-based fund Cliffrose Investment plans to acquire 7.14 per cent stake in Bhaskar group's flagship company, Writers & Publishers Ltd (WPL), for over Rs 150 crore. This deal values the company at Rs 2,100.84 crore.

As per the agreement between the two companies, Cliffrose will buy 76,305 fully paid-up equity shares in WPL on a preferential basis.

As per the present policy, foreign direct investment up to 26 per cent through the FIPB route is allowed in news and current affairs publications.

The I&B ministry, in this case gave no objection to the proposal, subject to condition that foreign holding in the company, either directly or indirectly, should not exceed 7.14 per cent and that Cliffrose Investment is not in the adverse list of RBI.

Some other conditions imposed by the government are that all key executives and employees of the company would be Indian nationals and that WPL would take prior permission from the ministry before making and changes in its shareholding.

The government has also directed the company to ensure that the Indian shareholder should always be at least 51 per cent of the total equity.

The I&B ministry has also told the company any violation of existing laws would result in revocation of the no-objection certificate.

WPL is into developing, editing, publishing, printing, distributing, and marketing newspapers and other publications.

The Hindi news genre, including the print and electronic media, on Thursday represents a market of roughly Rs 500 crore and is set to boom even further.