Hathway Set To Acquire Sri Bhawani Cabletel

After buying Business India's cable TV business in Mumbai, the Rajan Raheja-promoted Hathway Investments is close to completing yet another acquisition. The target this time is Sri Bhawani Cabletel, another cable company with presence in the city's north-eastern suburbs. Sources close to the deal say Hathway is doing due diligence of Sri Bhawani and the deal is likely to be completed soon.

Hathway will pick up a controlling stake in the company which has a turnover of Rs six crore and is listed on two exchanges.

Sanjiv Chainani, director of Sri Bhawani, refused to comment on the issue.

Industry sources say Sri Bhawani will fit in very well with Hathway's plans of launching a film-based cable channel later this month. The channel plans to screen four movies a day, with blockbusters reserved for the prime time slot. It will be launched simultaneously in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Chennai where the Rahejas have a presence in cable distribution. The channel has tied up around 500 titles of films, either through outright purchase or through licensing agreements, sources said.

 

Of the 12,40,000 cable and satellite homes in Mumbai, roughly 75 per cent is controlled by the Hinduja-owned IN Cablenet. UCN Space has around 2 lakh points while the rest is distributed between SitiCable and independent cable operators Seven Star and Bhawani. The latter has around 50,000 points.

Sri Bhawani is a Rs 6-crore company with 80 per cent of the holding with the promoters. The stake is divided between the Puri family and S B and T International. The company is listed on the Pune and Ahmedabad stock exchanges.