Star Plans Float This Year

Rupert Murdoch-promoted Star TV of Hong Kong is looking at a float sometime in the third quarter of this calendar year which may be followed by a similar move in India by its subsidiary. Sources in Star TV admitted that the parent company News Corp is planning a restructuring of its existing global satellite TV businesses which will result in Star TV going public in Hong Kong and probably in India, too.

Senior executives from Star TV India or News TV India Ltd were in New York last fortnight to apprise the News Corp top brass of the business prospects in Asia and South Asia, one of the biggest markets for Star TV. Though Star TV India, like most other media companies, specially subsidiaries of global companies, would like the Indian stock market regulator to treat them at par with IT companies where initial public offer (IPO) is concerned, it is not averse to offloading the mandatory 25 per cent through an IPO. At present, as per Sebi rules, infotech companies can go in for a domestic IPO by offloading 10 per cent of their shareholding to the public. UTV sometime back had petitioned Sebi on this only to be turned down.

 

News Corp, earlier this week, had announced that the company is seriously considering plans to consolidate its worldwide satellite platforms and certain related assets under an umbrella entity.

News Corp is moving towards consolidating its global satellite TV interests into a new $35-billion company in preparation for what is likely to be one of the biggest offerings of a media business, Financial Times reported earlier this week.

Star sources said in anticipation of an IPO, the structuring of Star India is being spruced up by cutting flab wherever necessary and merging various departments and entities into one big corporate set-up.