Sun Tv To Unveil Rs 800cr Ipo

In one of the biggest media company public issues, the Murasoli Maran family-promoted Sun TV has lined up an initial public offer which will be around Rs 600-800 crore.

After about four months of Sun TV's debut on the domestic bourses, another group company, Udaya TV, is slated to go public. The size of the IPO is between Rs 400 crore and Rs 500 crore.

In both the cases about 10 per cent equity will be offered through the IPOs. Till sometime back only IT companies were allowed to come out with public issues of minimum 10 per cent, while non-IT companies had to offer a minimum of 25 per cent. SEBI recently okayed a proposal for all media companies to follow the norms laid down for IT companies.

 

SUN TV will use the IPO proceeds to expand its broadcasting business as well as to foray into the cable distribution business and those related to the Net.

Pointing out that the Sun TV issue will open over the next two-three months, a source in Chennai-based Sun TV told Business Standard on Thursday that the draft prospectus of Sun TV's IPO will be filed with SEBI next week. "We feel that Asian markets are far more rewarding than the European and US markets," the source said explaining why group has decided to first go for domestic listings.

According to the source, "After Sun and Udaya's listings in India, there are plans to come out with an IPO of another group company, Gemini TV six months after Udaya goes public." But the source confirmed that the Udaya TV IPO will definitely happen this calendar year.

Last month Sun TV, in a quiet move, made its foray into the cable-distribution business and, the company source claimed, almost 100 per cent of Chennai's cable distribution is controlled by Sun.

The source said, over the next five months, there is a proposal to start the cable-distribution ventures in either Bangalore or Hyderabad, two cities where Zee group's Siti Cable has a strong presence.

The Sun TV group has also firm plans to launch at least seven channels in various South Indian language channels. Of these, about three have already been launched, with the latest being Teja Music, a 24-hour telugu music and movie channel. New channels are part of the group's plans to have a bouquet of channels in various South Indian-languages which will not only give it the market share, but also the mindshare.

Sun TV beams through one of the Intelsat satellites and, along with Enaadu TV, became, in the third week of March, the first two Indian channels to uplink from the country, bypassing the VSNL route through its own private gateway.