[icernet] Indian investors buy into Star news channel

[Arul Selvan]

Star News' two main local investors will be industrialist Kumar Mangalam 
Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group with interests in commodities, 
finance and telecoms, and Hemendra Kothari, who heads DSP Merrill Lynch, 
a leading investment bank, in Bombay. Both will take up a stake of 25 
per cent each in their private capacity. Five other individuals - a 
former matinee idol, a newspaper editor, a TV actress, a lawyer and an 
advertising executive - will buy smaller stakes, taking the total share 
of equity held by Indian investors in the channel to 74 per cent as 
mandated by government. Star declined overtures from some members of 
parliament keen to invest in a channel that is well positioned in the 
fastest-growing segment of advertising on television. Star has reapplied 
for a licence that would, as a majority-owned Indian entity, allow it to 
"uplift" transmissions from Indian soil. This will remove the time lags 
that accompany uplifting from outside of India, which is what foreign 
broadcasters do now. As a locally owned channel, Star News would also be 
able to tap rupee-based advertising. The government's decision to limit 
foreign direct investment in news channels also forced the Indian arm of 
CNBC, which was 51 per cent foreign owned, to revise it ownership 
profile. Zee Telefilms, in which foreign investors including expatriate 
Indians hold a stake of about 55 per cent, has a year to comply.


Source:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966325697