MUMBAI: Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network (SABTNL), a production and distribution company has announced the demerger of its broadcasting and publication units into two separate listed entities.
The plan to re-align the business was discussed in the meeting of the board of directors held on 28 August. With this, the company aims to unlock value in broadcasting allied business, create greater financing flexibility and offer investors an opportunity to benefit from sector-focused business entities.
The company’s broadcasting business is currently spread in a string of firms under TV Vision, a wholly owned subsidiary of SABTNL. These subsidiaries include UBJ Broadcasting, HHP Broadcasting Services and MPCR Broadcasting Services. Under the new plan, these units will be consolidated into TV Vision, which would de-merge from its parent company and become a listed entity itself.
The board has also approved consolidating the publication business of the group under Marvick Entertainment which will also be later changed to a public company, thereby providing further liquidity to the shareholders by adding a listed entity under the group.
The revised group structure would be as under:
Commenting on the proposal made by the management to the board, SABTNL vice chairman and MD Markand Adhikari said, “In the last few years, the company has strengthened its content business and ventured into broadcasting business by launching niche category TV channels and also forayed into allied business in the publication and event management, with focus on niche segment of the society. Foreseeing the change business would undergo with penetration of internet and government plans to unleash remote connectivity through digital platform, the company believes that it is the right time to venture into new age technology and create a level playing field in its business segments.”
“In order to unlock more value for the shareholders, the management had proposed to independently govern and build these businesses, while retaining the character as a pure content and IP and production company and focusing on creation and development of infrastructure to strengthen the traditional business and venture into new age media and entertainment field,” he added.
The restructuring process will result in creation of two more listed entities in which, the existing shareholders would become shareholders in the same proportion to their holding as in SABTNL.
“The shareholders would receive one fully paid-up equity share of Rs 10 each of the broadcasting business and three fully paid-up equity shares of publication business as well, for every fully paid-up equity share of Rs 10 each held in the company and 10,000 redeemable preference shares of Rs 10 each of the TV Vision to the preference shareholders of the company on a proportionate basis,” said a statement released by the company.
Additionally, the company would also issue 2,381,068 redeemable preference shares of Rs 10 each fully paid-up of the company to the equity shareholders of SAB Assets (which houses the publication unit) on a proportionate basis pursuant to the transfer of the publication business of SAB Assets, based on the net worth of SAB Assets as on 31 March 2014 and supported by a report from an independent value.
Founded in 1995, SABTNL has been producing multi-lingual and multi-genre content. It already has an established regional presence in various Indian languages including Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
Shares of the company last traded at Rs 120.75 each, up 1.30 per cent on BSE on Thursday. The market was closed on Friday.
