ITV

Tag: V Chandrasekaran

  • Win some, lose some for TV’s tycoons in the year gone by

    Win some, lose some for TV’s tycoons in the year gone by

    It has been a topsy-turvy year for the movers and shakers of Indian television. While some enjoyed windfall profits in the year gone by, more saw massive erosions in their personal wealth.

    According to a survey conducted by business daily Business Standard, Zee founder Subhash Chandra, who was the top honcho from the television industry in list last year, continues to hold his position as Indian television’s richest as far as personal wealth goes. A new entrant this year is Jeetendra Kapoor and family, whose Balaji Telefilms continues to prosper. Subrata Roy of the Sahara group, promoter of Sahara TV, has climbed up to 30th position from 33rd, his wealth having increased from Rs 4745.1 million to Rs 7791.8 million.

    Chandra, who was fourth on the list last year, has however had to settle at number five, with a personal wealth of Rs 27,695.6 million – down from Rs 119,744.6 million one year ago. Vagaries of consumer choice dictated this year that Chandra’s flagship Zee Telefilms be sidelined as one time ally Star TV fired on all cylinders through high-octane family soaps.

    Jeetendra Kapoor and family enter the list at number 74, with a combined wealth of Rs 1,394 million. Balaji’s sitcoms have been widely acknowledged as largely responsible for the phenomenal turnaround in Star TV’s fortunes. This apart, its shows are the only ones which appear to be bright lights on an otherwise dark programming landscape in rival channels Zee TV and Sony Entertainment.

    The others in the “Richie Rich” list who find a mention in the survey are the Adhikari Brothers, who the report says, suffered a loss of wealth of 87 per cent to settle at a modest Rs 340 million. Investors, the survey nsotes, supported the Sri Adhikari Brothers stock as long as brothers Gautam and Markand restricted their activities to producing TV programmes, but gave an emphatic thumbs down when they set up their own TV channel.

    Pentamedia Graphics’ V Chandrasekaran has fallen drastically to the 79th position from the 30th, his wealth having shrunk from Rs 9,181 million to Rs 1,236 million. Rajan Raheja, promoter of Hathway Cables, is also down from the 64th to the 84th position on the list. His wealth is down from Rs 3,216 million to Rs 1,123 million.

    Subhash Ghai, Mukta Arts promoter, who is eyeing Indian television, also debuts in the list at number 57. Ghai was the first in Bollywood to go public in September 2000. His wealth today is at Rs 1,920 million, 43 per cent lower than the figure on the day Ghai’s company got listed.

    A few other major media players who are not listed in the market are also mentioned in the report.

    A really big player on the unlisted list is undoubtedly the Tamil Nadu-based Kalanithi Maran, the king of the southern language television firmament. Maran owns Sun Networks and controls over 85 per cent of the Rs 4 billion southern TV advertising market. There is no reliable estimate about the wealth of Maran, but it is believed to be anywhere between Rs 8000 million to Rs 15000 million.

    A major failure of the report must surely be the ommission of the other southern media biggie Ramoji Rao and his closely held Eenadu Group from its calculations. Rao has a virtual lock on both the print as well as electronic media in Andra Pradesh. Apart from that he owns the world famous Ramoji Rao Film city, which is a huge outdoor studio which provides world class production facilities. The total turnover of the group is Rs 7,500 million. There are no estimates available with indiantelevision.com on his personal fortune.

    Aroon Purie of India Today comes next on this list. With print brands like Business Today, India Today etc with estimated value of Rs 1000 million and 24-hor news channel Aaj Tak (which reportedly broke even within only a few months of its launch) has a valuation close to Rs 1000 million and Living Media which publishes Purie’s titles is worth Rs 2,000 million. The total net worth of Purie is thought to be close to Rs 4,000 million.

    Prannoy Roy of New Delhi Television, another media player first came to the limelight as “the election specialist” who was a fixture on national broadcaster Doordarshan when national polling was on. After that it was his famous TV programme “World This Week” on DD which kept NDTV in the news. This 75 per cent owner in NDTV progressed from a one programme outfit to channel content provider. His fortune is estimated close to Rs 1,350 million.

  • Pentamedia to get 49.9% Film Roman stock for $10 m in reworked deal

    Pentamedia to get 49.9% Film Roman stock for $10 m in reworked deal

    After a series of modifications, Indian multimedia production firm Pentamedia Graphics Ltd and US-based animation producer Film Roman Inc. have reached agreement on a deal that gives Pentamedia a 49.9 per cent stake in Film Roman valued at $10,000,000.

    Under the new terms, Pentamedia will be issued one new share of Film Roman’s common stock for each $1.17 in value it receives from Pentamedia. Upon completion of the transaction, Pentamedia will own up to 49.946% of Film Roman’s common stock, with an overall valuation of up to $10,000,000. The specifics of the restructured transaction are being finalised by the two companies and any necessary approvals will be sought in the near future, the release states.

    In a joint statement, V Chandrasekaran, CEO of Pentamedia and John Hyde, CEO of Film Roman said: “We have restructured the agreement between us and look forward to finalising the transaction so that we can start building on the strengths of our respective companies.”

    Early last month the whole deal seemed threatened with Film Roman filing a complaint with the US Securities & Exchange Commission claiming Pentamedia was unable to close the transaction on terms earlier agreed by both the firms and approved by Film Roman’s shareholders.

    As per the earlier agreement, Pentamedia was to acquire a fully diluted 60 per cent stake of Film Roman in the form of newly issued common stock for $15 million in cash.

    It was in October last year that Pentamedia last year announced a deal with Film Roman which it said would help it get better access to the US markets.

  • Pentamedia reports 55% jump in net profit, planning six animation movies

    Pentamedia reports 55% jump in net profit, planning six animation movies

    Pentamedia Graphics has reported a 55 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 1535.5 million on a turnover Rs 5523.8 million for the financial year ended 31 March 2001. It has also declared a dividend of Rs 3 per share.

    Regarding the vexed issue of its bid to take over the US-based Film Roman, which has run into difficulties, Pentamedia has declared that the issue has been left to chairman V Chandrasekaran to deal with. Chandrasekaran will be leaving on Monday to the USA to negotiate with Film Roman management.

    In its annual report released on Thursday, Pentamedia reported a 104 per cent jump in its net profit for the fourth quarter at Rs 337.6 million against Rs 164.7 million last year. Turnover went up 41 per cent as against Rs 3929.9 million last year. The turnover for the quarter ended 31 March 2001 was Rs 1450 million.

    The company claims it has got orders on hand worth $ 155 million to be executed over the next 15 months with a human resources strength of over 2,100.

    Among the projects which it has completed are Sinbad’s television premiere which was released in the US on November 2000. In the last quarter of the year Pandavas – The Five Warriors, a 90-minute hybrid (convergence of live action & animation) 3D animation movie based on the famous epic Mahabharatha, was released in English for global audiences. Pandavas won the National Award for the best English feature animation movie. At the Vancouver Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, Pandavas was adjudged as the second best movie from a total of 22 animation movies.

    Pentamedia has also successfully completed the production of Alibaba, to be screened in the May 2001.

    This year Pentamedia is planning six more animation movies, each of 90 minutes duration. It is also planning to expand its presence in gaming by using existing animation contents and by developing new gaming contents.