Indian software production house United Television (UTV), which has branched out into broadcasting and animation, has announced plans to float a substantial part of its equity prior to listing on both Nasdaq and local stock exchanges.
Chairman Ronnie Screwvala told the Indian Economic Times: With our entry into broadcasting and animation, and our software exports now exceeding $1m a year, we hope to become an Asian media power house.
He said the company is in talks with underwriters and merchant bankers to plan the timing and mechanics of the public issue. He said nine international investment groups and banks have already taken stakes in UTV companies, and as result the group has managed to achieve a high degree of transparency and conformity with international business practices to make the Nasdaq listing possible.
Outside investors include Warburg Pincus in Vijay TV, Allianz Capital and SICOM in United Studios Ltd (USL), and Mitsui Bank and Walden & Draper in UTV itself.
Of UTV’s expansion plans, Screwvala said the company has firmed up deals for the supply of Mandarin and Cantonese software to two Singapore-based satellite channels, TCS and TV-12, which are aimed at the large Southeast Asian Chinese community.
He said the company is also building up its software programming work for local-language TV stations in India as well as in Sinhalese for Sri Lanka’s national broadcaster Roopavahini and developing its Tele Shopping Network subsidiary.
