MUMBAI: Eros International Media, a subsidiary of Aim-listed Eros International Plc, is planning to raise Rs 3.5 billion via an initial public offering (IPO).

The company is also considering a pre-IPO placement of up to Rs 200 million with certain investors.

Eros, which has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), said that the issue is for less than 25 per cent of the post-issue capital of the company.

At present, of a total of 71.41 million equity shares, Eros Worldwide holds 69.60 per cent stake while Indian company Eros Digital Private Limited holds 30.39 per cent. The remaining is with the individual promoters.

The company will use Rs 2.8 billion from the proceeds of the issue to acquire and co-produce Indian film rights, primarily Hindi films, as also Tamil and other regional language films. The surplus amount will be used towards general corporate purposes including meeting future growth requirements.

In FY '10, the company released 19 Hindi and 75 regional language films.

For the year ended 31 March 2009, Eros International reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 733.01 million on a total income of Rs 6.28 billion. For the six-month period ended September 2009, Eros posted a net profit of Rs 471.07 million on a turnover of Rs 3.39 billion. The company has a debt of Rs 2.10 billion.

Enam Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Morgan Stanley India and RBS Equities (India) Limited are the book-running lead managers, while Link Intimate India is registrar to the proposed offer.

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