The board meeting that Balaji Telefilms will be holding tomorrow on whether to go through with a merger with HFCL Nine Broadcasting will be nothing more than a formality, if industry sources are to be believed.

According to the industry grapevine, the decision has already been taken that there will be no merger between the two companies.

Balaji CEO Sanjay Dosi, queried about the rumours doing the rounds that the deal was off, declined to comment on the issue and said an official statement would be made available after tomorrow‘s board meeting.

Balaji, in a notice to the National Stock Exchange last week and the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday, had said the meeting was being convened to consider a review of the proposed merger of Nine Network Entertainment India (a wholly owned subsidiary of HFCL Nine) with the company.

HFCL (Himachal Futuristic Communication Ltd) Nine Broadcasting is a 51:49 per cent holding company held by Vinay Maloo and Australian media magnate Kerry Packer. HFCL Nine was to take a 20 per cent stake in Balaji Telefilms.

The markets were also buzzing with the rumours. The Balaji scrip closed at Rs 144.90 after it hit the 8 per cent upper limit of the circuit breaker for the second straight day. It opened at RS 133.50.

The market sentiment is that the merger is likely to be called off and this would be good for the company because a merger would have entailed earnings dilution.

Balaji board to meet on merger with HFCL Nine tomorrow

After a long while, a court in the UK has provided some good news for media baron Subhash Chandra.

The Chandra promoted company Afro Asian Satellite Communications Gibraltar (AASCG) Ltd has won a five-year-long legal battle against Hughes Space and Communications International over a cancelled satellite contract.

The London Court of International Arbitration, in a ruling on 11 April, ordered Hughes to pay $38 million to AASCG plus up to $20 million in interest as well as court costs, the figure to be decided at a future date, the 30 April issue of Space News has reported.

Hughes Space and Communications International is part of Hughes Electronics Corporation‘s satellite manufacturing arm, which was sold to Seattle-based Boeing Co last year.

AASCG and Hughes signed a $700-million contract in January 1995 for two large mobile-telephone satellites that AASCG was planning as part of its Agrani project. AASCG made an initial payment of $38 million to Hughes as part of the contract. But in late 1996, Hughes stopped work on Agrani, saying that the project‘s backers were unable to finance further work.

But AASCG argued that Hughes stopped work on Agrani because of its greater interest in a contract with the Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications (APMT) consortium of Singapore, a Chinese-backed concern that was planning a similar satellite system over East Asia.

For the US satellite maker, the AASCG-APMT episode has proved a costly one. In addition to losing the AASCG contract and being forced to reimburse the company with interest, Hughes was barred by the US government from shipping the APMT satellite due to technology transfer concerns. Hughes subsequently paid APMT a contract cancellation fee.