| In the holding company, the existing shareholders
of Television Eighteen India will have a 39 per cent stake. Promoter
Raghav Bahl will hold 51 per cent stake. "The restructuring is
done in such a way that there will be no value loss for the existing
TV Eighteen shareholders," says CNBC-TV Eighteen CEO Haresh Chawla
The existing Television Eighteen shareholders will be protected
as they will hold 74 per cent stake in iBN, the venture that will
launch general news channels, and 100 per cent stake in Awaaz, the
Hindi consumer business news channel. In iBN, Television Eighteen's
holding will be 23 per cent while Rajdeep Sardesai and the professional
shareholders will have 26 per cent. The holding company TV18 Network
LTD will have the balance 51 per cent.
In the first phase of the restructuring, Awaaz will be merged with
Television Eighteen. This company is already holding CNBC-TV18,
the English business news channel, and portals Moneycontrol.com
and Comoditiescontrol.com. TV18 Network, the second listed holding
company, will have a 51 per cent plus stake in Television Eighteen
and iBN. Hitherto, Awaaz and the proposed general news English channel
were held in promoter entities and were legally not part of the
listed Television Eighteen, due to government restrictions.
The restructuring will enable TV18 to comply with the uplinking
guidelines of the government. The key pivot for the restructuring
plan is that the dominant Indian shareholder must own 51 per cent.
TV18 was non compliant and hence would not have got necessary licences
to operate the business; its current licence on CNBC-TV18 was also
under government's scanner.
Two options were considered for restructuring. The first option
meant merging the businesses without cancelling any promoter shareholding.
Promoter would park shares (25 per cent) in a Trust for TV18 shareholders.
But the company opted for the other option: the promoter would move
stake to the holding company and list it; TV18 shareholder would
get fungible stake in the holding company. There would, thus, be
no effective dilution for TV18 shareholders.
TV18 has opted for creation of two listed entities. Bahl will act
as the dominant shareholder. The restructuring process will involve
consolidation of TV18's media businesses and creation of a group
structure. This will be achieved through a High Court process whereby
the TV18 shareholder will automatically be allotted shares proportionately
in the two entities and will have a legal holding in both Awaaz
and the proposed general news English channel, apart from the shareholding
in the existing listed company.
Also read:
TV18 announces
holding company TV18 Network LTD
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