| MUMBAI:
Turner International is acquiring 92 per cent stake in NDTV Imagine for $117 million,
freeing the Indian broadcasting company from its loss-making verticals.
NDTV's 76 per cent
stake in NDTV Imagine will cost Turner International $67 million. The Time Warner
company will acquire fresh equity for $50 million to take its total holding in
NDTV Imagine to 92 per cent.
Says
Turner International India managing director Anshuman Misra, "Turner International
has signed an agreement in principle to acquire 92 per cent of NDTV Imagine, subject
to regulatory and Time Warner board approval. We will provide complete details
upon board approval." NDTV
said Tuesday NDTV Networks Plc, the subsidiary company that holds NDTV Imagine,
will retain a five per cent stake in NDTV Imagine, prior to the issuance of primary
shares to Turner Asia Pacific Ventures (TAPV). The
deal will help NDTV to be debt-free and focus on its core news business.
Earlier,
NDTV had sold 69 per cent stake in its lifestyle programming subsidiary NDTV Lifestyle
to US-based Scripps Networks Interactive in a deal worth $55 million.
It had also
repurchased the $100 million step up coupon bonds due 2012 for $72.4 million throught
NDTV Networks Plc. This had freed NDTV from the restrictive clauses and allowed
it to pursue investors for its different verticals.
NDTV had also bought back the 26 per cent stake that NBC Universal was holding
in NDTV Networks. Also
Read: Scripps
Networks takes controlling stake in NDTV Lifestyle NBC
Universal exits, NDTV to get strategic investor NDTV
in talks to get strategic investor in lifestyle TV biz | 
