ZEE TELEFILMS MAKES AMBITIOUS VALUATION OF SITICABLE

Newspaper reports have suggested that Zee Telefilms's Subhash Chandra has managed to get a buyer interested enough to consider buying out a part of his holding in cable networking company Siticable which he recently acquired from Rupert Murdoch. The deal, the newspapers say, values the MSO at around US$600 million, as Chandra has asked the unidentified buyer to part with $150 million for a 25 per cent equity stake in Siticable.

Zee Telefilms had recently acquired 50% of Siticable, Asia Today Ltd, and Patco for $296.8 miliion. The deal had valued Siticable at around $47 million. If Chandra manages to rope in the new partner for $150 million, he will have increased the valuation o f Siticable more than 14 times in just the matter of a couple of months. The transaction will go a long way in helping him pay back the first tranche of $150 million to Murdoch's Star TV which becomes due by March next year. Siticable claims that it has a penetration of around 4 million homes nationwide.

Meanwhile, the company has announced the nominations of its Sangeet Awards which are to be awarded to Indian music artistes for excellence in Indian music. The awards cover Bollywood music and non-film music. The top five albums in the film category are: Mann, Dil Se, Sarafarosh, Taal and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. The non-film toppers include: Tunak Tunak, Stolen Moments, Marasim, Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi, Dil Le Gayee. The top five music directors include: Jagjit Singh, Lalit Sen, Pankaj Mishra and Shantanu Moitra. Zee TV has instituted its awards just as Star TV's Channel V has discontinued with its awards.

The stockmarkets meanwhile don't seemed too pleased with the goings-on at the company as the share continued to languish in the Rs 4,500 range after reaching a peak of Rs 5,800 last month in the pre-festival frenzy.