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ZEE TELEFILMS GAINS
INVESTORS' FORGIVENESS
Zee Telefilms chief Subhash Chandra has
become the darling of the investing community once again.
The share which had sunk to Rs 3,700-odd after the announcement
of a stock split, the acquisition of Rupert Murdoch's
stake in the brand, and the merger of its international
operations with it, rose once again to Rs 5,000-odd.
The reason for his return to favour:
his announcement that Siticable was looking for a buyer
of a 25% stake at a valuation of US$150 million. This
gives the whole company a valuation of $600-800 million.
It had paid Star TV $48-odd million odd to buy out its
50% stake in Siticable.
"That is an incredible return on investment,"
says an investment analyst. Adds BiTV's Ashok Advani:
"I would venture to say that in his buyout of Star TV's
stake in Zee TV Chandra has clearly outsmarted and beaten
Murdoch."
The investing community had felt that
Chandra was doing the company out of some money when
he merged his international assets with Zee Telefilms.
"No details were given of Zee Multimedia, it looked
a shady deal where Chandra was enriching himself alone,"
says an analyst at a foreign investment firm. "Today
with the high valuations for Siticable he has more than
made up for the lapse. And we are willing to stand by
him again."
Meanhwile, the man who beat Murdoch has
also thrown his hat into the fray by making a bid to
take over ICO Global, the ailing satellite telephony
company. "I would not like the US government putting
any hurdles in our path should we choose to take it
over," he says. Chandra has apparently bid $1.2 billion
for a 74% equity stake in ICO much higher than Craig
McCaw's Teledesic's bid.
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