India's second radio operator MBL seeks to list

India's second radio operator MBL seeks to list

FM radio

MUMBAI: Music Broadcast Ltd (MBL), the FM radio unit of the media house Jagran Prakashan backed by the private equity giant Blackstone, on Monday, filed draft documents with the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India for an initial public offering.

ICICI Securities is the sole financial adviser for the issue. The IPO will comprise of a fresh issue aggregating upto Rs. 4,000 million (Rs 400 crore) and an offer for sale of up to 2,658,518 equity shares by certain existing shareholders of MBL. JPL is not selling any of its shareholding in MBL under the offer for sale portion.

MBL will be the second radio operator to list on BSE after Times Group's Entertainment Network India Ltd, which runs Radio Mirchi, India's top FM radio business label.

Jagran entered the radio segment with the acquisition of Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd in December 2014 from Rupert Murdoch-controlled 21st Century Fox's Star Group and the private equity company India Value Fund Advisors.

The company plans to use the proceeds to redeem non-convertible debentures, repay inter-corporate deposits as well as for general corporate purposes.

MBL has a presence in 29 cities. Its radio stations include eight Radio Mantra stations. The company says its radio stations reached out to 49.60 million listeners in 23 cities covered by AZ Research as on 31 March 2016.