IndusInd offloads 3% stake to Swiss firm Kudelski

IndusInd offloads 3% stake to Swiss firm Kudelski

IndusInd

NEW DELHI: IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd. (IMCL), a Hinduja TMT company, has entered into an agreement with Kudelski SA, a listed company of Switzerland for issuing up to 3 per cent of its equity based on IMCL valuation of approximately $ 500 million.
 
 
While the parameters of the valuation have already been worked out and agreed to with the assistance of the Company's advisors PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Corporate Finance group and Amas Securities, the final valuation will be arrived at on completion of due diligence, according to a statement from the company.

As earlier reported in indiantelevision.com, Nagravision SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kudelski, will also provide an exclusive Conditional Access solution to encrypt and secure the digital pay TV services of IMCL and render turnkey services for deployment of digital pay TV services.

Nagravision is among the world's largest providers of secure access to pay TV services via more than 35 million decoder set top boxes worldwide, the release says. On completion of the deal, IMCL's stakeholders will include two listed leading technology companies: Intel and Kudelski.

The majority shareholding would continue with IN Network Entertainment Ltd., and in turn Hinduja TMT Ltd.

Nagravision will supply a turnkey implementation at the heart of which will be the technology for encryption of Pay TV services (including Conditional Access System) and Smart Cards for deployment of Digital set-top boxes in India. It would integrate the CAS with the compression system/digital headend as well as SMS, billing system and all associated integration requirements.

Nagravision SA of Switzerland, the wholly owned Digital TV and broadband solutions subsidiary of the Kudelski Group, has been chosen to exclusively provide comprehensive digital pay TV technology to IMCL.This technology manages transactions and interactivity while ensuring that only subscribers who have paid for a service can gain access. Nagra's principal customers include EchoStar in US, Telewest and NTL in UK, Premier in Germany and Hong Kong Cable Television in Asia/Pacific.

Through IMCL, HTMT has incubated in India an organization that has rapidly grown in the past 8 years to become India's largest independent multi system operator (MSO).