Peter Mukerjea’s private equity-funded broadcast venture INX Media officially launched

Two new media companies INX Media Private Limited and INX News Private Limited, promoted by ex-Star CEO Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani, have been officially launched. The full bouquet of channels will include a Hindi entertainment channel, an English news channel, various entertainment channels in regional languages, a music channel and city-specific channels. INX Group promoter Indrani Mukerjea will be chairperson of the venture.

The Hindi general entertainment channel, the music channel and the English news channel will be launched by the last quarter of the year while the other channels will be rolled out over the next two years. Funding for the entertainment company INX Media has come in from Temasek Holdings via Dunearn Investments, New Silk Route, New Vernon, Kotak and SREI Group. The news company, INX News, will be 26% owned by the entertainment company and, in accordance with government regulations, by a single Indian entity drawn from the INX Group. Heading INX News as CEO and editorial head is Vir Sanghvi.

No single fund will own more than 25% of the entertainment channel. A portion of the equity will be kept aside as sweat equity for key employees both in the entertainment and the news companies. The two companies have already applied for necessary permissions.

Kotak Investment Bank is the exclusive adviser to the INX Group on this transaction. Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co. are the legal advisers to the group. The investors in INX Media which will have the entertainment and the music channels include Dunearn Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, NSR PE, a fund advised by New Silk Route Partners, New Vernon Private Equity, SREI, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and Kotak Private Equity and IM Media Private Limited.

Read more in the article on indiantelevision.com.

GIC and IDFC Private Equity buy 31% stake in Quipo Infrastructure for Rs. 150 crores to fund growth plans

GIC Special Investments, Singapore and IDFC Private Equity have picked up around 15.5% share each, totaling 31%, in Quipo Infrastructure Equipment Limited (QIEL) for Rs. 150 crores.

Quipo has been promoted by the SREI Group, one of the largest equipment retail companies in the country. It will use the funds to part-finance a capital expenditure plan of over Rs. 3400 crores over the next two years. Following this, the paid-up equity capital of the company is estimated to be around Rs. 90 crores with a total net worth around Rs. 225 crores. SREI’s shareholding in Quipo has come down to 15.5% from 22%. Dutch FMO and SwedFund hold around 22%, while other shareholders like Ingersoll Rand and other venture capital funds hold the balance.

Apart from internal cash generation, the company plans to go in for various debt options to fund its capex plans. Around Rs. 1200 crores of debt will be raised next fiscal. A large part of the capital expenditure of almost Rs. 2000 crores will go towards building almost 6000 telecom towers across the country. Quipo, through its subsidiary has been involved in the renting of towers to leading telecom operators.

The company is expected to gross a turnover of around Rs. 200 crores in the current fiscal and the new business is likely to double revenues from next year.

Read the article in DNA Money.