INDIA BUSINESS WORLD SEPTEMBER (16^th - 30^th) 2007
The Month that was ...

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL PICKS 10% IN DELHI BASED BAG FILMS AND MEDIA COMPANY FOR RS 60 CR

FIDELITY International, a leading foreign institutional investor, has picked up a 10% equity stake in Delhibased television and film content company BAG Films and Media through issue of fresh equity shares. According to investment banking sources, the deal is being valued at around Rs 50-60 crore. This is the third round of investment in the company after India Bulls promoter Sameer Gehlaut bought around 25% stake for Rs 26-crore earlier this year. The investment was through a preferential allotment of up to 20,250,000 equity shares of Rs 2 each at a price of Rs 13 per share. And subsequently, Kolkatabased High Growth Distributors took 12.55% on an expanded equity for Rs 26.1-crore. That leaves the current promoters of the company - Rajiv Shukla and Anuradha Prasad with around 37.5% stake. The content company will use the investment for its new ventures which include the launch of four channels in different genres.

Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan recently bought a 10% stake in BAG Glamour, the new entity from the promoters of BAG Films. The other investors in BAG Glamour are Sameer Gehlaut, High Growth while the remaining 60% is held by the promoters.

BAG Films is gearing up to make a foray into the braodcasting space in both news and non-news section. The company had announced plans to invest around Rs 270-crore for the four channels it proposes to launch through newly floated entities BAG Newsline and BAG Glamour.

BAG Films was established in 1993 and since then it has been providing television content to all leading channels such as Star Plus, Star One, Sony, Sahara, Zee, and Doordarshan. In September 2003 the company made a public issue of 14.86 million shares and raised close to Rs 15-crore. The company is listed on the National and Mumbai Stock Exchanges.