MUMBAI: Former Network18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla will be joining India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA), as India partner.

Chawla will be joining the private equity firm on 1 June. He will be responsible for building and scaling up businesses owned by IVFA across sectors, as well as leading media and entertainment investments at the private equity firm.

IVFA managing partner Vishal Nevatia said, "Haresh brings with him unique experience, having built several world-class brands in the media and entertainment space. He blends professional management with entrepreneurial drive and the combination will be invaluable in helping IVFA scale up and further build our portfolio of businesses."

IVFA controls MBPL, the company which operates FM radio station under the Radio City brand, and Bangalore-based MSO Atria Convergence Technologies. The fund has exited from its two earlier media investments, Shringar Films and DQ Entertainment.

IVFA?s other investments include Meru Cabs, RDC Concrete, InLogistics, Mahindra Hinoday,DM Healthcare and RoboSilicon, amongst others.

On his new role Chawla added, "IVFA is a uniquely positioned firm that not only infuses capital but also the mindset and strategic management thinking, that is required to scale up mid-sized businesses into large professionally-run enterprises. This operating model was particularly appealing to me as a chance to leverage my experience in building up businesses and helping management teams perform to their true potential."

Under Chawla?s leadership, Network18 grew from a single business news channel (CNBC-TV18) and solitary portal (Moneycontrol.com), with revenues of Rs 150 million in 1999, to a diversified media group with revenues in excess of Rs 25 billion in 2011. His previous assignments have all been with start-ups including the HCL Group, where he headed business development for HCL Comnet; ABCL, where he set up the Film Distribution Business, and at the Times of India Group where he launched their music label - Times Music.

NEW DELHI: E-auction for the third phase of FM radio channels will commence in June, Information and Broadcasting secretary Uday Kumar Varma said.

The Union Cabinet had approved auctions for the third phase almost a year back on 7 July 2011, but no date had been fixed.

Private FM radio broadcasters are eagerly waiting for the date announcement as they have to ready capital before that. The bidding could turn aggressive, particularly in the metros where more frequencies will open up.

The government expects to earn Rs 17.33 billion from auctioning the radio licences.

FM Phase-III policy extends FM radio services to about 227 new cities, in addition to the present 86 cities, with a total of 839 new FM radio stations.

The government has hiked the cap on foreign holding from 20 per cent to 26 per cent.

The private radio operators are also allowed to carry news, but only from bulletins of All India Radio (AIR).

FM radio broadcasters are struggling with the slow pace of revenue growth and many of them are in losses. The revenue market for FM radio is estimated at Rs 12 billion.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has extended till 6 January the written comments on its Consultation Paper on "Issues related to prescribing minimum Channel spacing, within a license service area, in FM Radio sector in India".

Stakeholders can also send counter comments by 13 January, a Trai press note said, adding that this had been done on the request of stakeholders. Earlier, the last dates for comments and counter comments were 26 December and 2 January respectively.

With A and A+ cities demanding more FM channel even after the announcement of the Phase III guidelines, Trai had sought the opinion of stakeholders whether it would be acceptable if the minimum channel spacing within a license service area can reduced from the current level of 800 KHz.
 
It had said that if it can be reduced, then stakeholders should suggest what the minimum level should be, justifying their answers with reasoning. Issues such as the viability and desirability of having more number of channels in the interest of the stakeholders, selectivity of FM receivers available with the consumers ( such as mobile handsets, car radios, and other receivers), transmission from a single or multiple transmission setups may please be factored in should also be considered.

The Consultation Paper asked stakeholders to consider the implications of reducing/not-reducing the minimum channel spacing within a license service area. Furthermore, should the reduction of minimum channel spacing be confined to A+ and A category cities or should it be reduced across the country, and how should funding for the modification of transmitting setups be funded.

The Paper says that a second solution suggested by the operators requires a separate common transmission infrastructure (CTI) which includes transmitting tower, combiners, feeder cable, transmitting antenna etc. Effectively there would be two CTIs, one existing and another new one.

MUMBAI: Reliance Broadcast Network (RBNL), the holding company of Reliance ADAG?s FM radio and broadcasting businesses, is once again looking to raise up to Rs 4 billion and is in talks with various private equity firms.

Talking to Indiantelevision.com, RBNL chief financial officer Asheesh Chatterjee said: "We are planning to raise up to Rs 3-4 billion this fiscal to fund expansion in radio and TV broadcasting businesses. We have appointed Yes Bank as one of our investment bankers and are in talks with private equity players."

RBNL?s debt stands at Rs 1.2 billion. "We will repay the debt completely after raising the funds," Chatterjee said.

In September 2010, the company had raised Rs 2.83 billion via preferential allotment of 33.32 million equity shares at a price of Rs 85 per share. The promoters had pumped in Rs 1.73 billion at that time, subscribing to 20.37 million shares. The remaining amount came from the investors.

The company had used Rs 2 billion out of that to partly repay debt while the remaining was spent on launching channels, said Chatterjee.

In the fresh fund-raising activity, the company is open to all instruments such as private equity, QIP and strategic investment. The equity of the company will be expanded and the promoters are not going to offload any stake, Chatterjee averred.

The promoter holding stands at 63.87 per cent, according to data provided by the company till 30 June 2011.

Apart from repayment of debt, the company needs funds to participate in the FM phase III auction. "Phase III will need growth capital and we will be very serious contenders at the auctions," Chatterjee said.

Shares of RBNL rose 3.3 per cent to close Monday at Rs 78.15 on the BSE.

MUMBAI: In a tough quarter, India‘s leading FM radio company, ENIL, has reported a 9.91 per cent rise in revenue while controlling costs that helped the net profit to jump.

Entertainment Network (India) Ltd (ENIL), which runs private FM radio brand Radio Mirchi, has posted a net profit of Rs 97 million for the three-months ended 30 June 2011, up from Rs 43 million in the earlier year.

ENIL ED and CEO Prashant Panday said, "It‘s been a surprisingly tough quarter for media companies. The current political environment, the high inflation and the resultant high interest rates and the squeeze in the advertising budgets due to last quarter‘s cricket season have together put the brakes on the media industry‘s growth. We hope these conditions will change shortly. Fortunately for us, our focus on cost management has helped us report a strong profit growth. Our cash generation during the quarter has also been very satisfying at Rs 230 million."

Revenue during the quarter under review rose to Rs 632 million, compared with Rs 575 million in the earlier year.

The company‘s Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) stood at Rs 218 million, up 46 per cent. The Ebitda margin improved to 34 per cent from 26 per cent in the year-ago period.

ENIL has Rs 1.25 billion of free cash. "We are in a good position to take advantage of the opportunities available to us under the Phase-III policy that the government has just announced," Panday said.