SUN TV merger with Gemini TV, Udaya TV

Chennai, Nov 27: The Board of Directors of SUN TV Limited have in principle approved the scheme of arrangement, amalgamation of Gemini TV Private Limited with Sun TV Ltd and merger of all divisions of Udaya TV Private Limited, except its FM Radio Division, with Sun TV Ltd.

The Board have appointed M/s Enam Financial Consultants Private Limited and M/s DSP Merrill Lynch Limited as advisors, a company release here said.

Gemini TV Private Limited owns five television channels - Gemini TV, Teja TV, Gemini News, Gemini Music and Gemini Cable Vision and is operating with a revenue of Rs 17,469 lakh for the year ended March 31, 2006.

Udaya TV Private Limited owns four television channels - Udaya TV, Udaya Movies, Udaya Varthegalu and Udaya TV II, and is operating with a revenue of Rs 9,431 lakh for the year ended March 31, 2006, the release said.

Mr Kalanithi Maran, Chairman&Managing Director of SUN TV Limited said 'with this proposed merger, Sun TV shareholders should benefit immensely from the highly profitable operations and strong growth plans of both Gemini TV and Udaya TV'.

Sun TV Limited will have an integrated growth strategy for all south Indian language channels and build a dominant presence in the whole of south India, he said. With this proposed merger, Sun TV Ltd would become one of the largest television broadcasters in India. Mr A M Prasad of Gemini TV said the integration would be value accretive for all Gemini TV shareholders on account of the business synergy between the two companies and the benefits of being part of a larger corporate entity.

Mr Selvam of Udaya TV said integration would help consolidation and further build up presence in the Kannada language market.

Sun TV Ltd currently operates four television channels - Sun TV, KTV, Sun News and Sun Music in Tamil and two TV channels - Surya TV and Kiran TV - in Malayalam, besides three FM Radio Stations. It owns another three FM Radio Stations through its subsidiaries.

The two subsidiaries of Sun TV Ltd - Kal Radio Ltd and South Asia FM Ltd, jointly hold 41 FM Radio Licences for FM Radio Stations across India. Revenue for the year ending March 31, 2006 of Sun TV Ltd. is Rs 33,911 lakh and for the half-year ending September 30, 2006, is Rs 20,494 lakh.

UNI