UTV moves to get listed on the London Stock Exchange

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) In what could be seen as the latest sign of Bollywood going Global, media conglomerate UTV Software Communications Ltd has resolved to transfer all its Motion Picture Production activities -Domestic and International - to one of its overseas subsidiaries, which will help it to get listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

A listing on the AIM will make UTV only the second Bollywood company seeking an AIM listing, after overseas distributors Eros International had, In July last year, come out with an IPO of 42 million Dollars and got listed on the AIM.

Company sources said the decision to transfer UTV's Motion Picture Production activities -Domestic and International - into its overseas subsidiaries and to get listed on the AIM was taken after a board meeting last evening.

According to UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala, the transfer and listing on the AIM was part of the company's intent to position UTV Motion Pictures as a Global Indian Movie Major.

''It is our intent to position UTV Motion Pictures as a Global Indian Movie Major and so our overseas listing will facilitate M and A's, Alliances and JVs in the main international markets with global film companies,''Ronnie Screwvala said.

''With our close association with global creative brands like Mira Nair, Chris Rock, Will Smith, M Night Shyamalan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ashutosh Gowariker and Vishal Bhardwaj - along with media majors like Fox, Disney and Sony - we are very uniquely positioned as an Indian company in the international market.

We have matured our movie studio business to a leadership position both in South Asia and globally and we need to unlock value for our UTV shareholders. Secondly, in India we are constantly benchmarked with "pure play" Hindi movie producers - and our Movie model is far more robust, stable and global and we believe that international investors on overseas stock exchanges understand such a mature model better,''Mr Screwvala said.

He said another reason for the move was that a bulk of the company's revenues in the near future would come from overseas.

''Of course we will produce more Indian Movies than international ones but in 2 years over 50 per cent of our motion picture revenues will come from International markets.

Also, some US Studios are in advanced stages with us to partner with us in India and an overseas structure supports this alliance,''he said.

UTV Software Communications Ltd, the parent company based in India, is a media conglomerate with four business verticals - Television including TV content production and Air Time Sales, New Media includes animation, gaming with its recently acquired controlling stake in Ignition, UK and proposed acquisition of controlling interest in Indiagames, post production and the SFX business.

Broadcasting, includes its Youth Channel 'Bindass' and its World Cinema Channel 'Olive' and Motion Pictures. UTV's present Hollywood motion picture business including co-productions like Mira Nair's 'The Namesake', Chris Rock's 'I think I Love My Wife', Will Smith and now M Night Shyamalan's 'The Happening' and its worldwide distribution activity of Indian movies.

It is notable that UTV already has strategic relationships with Disney and Newscorp (Fox) and have co-produced and distributed movies with them. Among UTV's International co-productions with Fox are Mira Nair's 'Namesake', Chris Rock's 'I think I love My Wife' and M Night Shyamalan's 'The Happening' while it is co-producing a film with Disney with Will Smith at the helm.

UNI