"The industry is going through a massive transition from analog to digital and thus we will require a lot of investments. Cable is the only pipe going into the consumer home, so the idea is to go offer broadband as well and drive consolidation in the sector," he said.
The company current net debt stands at less than USD 100 million, but cutting debt was the intent of this fund raising plan, he added. "We are comfortably placed when it comes to a debt equity ratio."
DEN Networks has garnered a total of USD 180 million through preferential placement and qualified institutional placement (QIP). As a part of the preferential placement, the company raised an equity investment of USD 110 million from Goldman Sachs , a leading global investment bank.
He further added that a total raising of about USD 160 million will entail a dilution of close to about 24 percent for DEN.
Below is the verbatim transcript of MG Azar's interview on CNBC-TV18
Q: With regards to the preferential allotment that you have done to Goldman Sachs and affiliates, why have you chosen to raise that capital and what would that particular process involve in terms of dilution for you?
A: The industry is going through a massive transition from analog to digital and thus we will require a lot of investments. Cable is the only pipe going into the consumer home, so the idea is to go offer broadband as well and drive consolidation in the sector.
We have taken this opportunity and done a preferential allotment to Goldman Sachs for about USD 110 million which means about 15 percent dilution in the company. All that capital will be used to drive consolidation, drive digitisation and broadband rollout for the company.
Q: You do have some debt on your books as well, will none of this money be used to retire that debt?
A: No. On a net basis, we have less than USD 100 million of debt on the company. We are not intending to retire debt. We are comfortably placed when it comes to a debt equity ratio.
Q: You have also chosen to do a qualified institutional placement (QIP), how soon will you be hitting the market with that and is Rs 217 the decided price?
A: No, we closed the QIP yesterday for USD 50 million. In aggregate we have done about USD 160 million - USD 110 million coming from Goldman Sachs as a part of preferential allotment and USD 50 million through QIP.
Q: Along with this preferential allotment and QIP, how much dilution will it involve for DEN?
A: Raising USD 160 million will entail a dilution of close to 24 percent for the company.
Q: How are things progressing in terms of digitisation moving along smoothly or are you hitting some road blocks?
A: It is absolutely smooth, much beyond expectation. In India you are looking at half the country getting digitized in a matter of 12 months. This is unprecedented and I would thank the government, the regulators for driving this through and also all the industry stakeholders for coming together and driving this process. The broadcasters, the multiple-system operators (MSOs), the direct to home (DTH) people, all of them have put in efforts to drive this process.
Q: At this point, what could you point by the end of this year in terms of subscription revenue growth and average revenue per user (ARPU) growth and will it balance off the losses you see on carriage revenue loss?
A: We have not seen any significant dip on the carriage side. The way the whole digitisation is playing out, it is benefitting the consumers with more number of channels, more options. It is impacting the broadcasters because for a typical network we would carry due to paucity of bandwidth about 20-30 percent of the channels, today all the channels are getting carried. So, the broadcasters are benefitted in reaching out to all the consumers with all the channels that they beam.
We are putting in set top boxes and cementing our partnership with local cable operators (LCOs). It is working out well for all of us and is also leading to consolidation in the market. As I see it, including consumers, broadcasters, MSOs, even the LCOs, they will benefit, so it is a win-win scenario that is playing out for all the stakeholders in the business.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Won't use QIP, preferential issue funds to cut debt: DEN
Dengan url
https://rokokkanker.blogspot.com/2013/05/wont-use-qip-preferential-issue-funds.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Won't use QIP, preferential issue funds to cut debt: DEN
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Won't use QIP, preferential issue funds to cut debt: DEN
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar