Mid-Day family open to unloading majority stake at over Rs 70/share

The Ansari family, promoters of Mid Day, has indicated that they will consider offloading their majority stake in Mid Day Multimedia if they get an offer in excess of Rs 70 per share "" which is last year's initial public offer price.

Mid Day share jumped almost 11 per cent on Friday to close at Rs 27.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Manajit Ghoshal, chief financial officer, Mid Day Multimedia told Business Standard, "The company wants to give the minority share holders appropriate returns on their stock and considering that Rs 70 was the price at which the shares were sold in the primary market, it does serve as a benchmark."

The Mumbai-based media house, set up by Khalid Ansari, is in talks with Bennett & Coleman, publishers of the Times of India newspaper and other magazines, which had made an offer to buy a majority stake in Mid Day Multimedia "" the holding company for the newspapers, radio channels, television channel and outdoor outsourcing.

However, Tariq Ansari, CEO, Mid Day Multimedia, said that he had not made any concrete decision on this matter, and would take a call after considering all the proposals received.

Aveek Sarkar led Ananda Bazaar Patrika, Zee Television, ICICI Ventures, along with 2 European media players are also believed to have expressed interest in the stake sale of Mid Day.

However, the international companies will come in through consortium with an Indian partner, if they decide to pick up a stake higher than 26 per cent, said Ghoshal.

Bennett & Coleman is believed to have offered an amount close to Rs 100 crore for the 68.9 per cent stake held by the Ansari family, which has a market value of Rs 58 crore.