The TV channel has been looking for cash infusion in order to expand the channel which is facing tough competition from Star TV and Zee and also to make payment for the TV rights of the India Premier League(IPL) for which it has paid over $1 billion for ten years.
After a bitter battle between its Indian shareholders and Sony, the company has enlisted the support of B K Modi who will buy out the 32 per cent equity stake of the Indian partners.
Modi has made it public that he will pick up 32 per cent stake in MSM and the deal will be done within this month. Currently, MSM is owned by Sony Pictures (61 per cent stake), and 32 per cent by the Indian investors that include MSM India and a group of individual investors.
According to sources, Modi is close to sealing the deal of buying out the Indian shareholders including Raman Maroo, MD, Shemaroo Entertainment, Rakesh Agarwal, Sudesh Iyer, director, World Media Group, Jayesh Paresh of MobiApps Holding and film actor Jackie Shroff. "Any of the indivudual investors will not exit unless the returns are substantive. All of us infused money in SET India at a time when the channel needed it the most.
The fact that we have not exited SET for all these years says that we also want to see SET grow," a source close to some of the individual shareholders said.Modi recently sold his 40.8 per cent stake in mobile telephone services provider Spice Communications to Idea.
