Pritish Nandy Comm may offer stake to PE firms

Apr 18, 2007
Ashish Rukhaiyar & Sonali Krishna
MUMBAI

PRITISH Nandy Communications (PNC) may offer a small stake in the company to private equity (PE) funds, people close to the transaction said. Navis Capital Partners is among the firms that has approached Mr Nandy, they added. KPMG is handling the valuation and the due diligence process that is likely to get over in the next 3-4 weeks.

“We are in talks with several players at the moment, and will partner somebody with whom it will make strategic sense that will give us a larger platform, and not just a funding partner,” Mr Nandy said.

PNC is looking to release a slate of six movies this year, and is hoping to ramp up its production to about 10 movies annually in the next couple of years. The company is also eyeing the new media space, to look at alternate revenue streams via internet, mobile phones and cable television.

Earlier this year, PNC got its brand valued by Brand Finance (India), which gave the company a business value of Rs 265.3 crore. For the purposes of valuation it was assumed the definition of brand includes trademark together with intangible assets and intellectual property rights that help produce its associated goodwill.

Navis Capital is a Malaysia-based PE player founded in 1998 to make investments in buyouts, recapitalisations and financial restructuring in Asia. The firm focuses on enterprises in Asia, particularly South and Southeast Asia. Its website says the firm manages approximately $ 1.5 billion in capital commitments.

Through its subsidiary, Navis Investment Partners (Asia), the firm manages several PE funds, whose limited partners include a number of well-known US, European, Middle Eastern and Asian commercial and investment banks, pension funds, insurance firms, corporations, as well as a number of high net worth individuals and family offices.

Meanwhile, PNC has just finished a qualified institutional placement (QIP) that saw the promoter’s stake falling from 41% to 30%.