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ShareMUMBAI: With the Television Eighteen (TV18) Group's online venture showing considerable growth in FY06, the group is getting serious about consolidating and hiving off its Internet business.
Haresh Chawla, CEO of TV18 Group, said, "The new wholly owned subsidiary will aim at imparting focus and unlocking value in the Internet business. Besides, it will allow raising funds in the future." The new subsidiary is expected to be in place in a couple of months.
The Internet business of the company clocked revenues of Rs 6.03 crore for FY05-06, up 480% compared with Rs 1.04 crore in FY04-05. The company is in the process of instituting a wholly owned subsidiary to focus on online ventures.Will this mean acquisitions, too? Chawla refused to comment.
The group had earlier announced its foray into multiple Internet verticals and the home shopping space that happened just recently.
According company officials, the shopping network was looking to leverage TV18's network of five channels (CNBC-TV18, CNN-IBN, Awaaz, Channel 7 and SAW) and six internet properties (moneycontrol. com, ibnlive.com, poweryourtrade.com, commoditiescontrol.com, yatra.in and Jobstreet India).
It had earlier acquired a 50% stake in the Indian arm of Jobstreet.com.
The consolidation of the Internet business is part of the group's restructuring exercise, which will also see the inclusion of Awaaz and CNN-IBN channels, once completed. Re-launching Channel 7 in a new avatar by June 2006 is in the pipeline as well.
Cited as India's largest television news network with over 85% market share in the business news category, the group posted quarterly revenue of over Rs 53 crore, excluding revenues from Awaaz and CNN-IBN channels.
The revenue growth for 05-06 was at 66%, while net profit jumped 112% compared with 2004-05 levels.
