India’s first private sector DTH company Dish TV said on Thursday it was “not aware” of any transactions being taken place between the company and telco-to-media giant Bharti Airtel.
“We, Dish TV India Limited, would like to state that there is no information available with the Company which is required to be reported under extant SEBI Regulation, which may have bearing on the stock price of the Company. Further, we would also state that the Company is not aware of the transaction which has been reported,” the DTH company said in a regulatory filing with the BSE.
Financial daily Mint on Thursday had reported Bharti Airtel Ltd. is in early talks to acquire a majority stake in Dish TV India Ltd, citing three people familiar with the matter, adding that if the deal went through it would give India’s second-largest telecom operator control of half of the country’s satellite television business.
Though the Dish TV clarification came in response to a Reuters report that Times of India had carried Thursday, the original news was published in the Mint.
The financial daily had also said Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra, who founded Dish TV in 2003, had held talks with Bharti Airtel group senior execs in this regard, citing unnamed sources.
Airtel was looking to buy 5.93 percent stake from Dish TV’s promoter group and 25.63 percent stake owned by lender Yes Bank Ltd, a Reuters dispatch from Bengaluru quoted from the Mint report.
The lender is the largest shareholder, according to Refinitiv data.
The carrier has offered Rs. 20 rupees per share for the 5.93 percent of Dish TV owned by the promoter group, the report said, citing an unnamed company executive. The amount represents a 14 percent premium to Dish TV’s closing price on Wednesday.
Once the promoters and Yes Bank accept Airtel’s offer, the carrier will offer to buy the remaining shares from other investors until it owns 51 percent stake, the media reports said.
Airtel, which had declined to comment for the Reuters story, has an existing DTH business that’s run under the Airtel Digital brand.
India’s total active DTH subscriber base is approximately 70 million divided amongst the country’s four DTH companies — Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Airtel Digital and Dish TV.