Rahejas buy Asianet

The first batch of 50 per cent shares in ASCL was purchased from ACL by Hathway Investments at a price of Rs 55 ieshares of the face value Rs 3.5 crore were purchased at a consideration of Rs 19.25 crore, giving the promoters a profit of Rs 15.75 crore. Another feature of the original deal was that in addition to the appreciation of shares worth Rs 3.5 crore on consideration of Rs 19.25 crore, Hathway had agreed to invest Rs 13.25 crore worth of capital in ASCL. The original promoters — ACL — by getting Rs 19.25 crore on sale of shares worth Rs 3.5 crore, got ample leverage to invest a further amount of Rs 13.25 crore in the equity capital of ASCL, by which ACL and Hathway Investments got equal holding of 50 per cent each in ASCL. Hathway and ACL had five directors each in the 10-member ASCL board.

Sashi Kumar, who divested his entire stake in Asianet, has said he would continue to be an advisor to the channel while exploring other options including setting up his own television software production company. "I have been requested to be an advisor to Asianet for some time by Raji Menon (who now owns the channel). I amalso planning something different and a television software company seems an exciting proposition," Sashi Kumar said.However, he would not embark on anything that directly competes with Asianet, Sashi Kumar said, while ruling out launching another satellite channel. "I do not want to go through all the difficulties that I had faced in developing Asianet. Besides, I don’t want to limit myself to a region; I would like to do something on a national level," he said.