The satellite television business of the Tata group, Tata Play – formerly known as Tata Sky, is likely to file the draft prospectus for its initial public offering by the end of this month, Mint reported on September 3 citing sources aware of the development.
The public offer is expected to be in a range of $300-400 million at least, the report said.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
Tata Sky started its services in 2004 as an 80:20 joint venture. The company was a venture between Tata Sons (owning 70 percent of the stake) and Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox (owning 30 percent). Singapore-based Temasek Holdings purchased 10 percent stake in the company in 2008 from Tata Sons, and The Walt Disney Company purchased 21st Century Fox’s stake in the company in March 2019.
“Work on the IPO had started last year but was put on the back burner for a while as the company undertook a rebranding exercise and the markets too started to look difficult in the early part of the calendar year. However, work on the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) was restarted recently and efforts are in full swing to file the DRHP by end of this month,” Mint reported citing a source.
Tata Sky, the direct-to-home (DTH) company, rebranded itself in January this year as Tata Play to expand its television-cum-OTT (over-the-top) offerings in combined packages.
The platform has added Netflix to 13 OTT services, including Amazon Prime Video and Disney+Hotstar, as part of its so-called Binge packs.
According to the report, the proposed IPO will see investors Temasek and Tata Capital sell part of their stakes in the company, while the company also plans to raise money for its use.
Tata Play reported a profit of Rs 68.6 crore in FY22 compared Rs 68.75 profit in the previous fiscal.
