"I-can is undergoing an equity rejig as part of which SP Associates, promoters of the company, will offload about 49 per cent equity. Hutchison is in talks with us for picking up between 24.5 to 49 per cent stake in the company," Siddharth Ray, promoter of SP Associates, told PTI. Mr Ray said negotiations for working out the equity pattern were on and added that the same would be finalised within a month.

Under the proposal, Hutchison may pick up 49 per cent stake offloaded by the company and further sell 24.5 per cent stake to Data and Commerce, Australia, which belongs to Advent. The other option before Hutchison would be that of picking up only 24.5 per cent stake, allowing promoters to directly transfer another 24.5 per cent equity to Data and Commerce.

Mr Ray, however, declined to divulge details about the value of the proposed deal. The move is part of efforts to bring in additional funds into the company for part-funding its proposed Rs 600 crore Digital Video Broadcast (Terrestrial) project in the country, for which it is negotiating with Doordarshan. While the company would take the equity route for raising Rs 230 crore towards the project, the balance would come out of borrowings, Mr Ray said. When contacted, Hutchison officials declined to comment on the issue.

The DVB-T project currently being discussed with Doordarshan on "Build-Operate-Transfer" model would allow greater and direct connectivity to the viewer providing better transmission quality. Mr Ray said the proposed project which would begin only by middle of 2001, subject to government's nod, would be rolled out in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

He said Delhi and Mumbai would first go live with the project. The DVB-T project would also involve installation of set top boxes at the subscribers' premises for encoding and decoding purpose, he said, adding that the technology permitted broadcasting and internet on the standard TV sets.

(PTI)