Percept Limited (earlier known as Percept Holdings), an integrated media company which is into film and television production, distribution and advertising, is now planning to enter the broadcast business.
Harinder Singh, vice-chairman and managing director, Percept Limited, confirmed the news to FE and said, “We may look at a broadcast venture but in a niche area. We don’t want to get into the ‘me too’ space. We believe we must always do something where we are able to bring some special value.”
Singh also said that the venture would not happen immediately and it was not a priority for the company at the moment. It will be an integrated broadcast media play only to leverage some or one of the existing commercial business. Percept may also consider an alignment with a radio channel, “maybe by buying a minority stake in the radio station or by simply aligning with them strategically,” said Singh. Percept is currently concentrating on creating a corpus of Rs 1,500 crore through private equity, IPO and debt. Of this, Rs150 crore has already been raised through Edelweiss, Passport Capital and Indivision India Partners (IIP). This has been done at a valuation of up to Rs 1200 crore.
The funds will be deployed for creation of knowledge practices, proprietary tools and assets, and creation of asset and talent ownership. Funds will also be deployed in acquisitions and strategic partnerships. Strategic investments are planned in the areas of IPR acquisition, home video distribution, film production studio, development of digital and mobile content and international distribution. The book building process will begin by the third quarter of 2008.
Recently, when the company changed its name to Percept Limited from Percept Holdings, it also restructured the organisation. From 24 companies, it now has seven primary divisions and 12 subsidiaries under Percept Limited.