HTMT to spin off media biz

BANGALORE: Hinduja TMT Ltd (HTMT) Board has approved the demerging the company's media business into a separate listed entity. The proposal presented by the management envisages two debt free listed companies with mirror image shareholding. While IT and telecom businesses will form part of the technology company, media including film content and cable TV distribution and broadband will be part of the new entity.

The Board has authorized a committee of directors to work out a detailed scheme to carry forward this demerger process.

The Board also authorized the management to appoint necessary consultants for formulating the scheme and fulfilling statutory compliance etc. and directed it to submit its final recommendation along with the structure of the scheme at the earliest.

According to HTMT MD and CEO K Thiagarajan, "The restructuring exercise will not only unlock value for the shareholders in the short term, the new entities will achieve their individual business objectives faster and better than before, thereby creating further value for the shareholders in the long term".

For the quarter ended December 31, 2004, HTMT has posted a eight percent increase in net profit to Rs 22.68 crore, as compared to Rs 22.54 crore in the corresponding period last year. Total income has increased by three percent to Rs 46.86 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2004 from Rs 45.68 crore in the corresponding period last year.

HTMT revenues for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2004 has increased by 12 percent to Rs 136.09 crore against Rs 121.69 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The nine month net profit grew by four percent to Rs 62.70 crore. Total number of employees has increased from 1,717 as on March 31, 2004 to about 3,800 as on December 31, 2004 and the ITES-BPO customer base increased to over 35.