Hinduja
Finance has now been transformed in to a valuable listed company
in the ICE sector
Ravi Ananthanarayanan - Business Standard, Thursday March
23rd, 2000
Hinduja Finance is now eligible for the status of a full-fledged
ICE company, having done a series of consolidations in the
last quarter of this fiscal. The latest one saw the group's
media business too get reflected in the listed company in
a significant manner.
The Hinduja group is a major player in the media business
with IndusInd Media and Communications which operates the
IN Network cable business.The company is merging Richman Investrade
with itself in a move which will give Hinduja Finance a 51
per cent stake in IndusInd Media.
IN Network is the only full service network broadband infrastructure
that is capable of providing multi-media services in the form
of video, data, telephony and e-commerce transactions. The
company has constructed a fibre optic backbone that will enable
it to provide two-way services facilitating Internet on cable.
With four million households under its belt, it has a captive
set of subscribers whom it can tap for offering its new value-added
services.Though all these households may not form the target
group, it has a base which it can tap, giving it that extra
edge. Moreover, it is planning to expand its presence to mini-metros
too.
In January 2000, the company had decided to merge Ashok Leyland
Information Technology with itself. This company provides
ERP implementation services and had plans to focus on e-commerce
solutions and IT training. It had also picked up a 51 per
cent stake in In2cable.com. In2cable has a national ISP license
and plans to offer Internet access through cable. The service
will use the IN cable network to offer Internet access to
its subscribers. Moreover, it will also launch portals which
can capitalise on the large bandwidth that is available.
In sum, Hinduja Finance has now been transformed in to a valuable
listed company in the ICE sector. It has a captive subscriber
base, infrastructure in terms of a cable network and Internet
through cable access and technology inputs from the software
business.
The company can now leverage on its market capitalisation
to raise resources to fund the growth plans it has in the
sector.This has witnessed a sharp increase in its market capitalisation
to about Rs 1,000 crore from about Rs 300 crore in end-January
2000. The next thing the company can do to improve valuation
is to rid itself of the remaining trappings of the NBFC business.
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