Hinduja TMT considers demerging Media business into a separate listed entity

1st February 2005: The board of directors of Hinduja TMT (HTMT) has given an in-principle approval to the management’s proposal of demerging the company’s media business into a separate listed entity. It has authorized a Committee of Directors to work out a detailed scheme in this regard. The proposal presented by the management envisages two debt free listed companies with mirror image shareholding as under:

- Information Technology businesses, IT subsidiaries and the main financial investments such as in Fascel Ltd, the investments as the part of the technology company.

- Media (Film Content, Cable TV distribution network) and Broadband (High speed internet & related value added services) as the part of the new entity.

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.

ISMTL-ISSAL merger this fiscal end; new entity to be named ISMT Ltd

1st February 2005: Merger of Indian Seamless Metal Tubes Ltd (ISMTL) and Indian Seamless Steels and Alloys Ltd (ISSAL) will be completed by the end of the financial year which will be followed by a board reconstitution. The merged entity to be called ISMT Ltd. The new entity will be a single-stop steel-seamless tubes-value added products supplier. Both ISMT and ISSAL had high-debt burdens and had approached financial institutions for debt restructuring under the Corporate Debt Restructuring Scheme (CDRS), which has been approved. This involves term loan of about Rs 480 crore and working capital of Rs 150 crore. The company is also negotiating with two other institutions — UTI (Rs 40 crore) and IFCW (Rs 26 crore) — for debt restructuring.

SBC, AT&T approve $16bn merger

31st January 2005: SBC Communications and AT&T today approved a $16 billion merger that will create the largest telecommunications company in the US, and end AT&T’s 120-history as an independent company. AT&T shareholders will receive stock worth $18.41 and a special dividend of $1.30 per share. This means SBC is paying AT&T shareholders a combination of just under $15 billion in stock and just over $1 billion in cash. David Dorman, AT&T’s chief executive, will become president of the combined group and join its board along with two other AT&T executives. Edward Whitacre will remain as chairman and chief executive of the new company.