{"id":36841,"date":"2013-04-29T17:19:08","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=36841"},"modified":"2013-04-29T17:20:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T15:20:17","slug":"toptv-to-proceed-with-startimes-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/36841\/toptv-to-proceed-with-startimes-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"TopTV to proceed with StarTimes bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP) for\u00a0On Digital Media (ODM<\/a>), parent company of pay-television operator\u00a0TopTV, says it will proceed with a\u00a0current rescue plan which would see\u00a0Chinese firm\u00a0StarTimes<\/a>\u00a0acquiring a 20% stake in the group.<\/p>\n

This comes after\u00a0Dynamic TV Consortium, a broad-based consortium led by Given Mkhari of MSG Afrika Media and Malose Kekana of Falk Trading, confirmed that it has submitted an alternative plan for the business rescue of ODM.<\/p>\n

On 29 October 2012, ODM resolved to commence business rescue proceedings after experiencing financial distress for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n

The locally based consortium also noted that rival operator to TopTV, MultiChoice\u00a0approved funding of R500 million, \u201cfor the purposes of implementing a credible business rescue plan and securing the on-going sustainability of ODM\u201d.<\/p>\n

StarTimes, meanwhile, aims to acquire a 20% stake in TopTV, and provide \u201csufficient additional capital\u201d to pay off the company\u2019s creditors to ensure solvency.<\/p>\n

Local regulations currently cap foreign ownership on licensed broadcasting entities at 20%.<\/p>\n

ODM released a statement late on Monday \u00a0afternoon (29 April)<\/p>\n

“The Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP) would like to confirm that we have since received unsolicited, non binding expressions of interest from two other interested parties. It is the intention of the BRP to go ahead and present the current plan as published.<\/p>\n

“As part of that process, he has an obligation to announce to the meeting the receipt of the additional proposals which cannot be viewed as plans under the current circumstances.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is understood that a voting for the offer from\u00a0StarTimes for TopTV is expected to take place on Tuesday (30 April).<\/p>\n

ODM also moved to correct an impression created by an article in Business Day that StarTimes intends investing R100 million against the R400 million by the Mkhari\/Kekana consortium.<\/p>\n

“The published investment as per the proposed business rescue plan is in excess of R1billion,” it said.<\/p>\n

StarTimes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Startimes says it started developing its African markets in 2002, and was issued the first digital TV operator license by Rwanda in 2007.<\/p>\n

Currently the group has licenses and registered companies in 10 African nations including: Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Republic of central Africa, Guinea and Kenya.<\/p>\n

According to ODM, StarTimes has offered to pay R30 million to TopTV\u2019s main backer, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA<\/a>) and offer it an equity opportunity of 1.99% of the issued share capital in NEWCO.<\/p>\n

ODM is believed to owe the DBSA in excess of R200 million. It says the secured portion of the DBSA\u2019s claim will be discharged in full for R50.82 million.<\/p>\n

The Chinese firm will also pay R37.5 million to all creditors, outside of the DBSA, escalating by an amount of R2.50 per month from 1 June until the implementation date.<\/p>\n

The group would also look to settle with preference shareholders of ODM, who have claims against the company, aswell as all other shareholders.<\/p>\n

TopTV\u2019s main shareholders include the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC<\/a>); First National Media; Kopano Ke Matla (Cosatu\u2019s investment arm); National Empowerment Fund; and satellite business SES.<\/p>\n

More on TopTV<\/h3>\n

MultiChoice behind TopTV rival bid<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SA consortium bids for TopTV: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

TopTV porn gets the go-ahead<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

TopTV rescue details revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

TopTV to be bought by Chinese firm?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Porn to stimulate TopTV recovery?\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

TopTV in trouble<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MultiChoice ups SA subscriber base by 492K<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Digital Media, the parent company of pay-television operator TopTV, will proceed with its current rescue plan which would see Chinese firm StarTimes acquiring a 20% stake in the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":36083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[5718,5715,26,5714,1253,37,1215,5625,35],"class_list":["post-36841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-dynamic-tv-consortium","tag-given-mkhari","tag-headline","tag-malose-kekana","tag-multichoice","tag-odm","tag-on-digital-media","tag-startimes","tag-toptv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36841"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36844,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions\/36844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}