Ekta Kapoor-promoted Balaji Telefilms Ltd, a Mumbai-based film and television production house, has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire 51 per cent stake in Marinating Films Pvt Ltd (MFPL) for an undisclosed amount, as per a stock market disclosure.
MFPL owns concept, format and all proprietary rights and intellectual property rights in Box Cricket League (BCL), The Indian Telly Calendar (ITC) and Indian Telly Style Awards (ITSA)
Incorporated in 2011, Mumbai-based Marinating Films is engaged in advertisement and TV show production. It offers both print and television commercial advertisements.
This is one of the rare inorganic expansion moves by Balaji and comes months after it roped media industry veteran Sameer Nair as Group CEO.
Nair, who started his TV career in 1994 as a director-producer for Star Movies, made his name as chief of Star Network where he served as COO and CEO. In his role as programming chief at Star TV, he was responsible for revamping the network and launching the combination of quiz show KBC besides the Balaji daily soaps on Star Plus in 2000.
He later moved to join NDTV's new joint venture with Karan Johar's Dharma Productions as CEO. He was involved in launching the channel NDTV Imagine in November 2007. However, the channel didn’t do well and closed in 2012.
Balaji Telefilms' scrip was trading at Rs 73.55 each, down 1.54 per cent on BSE in a strong Mumbai market on Thursday at 1.09 PM.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
