he year 2004 saw two privately held Indian media houses - Deccan Chronicle Holdings and Jagran Prakashan - throwing open their doors to investors. The Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings, owned by brothers T Venkatram Reddy (CEO, Deccan Chronicle) and Vinayak Ravi Reddy (managing director, Deccan Chronicle), came out with an initial public offering (IPO) in end November, comprising 80.13-lakh equity shares priced between Rs 162 and Rs 194 per share. The IPO was aimed at yielding between Rs 130 crore and Rs 155 crore for Deccan Chronicle Holdings, which intends to invest the funds it raised for setting up printing facilities at new publishing centres, and covering marketing expenses that it would incur in launching its English daily, Deccan Chronicle, at these centres. For the record, Deccan Chronicle will be launched in Tamil Nadu shortly. Deccan Chronicle�s IPO was well received by the market, and at the time of its closure, was oversubscribed 9.3 times, with applications for 743.2-lakh shares.

In the concluding weeks of 2004, Independent News & Media (INM), the owner of The Independent, The Independent on Sunday and Belfast Telegraph, announced that it had picked up a 26-per cent stake in Jagran Prakashan, publishers of Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran, for around Rs 150 crore. Dainik Jagran is India�s biggest selling daily with a circulation of close to 2 million copies, and a readership of about 16.4 million. The Gupta family, which owns Jagran Prakashan, retains the remaining 74 per cent. ... more