Business
Indian Billionaire Seeks To Buy Out Astro
Maybank Investment Research said in a report the offer price was above fair value and attractive
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Shares of Malaysian pay-television operator Astro surged after its majority owner, billionaire Ananda Krishnan, offered $727 million to buy out minority stakeholders and take full control. Krishnan, Malaysia’s second-richest man, and his affiliates through a holding company collectively hold about 73 percent of the pay TV company Astro All Asia Networks Plc. Astro Holdings has offered to buy out the minority shareholders at $1.45 a share, representing a 28 percent premium over Astro’s average share price over the last six months. The news pushed Astro shares up 18 percent. Astro Holdings said the takeover would accelerate the pay TV company’s overseas expansion especially in India and China as well as boost new initiatives in Australia, Middle East and North Africa. “Astro Holdings is offering the minority shareholders the opportunity to exit at an attractive premium while not subjecting them to the associated risks of the company’s next growth phase,” the statement said. Maybank Investment Research said in a report the offer price was above fair value and attractive. But it said there may be “unhappy minority shareholders” since the offer price was only about 6 percent above what institutions paid in the company’s initial public offering back in 2003. Despite its profitable Malaysian operations, Astro posted a net loss $160 million in fiscal 2009, dragged down by losses at its overseas operations in Indonesia and India. Astro has a 20 percent stake in India’s Sun Direct TV. Its pay-television joint venture in Indonesia ceased operations in late 2008 after a contract dispute. Krishnan, 70, a self-made billionaire, also controls satellite operator MEASAT Global, top mobile phone company Maxis and power producer and numbers-betting operator Tanjong PLC. In 2007, he had similarly bought out Maxis for about $4.8 billion to accelerate its regional expansion. Maxis relisted its domestic operations in November 2009 to raise $3.3 billion in the biggest share sale ever in Southeast Asia. —AP
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