The Tata group firm filed documents with Sebi, BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE) on November 29. The firm advertised the same in a leading daily newspaper.
Market regulator Sebi recently introduced confidential filing or pre-filing of the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) by companies wanting to go public.
A confidential filing, as the moniker suggests, allows a company to privately file a registration statement for an IPO with the regulator for review, delaying the public filing until much closer to the actual IPO date.
This mechanism will help companies keep their DRHPs private until they firm up their IPO plan. The offer documents will be open to scrutiny by the regulator and exchanges but won’t be open to the public.
The company will then have to file an updated DRHP, which will be a public document, once Sebi issues its observations and the company decides to launch its IPO.
The purpose is to give companies flexibility over information flow and withhold sensitive data from competitors.
The Tata Group direct-to-home (DTH) platform is looking to raise Rs 2,000-2,500 crore, largely to give part or full exit to partners such as Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney inherited its stake in the venture as part of its global buyout of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox business, and Temasek, ET reported in November.
Tata Play has already mandated five investment banks –
Capital, Bank of America, Citi, Morgan Stanley and IIFL – as lead arrangers and book runners in the proposed issue, according to the report.
Beginning in 2004, Tata Sky was an 80:20 joint venture between Tata Sons and Network Digital Distribution Services FZ-LLC (NDDS), an entity owned by Rupert Murdoch’s 21 Century Fox. Walt Disney Co acquired Fox in 2019 and owns another 9.8% stake in Tata Sky through TS Investments Ltd, where Fox owned 49% stake with Tata owning the rest.
Singapore’s Temasek acquired a 10% stake in Tata Sky in FY08 through Baytree Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd and in FY13, Tata Opportunities Fund and Tata Capital Ltd acquired a stake in the company. Temasek is also a limited partner in the Tata Opportunities fund.
Tata Sons has a 41.49% stake in the company.