Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Jul 27, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Jul 27, 2003 |
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Radio/TV Corporate - Alliances & Joint Ventures Norway's Conax to set up 100 pc CAS facility — Signs contracts with SitiCable, Cablecomm Ambarish Mukherjee
New Delhi , July 26 ENCOURAGED by the Government's repeated commitment to go ahead with its plan to implement the conditional access system (CAS) for cable television in the country, Norway-based Conax AS, one of the global leaders for supply of conditional access technology for digital TV, has finalised plans to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in the country and eventually start local manufacturing. To start with, the company intends to provide a complete solution to cable operators and content providers to implement smart card-based CAS by providing hardware and software and developing customised systems as well as operations and maintenance. According to the plans, the subsidiary will start its operations with an initial investment of Rs 1 crore, which will go up to Rs 5 crore as and when necessary, and finally the company intends to begin manufacture of smart cards and develop necessary software in the country after its operations are fully stabilised. The company plans to pump in the funds in three forms, informed sources said, and added that some portion of the investment would be made in the form of equity shares, some in convertible preference shares and the remaining as non-convertible preference shares. These will bear a maximum dividend rate of 13.75 per cent, while the maximum redemption period will be 20 years, sources said. Conax has already signed a contract with SitiCable, the largest cable operator in the country controlling around 4.5 million cable connections, to be the provider of its CAS system. The company has also signed contract for providing CAS system with Kolkata-based Cablecomm Services Private Ltd. Cablecomm, in turn, has signed up a large number of last mile cable operators to provide signals on their own network. They have also tied up with RailTel for signal transmission to Greater Kolkata and other parts of the State. Conax, which currently has its operations spread over 25 countries, was originally formed as a research team in Telenor, the largest Norwegian telecommunication company. The CAS technology, including one of the world's first pay-TV smart cards, was put into large-scale operations by Conax in 1992. In 1994, Conax was established as an independent company within the Telenor group. As of now, the company has its operations spread over 25 countries. Currently, Telenor, which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, holds a 90 per cent stake in Conax, while the remaining 10 per cent is held by Telenor Venture II ASA, a new fund created for investments in the areas of mobile communications broadband and new media and Internet.
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