CyberMedia plans Rs 17 crore IPO

South Asia's largest specialty publishing house, CyberMedia India Ltd, has announced that it would float an initial public offering (IPO) by November-end to raise Rs 17 crore to fund its global expansion plans.

CyberMedia, which is targeting a turnover of Rs 75 crore in the current fiscal, has also initiated multiple strategies to expand globally in the knowledge, media and services domain.

Giving details of the plans, CyberMedia CMD Pradeep Gupta said that the shares of Rs 10 each would be offered in the price band of Rs 50-Rs 60 per share, and the proceeds would be used to take the company's products global.

"While we are committed to provide world class media and media services products in the domestic market, we have started looking outwards to tap the global market - thereby becoming the first Indian media house to launch global publications," Gupta said.

While the company has already chalked out plans to launch its biotechnology magazine, BioSpectrum, from Singapore soon, it is also planning to launch Global Outsourcing, a magazine aimed at worldwide buyers of BPO services. CyberMedia has also tied up with McGraw-Hill, publishers of BusinessWeek, for launching the Indian edition and is waiting for an Union government permission on the same.

Gupta further informed that Cybermedia is planning an upscale operation of CyberMedia Service with a view to capture the market on content BPO business in the US and European markets. The company, which presently has 70 people in its BPO operation, has already set up a 200-seat facility to meet its expansion plan.

The company is looking at diluting 28 per cent of the paid-up capital in the market through the IPO, thereby reducing the promoters' stake from the current 58 per cent to 49 per cent. According to Gupta, the company plans to approach market regulator SEBI with a draft prospectus soon, and has already appointed Khandawala Securities as lead managers for the issue.

Established in 1982, CyberMedia has nine publications in the infotech, telecom, consumer electronics and biotech areas and an end-to-end media value chain including Internet, events and television. The group's media services include market research, content outsourcing, multimedia, gaming and media education.

The group's media business includes the print titles Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice&Data, BioSpectrum, Living Digital, DQ Channels India, DQ Week (Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai edition). Its technology portal CIOL.com is India's largest technology website and includes online editions of all CyberMedia titles.

CyberMedia Events, the region's largest organizer of IT events, conducts over 100 events every year, including Bangalore IT.com, Nasscom, IT Kerala, Hi-Tech Pune, etc. CyberMedia TV develops knowledge-oriented general interest programs on mass channels.

The company's media services include IDC India, the leading IT and telecom research company in the region; CyberMedia Research, which focuses on the media and entertainment sectors; Cyber MultiMedia, the multimedia and gaming development and distribution company and the School of Convergence, for content creators and media managers. Besides, it also has CyberMedia Services, its content and publishing BPO services.

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