‘TOI’ signs agreement with ‘Sandesh’, acquires 12 per cent equity

‘The Times of India’ (‘TOI’) has signed a business cooperation and arrangement agreement (BCAA) with Gujarati daily ‘Sandesh’. Further, ‘TOI’ has acquired a 12 per cent preferential equity stake in ‘Sandesh’.

As reported earlier by agencyfaqs!, the BCAA will enable both ‘TOI’ and ‘Sandesh’ to cooperate with each other in areas such as sales, distribution and printing.

The status of the deal is that the ‘Sandesh’ board of directors has cleared the proposal, which has now been forwarded to the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange for clearances.

Falgunbhai Patel, chairman and managing director, ‘Sandesh’, says, “The print media is evolving in India and this is the ideal time for a strong regional player and national player to come together and capitalise on the synergies between the two.” The idea behind the deal is to strengthen the competencies of both the groups and increase their market presence.

Meanwhile, Vineet Jain, managing director, BCCL, which publishes ‘TOI’, is confident that the BCAA will meet the new aspirations of both readers and advertisers.

For the record, in June 2006, BCCL acquired the Bangalore based publishing house, Vijayanand Printers.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!