MNC confirms plan to buy Bakrie TV station

JAKARTA. Business conglomerate MNC Group has confirmed it is discussing the acquisition of PT Cakrawala Andalas Televisi (ANTV), a shareholder of PT Visi Media Asia (VIVA), a Bakrie Group unit.

If agreed upon, the deal would stretch MNC Group’s market share in the free-to-air television station to nearly 50 percent.

“We are talking about acquiring up to 100 percent of ANTV,” MNC Group CEO Hary Tanoesoedibjo said on Thursday.

However, he declined to elaborate on the value and mechanism of the planned acquisition as the talks are still underway.

The television industry has been rife with on-again-off-again plans to sell and buy media outlets under VIVA, which also runs a television station TV One — and an online news site, vivanews.com.

It has even been reported that the Bakrie Group had been offering stakes in VIVA to other major media-related companies, including the business tycoon Chairul Tanjung-owned Para Group — which operates Trans TV and Trans7 — as well as PT Elang Media Teknologi (EMTK), the shareholders of SCTV and Indosiar.

PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNCN) finance director Jarod Suwahjo added that if the acquisition was carried out, ANTV would operate under MNCN.

“It’s because we are the group’s business unit in charge of free-to-air television,” he said.

MNCN currently operates three stations, RCTI, Global TV and MNC TV.

Jarod added that the group was ready to cover up to 50 percent of the acquisition with internal cash and the remainder would be covered by bank loans.

“We are in discussions with three foreign and local banks,” he said, adding the banks were essentially ready to provide the funds for the acquisition.

However, he declined to mention the size of loans in the pipeline, or the acquisition price they were willing to foot.

MNCN collected Rp 3.14 trillion (US$295.7 million) in revenues during the first half of 2013, or 3 percent higher than earnings in the same period last year. Its net profit climbed 27 percent year-on-year to Rp 953 billion.

Jarod added the group was not deterred by reports on VIVA’s plans to offer ANTV to the public via an initial public offering (IPO).

Jarod further said the acquisition of ANTV would enable MNCN to expand the range of their program segments, given that ANTV was rich with variety and reality shows. “Hence, ANTV will complement our current television stations.”

The acquisition of ANTV would also entail “synergy” between the resources of MNCN and ANTV, allowing MNCN to “not only operate with greater efficiency, but also to increase the quality of our programming,” he said.

According to Jarod, the company was 30 percent into completing the construction of 10 studios at their current facility in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta.

“We aim to complete the construction by next year, which we are supporting with Rp 10 trillion of our internal budget. We’ll be able to work with better efficiency by placing all our program production under one roof,” he said.

VIVA, with its positive financial performance, is the saving grace of the mostly negative results of units under Bakrie Group. VIVA saw its revenue increase by one-third year-on-year to Rp 721.7 billion in the first half of this year, pulling up net profit by 83.1 percent annually to Rp 31.7 billion.
(The Jakarta Post)