Midvalley Ent to sign deal with 300 theatres in phases

South based media & entertainment company, Midvalley Entertainment (MVEL) plans to raise Rs 60 crore via an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO has opened for subscription today. The price band has been fixed at Rs 64-70 per equity share.

Murugavel Karunanidhi, the director & COO of the debt free company, in an interview to CNBC-TV18 spoke about the latest happenings in his company and what the road ahead was. The media firms objectives include screening pacts with 300 theatres, acquiring companies and focussing on their exhibition business. Below is a verbatim transcript of Murugavel Karunanidhi's interview with CNBC-TV18's Mitali Mukherjee and Udayan Mujherjee. Also watch the accompanying videos. Q: Can you explain to us what exactly happened in FY10 for your business? Your sales were down 80% at Rs 13 crore, your PAT went down to Rs 4 lakh, what exactly went wrong in FY10? A: During FY08 to FY10, there were some competitors who entered into an unhealthy competition in B&C center of the market in the south. As our major business concentration was in the B&C centers, they created artificial competition, increased cost and reduced the revenue. We have taken a stand, strategized ourselves and we stayed back. As a result our stakes and PAT came down a little, which is also a reason that we had planned to go for an IPO in FY09. We had procured 600 film rights, keeping in mind our expansion programme but due to this unhealthy competition in the market, we were unable to sustain the cost. This is the reason why our FY10 had gone down. However, the company which has created this kind of a competition is not there today and we are still surviving. Q: How exactly does your business break up in terms of your revenue profile? Can you explain that to us? A: We are into all the three arms of the entertainment industry