Bennett Coleman and Company Limited, the media group that owns The Times Group recently raised a funds worth INR 500 Cr ($ 75M) in a non-convertible debenture-funding round with the participation of a string of investors.
According to Investopedia, “Nonconvertible debentures are unsecured bonds that cannot be converted to company equity or stock. Nonconvertible debentures usually have higher interest rates than convertible debentures.”
The media group issued unsecured, unlisted, rated, redeemable, non-convertible debentures for a period of 3 years with a coupon rate of 7.48% per year and paid annually.
The lenders participating in this debt funding round are ICICI Lombard General Insurance with Rs 200 Cr, DSP Blackrock Short Term Fund with Rs 160 Cr, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited with Rs 50 Cr, Edelweiss Corporate Bond Fund with Rs 15 Cr, Edelweiss Dynamic Bond Fund with Rs 10 Cr and HDFC Bank Limited with Rs 65 Cr.
Bennett Coleman and Company Limited was founded in November 1838 by descendants of the Sahu Jain family who still own majority stakes in the business. The company owns The Times Group which is the most widespread selling English newspaper in the world. The Times Group provides job to 11,000 professionals with revenues exceeding $1.6 billion in 2016. Bennett Coleman and Company Limited’s brands include the The Times of India, The Economic Times, Filmfare, Femina, among others. The company distributes media content across almost every media platform available including radio, television programs, newspapers and web portals.
This year, the media group participated in two funding rounds as investor, namely in HealthTech for Hyderabad-based startup called CallHeath where it poured the sum of $7.8 Million in February 2018. The Times group also invested an undisclosed amount in IoT and data analytics startup, Faclon Labs in an investment round led by Vish Sathappan in January 2018.