Mumbai: Zee Telefilms Ltd will acquire a 50-per cent stake in the Dubai-based sports channel, Ten Sports for an enterprise value of $114 million (approximately Rs513 crore).

Ten Sports is owned by Abdul Rahman Bukhatir's Taj Television Ltd, a part of Bukhatir Investments Ltd, and is based out of Dubai Media City in the UAE.

Ten Sports has rights to leading cricket properties like Pakistan Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board. These combined with the BCCI neutral venue rights that Zee Sports has, would create the single largest cricket programming.

It also has rights to the UEFA Champions League, WWE, US Open, Hockey World Cup, which rate amongst other popular programmes in India. Zee Sports also has the rights to Indian football, Davis Cup, WTA, Italian Series A. According to Zee Telefilms, both the sports channels will be able to leverage these properties to their maximum potential across both their platforms.

Ten Sports, which is headquartered in Dubai Media City, also operates separate broadcasts in the Middle East, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Hong Kong.

"This acquisition is an important step from Zee towards consolidation in the media industry," said Subhash Chandra, chairman, Zee Telefilms Ltd, in a communiqué to stock exchanges. "We are confident that this will add significant value for the shareholders of Zee. The acquisition of a stake in Ten Sports not only gives us a strong foothold in the arena of sports broadcasting across Asia but also strengthens our operations in the Middle East."

The statement further adds, "I have known Mr Abdul Rahman Bukhatir for sometime now and have the greatest respect for him as a businessman and his leadership as one of the most successful conglomerates in the Middle East and more particularly the achievements that he has had in the areas of manufacturing, retail, construction, and especially the way he has popularised cricket in the Middle East. I am certain that our joint partnership will result in a mutually beneficial relationship."

According to the communiqué, Zee Sports and Ten Sports will be able to draw significant amount of synergies from each other in operating in the Asian market place. Moreover, this move would consolidate the number of sports broadcasters in India, thereby bringing about a price correction in the burgeoning rights fees for various sports properties.

Himanshu Mody, business head, Zee Sports, said, "The addition of Ten Sports gives us a significant strength enabling further effective exploitation of all our sports properties. The operational synergies between Zee Sports and Ten Sports would be tremendous and we should be able to run the two channels at much better economies of scale."

Following this move, the Taj TV financial statements shall be consolidated on a line by line basis in Zee Telefilm's books. Taj TV says its average annual revenues for the next three financial years will stand at approx. $50 million, whist the average EBITDA for the next three financial years will be approximately $14 million.