samT, do you know how TOI and Bhaskar invests in all and sundry companies? It is called a Private Treaty.
The newspapers have a lot of advertising space to sell, and effectively it costs them very little, though the value to the advertiser is very high. TOI and Bhaskar allow such companies to put their ads for free. In return, they ask for the money in kind, i.e. in terms of equity stake. So TOI has literally 1-3% stake in thousands of small and unlisted companies, which it has effectively got for free. Only a few of them become something, such as Pantaloon and then TOI makes big money on those holdings.
Plus, since its holdings are for more than 3 years since it gets the stake (typical time between the issuance of equity to TOI and post-listing sale by TOI), the capital gains is tax-free.
So please don't read anything into investments by TOI and Bhaskar into it. In fact, if that is the case, you should be extremely vary of anything positive said about this in TOI or Economics Times. The pathetic trend these days is to have paid news, wherein well-known newspapers give positive coverage to companies in which they have vested interest. While the international norm is to acknowledge such connections (New York Times, Forbes, etc mention if there is any tenuous connection of their parent company with the subject), the practice is still not prevalent in India, for obvious reasons.
By the way, what does VMS do exactly? From their prospectus, looks like they like to do anything that gives them money. Timbor is equally termite infested. You might get a good listing pop. But then, Mahalaxmi race course also offers decent odds and so does Nagaland Bumper Laxmi Lottery. :-)
RHP
Top Contributor (1000+ Posts, 100+ Likes)
