Capital18 exits India's Webchutney, sees 3x return

Dentsu acquired another 10% from Webchutney's founders and other shareholders, taking its stake to a total of 80%. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Webchutney is a digital creative agency in India with brands such as Airtel, Unilever, MasterCard, Coca-Cola, Bacardi Martini, Budweiser, ITC and Titan as clients. It was founded in 1999 and now has 200 employees across offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The agency made a gross profit of approximately INR171 million ($3 million) in the fiscal year ending March 2013.

According to the acquisition terms, Webchutney's management will keep a 20% stake in company. It will become a wholly owned subsidiary of DMHI by 2017.

Capital18 invested in the company in 2007 for a reported INR80 million.

"The divestiture of Webchutney, is a reflection of our commitment to profitably monetize our investment portfolio for the benefit of our shareholders and to also facilitate the growth of these businesses to the next level," said Raghav Bahl, managing director of Network18 in a statement.

Bryan, Garnier & Co. acted as the sole advisor to Capital18 and other selling shareholders. Capital18's parent company Network18 has interests in television, films, magazines, internet and mobile. The market capitalization of group companies now exceeds $1 billion.

In December 2012, it sold its entire stake in financial data and news terminal business NewsWire18 to Samara Capital for INR900 million.

Capital18 sold NetworkPlay, which operates a digital ad network and marketing website, to Bertelsmann company Gruner + Jahr in March 2012.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Exits
• India
• Exit
• Media