According to persons familiar with the situation, Tata Group has delayed preparations for an initial public offering of its platform for distributing entertainment content after acquiring minority investors.
The people, who asked not to be named because the topic is confidential, said that the Indian conglomerate has chosen to keep Tata Play Ltd. as a closely held company for longer as it aims to build the business ahead of any potential offering in the future. The sources added that Tata has withdrew the prospectus for its Mumbai IPO that it had submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
According to the persons, Tata acquired minority investors in the company, including Temasek Holdings Pte. in Singapore and the group’s premier private equity firm, Tata Opportunities Fund, leading to the decision to postpone the IPO preparations. Given the state of the market, Tata had considered delaying the IPO plans last year, according to a report from Bloomberg News at the time.
It’s possible that Tata Play’s IPO plans will be resurrected in the future, according to the sources. In the event of a possible share sale, Tata might aim for a valuation of more over $1 billion for the entertainment division, they continued.
Tata Group and Tata Play representatives declined to comment.
On the website of the corporation, Tata Play offers over-the-top video streaming via its app and pay television via set-top boxes. Tata Sky was the previous name of Tata Play.
Tata Play was the first Indian business to take use of the ability to file IPO filings without disclosing sensitive information to the public, having filed in secret with India’s capital markets regulator in 2022.