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IPO gone sour, Ortel eyes rights issue & PE funding
MUMBAI: Ortel Communications, Orissa’s leading multi-system operator (MSO), has abandoned its Rs 1 billion public float plans due to choppy market conditions and is scouting for private equity investment while deciding to do a rights issue to take care of its interim funding needs.
The company has mandated Equirus to find an investor and is looking at raising Rs 1 billion. Equirus had earlier helped Ortel to get private equity fund New Silk Route which had bought 23 per cent stake from the promoters for Rs 600 million and additional equity from Actis to take its total holding to 35 per cent.
Ortel plans to invest Rs 500 million over two years for its digital and new territory expansions. The MSO has cable TV operations in Orissa, Chhatishgarh, parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
The funding will be through a mix of rights issue and debt. The existing shareholders will be participating in the rights issue. Ortel promoters currently hold 63 per cent stake in the company, after buying out SREI Group’s equity in 2008. New Silk Route has 35 per cent stake and the balance two per cent is with the employees and others.
“We are looking at a rights issue and the two existing shareholders have agreed in principle to subscribe to it. Post the issue, the shareholding will be almost the same. We have a funding requirement of Rs 500 million over 12-24 months depending on our growth and we will do this with debt and the funds that we raise from the rights issue,” Ortel CEO Bibhu Prasad Rath tells Indiantelevision.com without disclosing the size of the rights issue.
The company has parallelly started looking for private equity investment. “We got Sebi clearance for the IPO (initial public offering) last August but have decided to shelve it due to market conditions. We will have to file again as the one-year period is getting over (companies have to tap the market within a year of Sebi clearance or it expires). We will wait until conditions in the market improve before taking any such decision. We have mandated Equirus to find us a private equity investor at the right valuation,” says Rath.
Ortel had filed for an IPO earmarking a funding requirement of Rs 850 million, including a capex plan of Rs 344.30 million on development of its analogue and digital services, Rs 289.04 million towards expansion of network for providing video, data and telephony services and Rs 217.40 million for developing its broadband services.
New Silk Route had expressed intent to fully exit from its investment in Ortel Communications through an offer for sale in the IPO. Sources say the private equity firm had put in Rs 840 million for Ortel’s stake.
Ortel, which offers cable TV, broadband and VoIP services, has a debt of around Rs 1.5 billion. Revenue in FY‘12 stands at Rs 1.25 billion, up 25 per cent over the earlier year, while Ebitda margin is close to 30 per cent. The company incurred a net loss of Rs 150 million in the fiscal.
Ortel requires funds for digitisation and expansion of the network. A dominant player in Orissa, the company is making efforts to penetrate into the neighbouring geographies of Chhatishgarh and parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal where its presence is still thin.
While other MSOs mainly provide their services through the local cable operator (LCO), Ortel follows the last mile ownership model. “We are favourably positioned to implement digitisation because we have the last mile. We have already digitised 15 per cent of our network,” says Rath.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
