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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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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
