In one of the biggest foreign investments in the domestic media and entertainment industry, the government on Thursday approved the US-based Walt Disney Company’s Rs 1,000-crore FDI proposal. Besides Walt Disney, nine other FDI proposals amounting to around Rs 1,260 crore were also given the green signal, according to a statement by the Ministry of Finance.
The foreign investment by Walt Disney (Southeast Asia) would be used for expansion of its business operation and making downstream investment in other companies and its subsidiaries.
Some of the other key FDI proposals that got a nod included Equitas Holdings’ `140 crore plan to increase foreign equity in an investing company and a `55 crore-proposal of DEG-Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft GmbH to get foreign investment into its India fund.
Chennai-based Shriram Financial Ventures proposal to allot shares to Sanlam Emerging Markets (Mauritius) Ltd has also been approved. It has also permitted Sanlam Emerging Markets (Mauritius) Ltd to hold through Shriram Financial Ventures (Chennai) upto 26% stake in Shriram Capital Ltd. The approval would result in FDI totalling to around `2,000 crore.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board deferred decision on 16 FDI proposals. These included M&M plan to set up a joint venture with French company Rafael Advanced Defence System for production and development of naval defence systems and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) for providing unified access services. Pfizer’s FDI proposal to set up an operating-cum-investing company was also deferred.