Monday, February 2, 2009

Indian Film Company: Dispute Resolved

A group of dissident investors led by hedge fund Altima Partners had been demanding the removal of two of the directors of The Indian Film Company (IFC).

The IFC, by the way, is an investment vehicle itself, not a production company. It invests in Indian movies, as you might imagine -- especially those it seems designed to appeal to Indians in the rest of the world, outside of India.

The IFC's public relations firm (which is headquartered in London) put out a statement this weekend -- neither in India nor in London is Super Bowl weekend sacred -- saying that the two sides have agreed to adjourn an extraordinary general meeting which had been scheduled for this Thursday, Feb. 5.

"The board is delighted to reach an agreement in the interests of the shareholders," said the flack.

It seems that the two controversial directors -- Raghav Bahl and Alok Verma -- will stay on. The board will get two new members, one of whom is associated with Altima and the other who isn't (Atul Setia and Deepak Gupta, respectively).

This is worth mentioning chiefly because the business model is intriguing: investing in movies that might appeal especially to a particular country's diaspora, if you will.

This just reinforces my determination to see Slumdog Millionaire. I wonder if they've got a piece of that one.

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