Released on: September 9, 2008, 6:18 am

Press Release Author: Mohit Sharma

Industry: Consumer Services

Press Release Summary: Network18\'s holding has, thus, fallen from 75 per cent to 65
per cent. Capital18, Network18\'s venture capital arm, had put in $5 million to
complete the second stage of equity funding of $21 million.

Press Release Body: homeshop18.com : Private equity firm Saif Partners has increased
its stake in Homeshop18, Network18\'s home shopping television unit, to 35 per cent
following its recent capital infusion of $16 million.

In the first round, Saif Partners had invested $10 million to take a 25 per cent
stake in Homeshop18.

Network18\'s holding has, thus, fallen from 75 per cent to 65 per cent. Capital18,
Network18\'s venture capital arm, had put in $5 million to complete the second stage
of equity funding of $21 million.

\"The shareholding has changed by 10 per cent. The original funding companies decided
to invest even in the second round. It goes to show how bullish they are on the
business,\" says HomeShop18 CEO Sundeep Malhotra.

HomeShop18 will be investing mainly in beefing up the distribution and content of
the channel. \"We had first gone into the non-Tam tier II and tier III cities where
carriage fee is not that expensive. But we have also realised that the business
comes from the metros. Now we are in Bangalore and Delhi. We will be moving to
Mumbai and Hyderabad within the next 10-15 days. We will also be ramping up our
logistics support,\" says Malhotra.

Competition, according to Malhotra, will help in growing the size of the market.
\"The need of the hour is to establish home shopping as a credible brand. You need
more players to change the current perception of the consumers regarding home
shopping,\" he adds.

HomeShop18 does 3000 transactions daily and has an average of 15000 customers who
call up the customer care centre. Online comprises 10 per cent of the entire
business.


Web Site: http://www.homeshop18.com

Contact Details: TV18 Home Shopping Network Pvt. Ltd.
7th floor, FC-24,
Sector-16A, Filmcity,
Noida - 201301, Uttar Pradesh,
India.