Byline: Baiju Kalesh & Reeba Zachariah

MUMBAI: India's largest television maker Videocon group is planning to raise Rs 2,000 crore through a global depository issue to fund the acquisition of three divisions of the Thomson group. It has already raised close to $350 million, sources said.

This is the second major deal that Videocon is likely to strike with Thomson. In April, it had acquired Thomson's large screen picture tube plant at Anagni in Italy for an undisclosed sum and a glass manufacturing line from Poland.

The picture tube plant, that employs 1,500 people, can produce 3 million colour picture tubes of different sizes and has annual sales of about 250 million euro. Videocon will eventually use the Anagni unit as a European hub for making consumer products and components to be sold in the continent.

It could mark a strong comeback for the group, which had lost its numero uno position to Korean chaebols like LG and Samsung in the last few years. Today, Videocon has slipped to the number four spot in the domestic market. In India, it has a manufacturing capacity of 2 million colour televisions. Experts say that an European presence will help Videocon build scale and become a global player.

Thomson Group, a global player in the media and entertainment industry, has three strategic business units - services (cinema advertising, DVD replication and post production services), systems and equipment (set-top boxes, DSL modems, broadcast equipment, audiovisual accessories) and technology (patents).