The one attribute everybody in Uganda and beyond knows Sudhir Ruparelia for, is his heavy bank balance. Now news reaching the TrumpetNews business desk is that the renowned moneybags is disposing off his Sanyu FM after years of investing in the radio station with little returns.
Sanyu Fm 2000 which is housed in Sudhir’s Crane Chambers was bought off by the tycoon from the struggling Katto family who had rushed to open it up in 1998 to counter Capital FM as the pioneer of FM broadcasting. When the Katto financial woes took them down, the once powerful family sold the struggling radio station to Sudhir which he renamed Sanyu FM 2000.
Zero profit
After years of owning and hiring the best presenters including the likes of Seanice Kacungira, Melanie, Fatboys, Roger Mugisha, Christine Mawadri and other big names in the radio business, Sanyu fm has failed to turn in profit. Sudhir has reportedly had enough of the investing with no returns and has set up the struggling radio for sale. Part of the reasons for Sanyu FM’s failure to set the pace is attributed to lack of niche audience programming and a crowded radio market that has all manner of players with a fragmented airspace while advertisers splash low budgets on the many stations some of which will even take the least amounts to run adverts.
Vision Group wants in
Robert Kabushenga has always had this dream of turning Vision Group into a sizeable media empire, maybe the size of Nation Media group. In the late 90’s the Vision Group head went onto a buying spree snatching up radio stations across the country.
Latest we hear, Kabushenga has shown interest in acquiring Sanyu Fm which will be added to the cluster of Vision Group radios including Xfm, Bukedde, Etop, Radio West and others. Vision group declared a profit of 3.5 billion last year to its shareholders who are Government, individual shareholders, including Sudhir Ruparelia who happens to be the largest individual shareholder in the entity.
Big Price and cost dilemma for Vision Group
Sudhir is a loaded man. His sell-offs don’t come cheap. The price tag he has set for the sale of Sanyu FM is a whopping 4.5 billion shillings- which is over 1 billion short of what Kabushenga is offering to buy the station.
The station reportedly makes monthly income of 200 million but with increasing costs, Sudhir reasons that isn’t worth the amount spent on its operations including rent, salaries, utilities and marketing. What remains to be seen now is whether Vision Group that has failed to pick revenues from its own struggling radios will buy into Sanyu fm which also competes for the similar audiences with their struggling Xfm.