Eros Sells Off STX; Renames As 'Eros Media World Private Limited Company'

Eros STX Global Corporation, a global Indian entertainment company, has made significant corporate developments. This includes the completion of sale of its subsidiary STX and a change in corporate name to Eros Media World Private Limited Company. Eros will retain 15 per cent non-voting stake in STX with long-term monetisation potential. The company has fully repaid USD 152 million of outstanding JP Morgan credit facility and subordinated credit facilities at STX level.

The company has also made several strategic additions to Board of Directors, and the management team, with the appointment of Rishika Lulla Singh as the new Executive Chairperson, Pradeep Dwivedi as the new CEO, and Rajesh Chalke as the new CFO.

The company projected strong near-term revenue growth and a significant reduction in net debt with over USD 120 million in revenues expected for FYE 2023. The Current Net Debt of USD 130 million as of the end of FYE 2022, is expected to decrease to USD 115 million by the end of FYE 2023

Eros Now will continue to focus on direct-to-customer relationships, improving overall penetration and distribution of Eros Now as a service in Tier 2 and 3 regions of India, as well as migrating subscribers into higher ARPU plans and international markets. Eros Now will continue to target monetisation of its existing content library through global partnerships, bundling, and distribution arrangements which are expected to drive organic revenue growth in a capital-efficient manner.

The music destination will support Eros Now Music by augmenting its existing music library, as well as through new originals, non-film music, and independent artists across languages and genres. Eros Now Music expects to release hundreds of originals over the next year. Established and emerging artists with expertise in genres such as Indie, Pop, Sufi, EDM, Hip Hop, and New Age, amongst others will showcase their talent across regional languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, and Haryanvi.

Eros’ strategic partnership with Xfinite for global Advertising-On-Demand (AVOD) monetization will allow for Eros Now to monetise its userbase. Eros Media has opportunities to look at alternative forms of community creation and content monetisation through Mzaalo’s NFT marketplace, which is in its beta launch stage, connecting consumers and NFT collectors to native and globally acclaimed artists, celebrities, athletes and more. The ecosystem is powered by the Xfinite Entertainment Token (XET) built on the Algorand blockchain. XET is available on exchanges such as BitMart, MEXC, Tinyman, Algofi and on high performing yield-farming platforms like Yieldly. XET is listed on centralised and decentralised exchanges giving the digital token utility and increasing the utility token’s public profile.

On the development, former Executive Chairman, Kishore Lulla, said, “As the business and market matures, I am confident in Eros Media’s execution capability with fundamentals on track. I am pleased to announce Pradeep Dwivedi as CEO and welcome Rajesh Chalke as CFO to usher in a new era for Eros Media, with guidance from an experienced board. I will step down from the executive positions at Eros Media in the near future and dip into my entrepreneurial fibre to build the biggest Web3 and Blockchain Indian eco-system for the world via Eros Investments1. The amalgamation of the virtual/meta world, with high fidelity gaming and digital goods/NFT’ bound via de-centralized technology in the Web2, Web 3 and Immersive experiences is principal premise of Eros Investment’s focus over the next 10 years”