Financial Times, Britain's leading business daily, plans to launch an India edition, its CEO John Ridding said today.
Financial Times, which has many editions worldwide and a circulation of over four lakh, is engaged in a trademark tussle with India's leading media group Bennett and Coleman.
Stating that FT was trying to get approval for quite sometime now, Ridding said, "It (wait) has been frustrating. We are hopeful of getting it (approval) soon."
In 2008, Financial Times (FT) inked a content partnership with Network18 Media and Investments after ending its 15-year-old content partnership with Indian financial daily Business Standard.
After that FT planned to launch the printing of the paper from Mumbai. However, Pearson Plc, the owner of the Financial Times newspaper, faced problem in launching the paper under the name of Financial Times in India due to some trade mark issues as India's Times Publishing House Ltd was already publishing a paper under the masthead of Financial Times.
Ridding said that FT was "locked in a legal tussle" with Bennett Coleman and Co whose CEO Ravi Dhariwal did not offer any comment on the subject.
Ridding said FT was planning to go on its own as compared to earlier partnership model with Business Standard. "This time we are planning to go solo. Indian business class is quite proficient in English. So we want to stick to English."
{{/usCountry}}Ridding said FT was planning to go on its own as compared to earlier partnership model with Business Standard. "This time we are planning to go solo. Indian business class is quite proficient in English. So we want to stick to English."
{{/usCountry}}For the March quarter Pearson Plc, the owner the Financial Times, reported a 7 per cent growth in revenue to 1.08 billion Pound, helped by growing ad revenue at its newspaper operation.