Satyam Cineplexes, the 17-screen-strong movie exhibitor, is learnt to be in talks with DT Cinemas, Wave Cinemas and other unlisted entities for a possible merger or acquisition, according to a senior company official.

The Rs 60-crore company aims at doubling its turnover to Rs 120 crore by 2012 and is also planning a "robust expansion" at a cost of Rs 150 crore spread over three years. The funds for expansion will be sourced equally from private equity players, debt and internal accruals, said the official.

“We’re also looking at inorganic growth and are open to acquire chain of any size that would be in the interest of the company. We’re interested in unlisted, fragmented players whose core business is anything but movie screening (like DT Cinemas or Wave Cinemas whose core business is real estate). We’re in talks with such players across India,” said Deven Chachra, managing director, Satyam Cineplexes.

Both DT and Wave, while confirming that they had been talks with Satyam Cineplexes, said there was nothing concrete at the moment. “We had talks with Satyam a year back but had called it off after that," said a DT Cinemas official.

Wave’s head of cinema operations Yogesh Raizada denied that the company was exploring an alliance with Satyam. “To my mind it must be a rumour. We’re already in expansion mode and don’t think we’ll be looking at mergers. We did have talks, may be two or three years ago,” he said.

Satyam Cineplexes is planning to add more screens, taking the tally to 78 in three years across metros and tier II and III cities, of which 30-35 will be set up by March 31, 2012. Of the new screens, 40 will be in south India, said Chachra. The company has allocated Rs 80 crore for its southern expansion.

Its largest investment will be on a 12-screen multiplex in Bangalore, and a host of multiplexes in places like Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Mangalore, Kochi and Coimbatore. “In spite of ticket price controls, the reason for looking at the south market is that it is robust and hugely underplayed. It is the only place where audiences can absorb five languages Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, English and Hindi. Our south strategy will be to come up with six-screeners as a minimum,” he said.

He said the company's IPO plans, scheduled for 2012, had been pushed back by a couple of years as it wanted to give an exit route to all its investors by the end of 2013. “After that we may go for an IPO or look at a strategic sale. We’re keeping our options open,” he said.