MUMBAI: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has given the green signal to United Television (UTV) , to increase its foreign equity in the company from 66.43 per cent to 68.15 per cent.

According to a report in The Financial Express , Century Direct Fund is purchasing 1.72 per cent stake in UTV Software Communications at Rs 12.5 million, thus increasing its total holding in the company to 2.5 per cent. .

The holding of the promoters after the acquisition of Western Outdoor and Century Direct Fund's hike in stake will be around 35 per cent. Also CDPQ of Canada holds 33 per cent and Rupert -Murdoch -promoted News Corp 15 per cent stake in UTV, adds the report.

In a bid to expand its post production business , UTV had bought Western Outdoor in an all- stock deal , giving it a less than one per cent stake in exchange.

UTV's future business plans include co-producing a $8 million budget movie called Partition with a Canadian producer, a Rs 200 million budget Hindi movie with Shahrukh Khan and another big budget Hindi movie, the report adds.