Indian billionaire Anil Ambani may be considering a bid for MGM

Anil Ambani is preparing to bid for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film studio behind classics such as Gone with the Wind, in a move that would bring Bollywood deeper into Hollywood -- reports The Financial Times.

The Indian billionaire businessman’s Reliance Big Entertainment is one of at least a dozen groups poised to make an offer for the debt-laden MGM, whose assets include the James Bond franchise.

“Initial expressions of interest are due today,” a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. He said he expected most bidders to ask for more time.

News Corp’s Fox and Time Warner were said to be the among the possible bidders, with Lionsgate also interested. Reliance declined to comment.

MGM is seeking a white knight to avert a painful re struc turing to cope with its $3.7bn debt amassed when it was taken over in 2005 by a consortium of private equity firms TPG, Providence Equity Partners, DLJ Merchant Banking Part ners and Quadrangle Group, and media companies Sony and Comcast.

The studio was forced to skip an interest payment last year on its debt when it failed to raise the capital required to support an ambitious production schedule. It must make a $250m payment by April 2010 on a revolving credit facility and pay off its $3.7bn term loan by 2012. MGM’s lenders have granted it forbearance from interest payments until the end of this month.

MGM’s main value lies in its 4,000-title film library and its franchises, including rights to James Bond, the Pink Panther and The Hobbit .

Cash flow from the library was about $300m a year, or about $100m less overheads, a person familiar with the deal said.

A takeover of MGM would give Mr Ambani’s Reliance, which produced one of the biggest grossing Bollywood films of all time this year with comedy 3 Idiots, a position at the heart of Hollywood.

Reliance has already provided $325m of equity for a venture with director Steven Spielberg , who has broken with Viacom and is recreating his DreamWorks studio as an independent entity.

The Indian billionaire, whose other businesses range from mobile telephony to mutual funds, also has production deals with other leading directors and actors, such as Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

The person familiar with the MGM deal said the US studio was asking for about $2bn but doubted any bidders would make an offer at that price.

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