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Business tycoon Mukesh Ambani has recently joined hands with TV czarina Ekta Kapoor. Yes, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) will acquire a 24.92 per cent stake in Balaji Telefilms for Rs 413.28 crore.
The collaboration will reportedly help Ekta’s digital venture ALTBalaji and Reliance’s Jio Network. So all the Balaji Telefilms shows will now also be a Reliance Company product.
RIL will get 2.52 crore shares through preferential allotment at Rs 164 apiece aggregating to Rs 413.28 crore.
The proceeds from the transaction would be used to further build up content development initiatives, especially for ALT, thereby providing it with a strong ability to compete with other OTT service providers- both global and Indian.
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This transaction marks a landmark event for the Indian web content industry and is expected to further accelerate the growing trend of media consumption ‘on-the-go’. The board of both the companies approved the transaction at their respective meetings held today.
Commenting on the same, Balaji Telefilms Chairman Jeetendra Kapoor said, “We welcome Reliance Industries Limited as a partner in our growth journey towards becoming the preferred content producer for the Indian diaspora across all means of video consumption and across all geographies. This investment is a vote of confidence to the Company’s strategic move to own our IP and our viewers. I would like to congratulate Ekta and the entire Balaji team on this early success and am sure that they will continue to take the Company forward from strength to strength. I would also like to thank Axis Capital for its valuable and unwavering support over the years. They have visualised and facilitated this important investment which will help us become one of the leading content players globally.”
For those who don’t know, Balaji Telefilms Ltd. was originally incorporated as a private limited company on 10 November 1994 and it went public on 28 February 2000. Since then it has grown on to become one of the largest content production houses in Asia and Middle East.
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