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  4. Reliance Industries to acquire Paramount’s 13% stake in Viacom18 for ₹4,286 crore

Reliance Industries to acquire Paramount’s 13% stake in Viacom18 for ₹4,286 crore

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2 min read • Updated: March 14, 2024, 9:54 AM

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Summary

Entertainment company Viacom18, a subsidiary of TV18 Broadcast Ltd, runs 40 television channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Reliance Industries currently holds around 57.48% of the equity stake in Viacom18.

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Post acquisition Reliance industries will hold 70% stake in Viacom 18

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on Thursday announced that it has signed an agreement to buy Paramount Global’s 13.01% equity stake in Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd for around ₹4,286 crore.

Reliance shares gained 0.71% to trade at ₹2,884.80 in early deals following the announcement. TV18 Broadcast Ltd shares tanked more than 3% to ₹44.85 per share on NSE.

Reliance Industries in an exchange filing stated that the agreement was signed with two subsidiaries of Paramount Global early morning on Thursday.

Entertainment company Viacom18, a subsidiary of TV18 Broadcast Ltd, runs 40 television channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Reliance Industries currently holds around 57.48% of the equity stake in Viacom18 through compulsorily convertible preference shares.

RIL’s shareholding will increase to 70.49% post the completion of the deal.

Meanwhile, Paramount Global in a US exchange filing informed that its two subsidiaries which hold a 13.01% stake in Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd have decided to sell the stake to RIL in a $517 million deal. The company said that it will keep providing content to Viacom18 after the deal. The US company streams its content through JioCinema platform which is owned by Reliance Industries.

Paramount said that it will continue to license its content to Viacom18 after the closing of the deal. It already streams its content through Reliance's JioCinema.

The deal comes close on the heels of Reliance Industries signing an agreement with Walt Disney to merge their TV and digital streaming assets in India for creating ₹70,000 crore media giant. The new entity will own around 100 TV channels across sports and entertainment and two digital platforms JioCinema and Disney Hotstar. In the merged entity, Viacom 18 will hold a 46.82% stake, Disney will have 36.84% and Reliance’s share will be 16.34%.

The media behemoth will also have rights to the sporting event T20 league IPL and diverse international content and Disney films and production.