Reliance Industries and Walt Disney Company have completed the merger of their assets in India to create a ₹70,352 crore ($8.5 billion) media monolith.
Reliance Industries said on Thursday that they had received all the regulatory approvals for the merger that was announced in February.
As part of the transaction, RIL has also invested ₹11,500 crore ($1.4 billion) in the joint venture. RIL will hold a 16.34 per cent stake in the venture while its step-down subsidiary, Viacom 18, will own 46.82 per cent. Disney’s stake is capped at 36.84 per cent.
The Mukesh Ambani-led firm said the merger had become effective after it received approvals from the National Company Law Tribunal, Competition Commission of India and other regulatory authorities.
It added that the JV has allotted shares to Viacom18 and RIL as consideration for the assets and cash, respectively.
The joint venture will have a combined revenue of approximately ₹26,000 crore ($3.1 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 2024. It will operate over 100 television channels and produce 30,000+ hours of TV entertainment content annually.
The JioCinema and Hotstar digital platforms have an aggregate subscription base of over 50 million. The joint venture also holds a portfolio of sports rights across cricket, football and other sports.
Nita Ambani will be the chairperson of the joint venture while Uday Shankar will be the vice chairperson providing strategic guidance to the venture.
“This unique joint venture of Reliance and Disney brings together the companies’ content creation and curation prowess, world-class digital streaming capabilities along with a digital first approach that will help the JV deliver unparallelled content choices at affordable prices to Indian viewers and the Indian diaspora globally,” RIL added.
“With the formation of this JV, the Indian media and entertainment industry is entering a transformational era. Our deep creative expertise and relationship with Disney, along with our unmatched understanding of the Indian consumer will ensure unparalleled content choices at affordable prices for Indian viewers,” Mukesh Ambani, RIL chairman & managing director said.
“This is an exciting moment for our two companies, as well as for India’s consumers, as we create one of the top entertainment entities in the country through this joint venture,” said Robert A. Iger, chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company.
In a separate transaction, RIL has bought out Paramount Global’s 13.01 per cent stake in Viacom18 for ₹4,286 crore. As a result, Viacom18 is now owned 70.49 per cent by RIL, 13.54 per cent by Network18 Media & Investments Ltd, an RIL group firm, and 15.97 per cent by Bodhi Tree Systems (backed by Rupert Murdoch and Uday Shankar).
