Reliance Industries has acquired 24.9 per cent stake in Ekta Kapoor-owned Balaji Telefilms for ₹413.28 crore.
The investment will take place through a preferential issue of 2.52 crore shares at ₹164 per share, aggregating to the said amount.
Balaji Telefilms said that the proceeds from the transaction would be used to further speed up content development initiatives, especially for ALT (its digital content platform).
Earlier this year, Balaji launched the app for its digital platform ALT. The company was planning to create original content for the platform.
Last month, ALTBalaji had integrated with JioMoney, the mobile wallet from Reliance Payment Solutions, to provide digital transaction experience to its subscribers.
“We welcome Reliance Industries 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 mwove to own our IP and our viewers,” Jeetendra Kapoor, Chairman, Balaji Telefilms, said in a statement.
RIL said in a release, “RIL is engaged in the telecom, digital and media businesses. This investment in content production (including digital content) is in line with RIL’s commitment to invest and grow in telecom, digital and media businesses.”
Axis Capital acted as the sole investment banker for the transaction.