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Reliance Industries’ move to acquire a controlling stake in Network18 seems to have renewed investor interest in the media and entertainment company.
Shares of Network18 Media & Investments hit their 52-week high on Friday to close at ₹54.15, 19.93 per cent higher than Thursday’s close on the BSE. About 42 lakh shares of the target company changed hands.
On Thursday, Reliance Industries said it would invest about ₹4,000 crore through Independent Media Trust, of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, to acquire 78 per cent stake in Network18 and about 9 per cent stake in TV18. This follows a similar agreement entered in 2012, when it inked an investment deal with Network18. The acquisition comes even as RIL’s telecom services unit Reliance Jio Infocomm gears up for the rollout of 4G telephony services.
The TV18 Broadcast scrip closed 0.57 per cent higher to end at ₹35.15. About 1.2 crore shares of this company were traded on the bourse. Shares of Infomedia Press (Majority owned by Network18) ended 4.98 per higher to close at ₹3.37.
However, RIL shares ended 0.74 per cent lower to close at ₹1,065.15.
Slew of offers RIL has made an open offer to acquire up to 23 crore Network18 shares at a price of ₹41.04 a share.
It also intends to acquire up to 1.3 crore equity shares of Infomedia Press at ₹3 a share and up to 44.6 crore equity shares of TV18 at ₹30.18 a share.
The media network owns a slew of news, entertainment and e-commerce channels such as CNN-IBN, CNBC TV18, Colors and HomeShop18, online news portal Firstpost.com and e-commerce websites such as Yatra.com and Bookmyshow.com, as well as print properties such as Forbes India magazine.
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