Breaking Mukesh Ambhani's RIL acquires 24.9% stake in ALT balaji

[abhishek]

Balaji Telefilms Ltd. is considering selling stake in its subsidiary ALT Balaji Digital Media Entertainment Ltd., people familiar with the matter said.

The Mumbai-based media house is in talks with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., and an international studio for selling up to 26 percent in the subsidiary, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

It will consider fund raising options in Thursday’s board meeting, a company official said on condition of anonymity. The stake sale in ALT Balaji could be used to fund its capital expenditure requirements, the official added.

In an exchange notification following BloombergQuint’s report, Balaji Telefilms clarified it is in talks with several financial and strategic investors who have expressed “strong interest to partner with ALT Balaji”. The board is actively considering all options available, the notification said.

Earlier in the day, Kartik Sankaran, the senior vice president in charge of investor relations had said, “ALT Balaji is the growth driver for Balaji Telefilms, and the response so far has been good and we have now crossed four million downloads globally.”

“We do not comment on market speculation,” a spokesperson for Reliance Industries Ltd., which owns Reliance Jio, told BloombergQuint. “There is no proposal to acquire a stake in ALT Balaji,” Zee Entertainment said in an exchange filing. The company however added that it regularly explores various opportunities for expansion.

Zee Entertainment, Reliance Jio: Strategic Fit?
Both Reliance Jio and Zee Entertainment could look at ALT Balaji for its premium and original content.

Reliance Jio’s live streaming app Jio TV provides instant access to television content. Zee Entertainment's digital businesses Ditto TV and OZEE, which operate under Zee Digital Convergence, do not create original content at this stage. Ditto TV is the company’s streaming service while OZEE pools content from Zee channels in one platform.
Exclusive: Balaji Telefilms Mulls Selling Up To 26% Stake In ALT Balaji

 

[abhishek]

Balaji Telefilms had initiated preliminary talks with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) but no progress has been made since then, a source said. The talks were not pursued because of valuation expectations. Balaji Telefilms is planning to sell stake in its OTT arm, ALT Balaji Digital Media Entertainment, but is also open to diluting in the parent company, which is listed, the source added. ZEEL’s primary interest was in the OTT business. “The discussion was held before the resignation of Balaji Telefilms Group CEO Sameer Nair. The valuation expectation was high and there have been no talks since then,” the source said. Balaji Telefilms has admitted that it is in dialogue with several financial and strategic investors who have expressed “strong interest” to partner with its OTT platform ALTBalaji. The company’s board will meet on 20 July to consider various fund raising options. Balaji Telefilms, however, has not named the companies it is in talks with. The other names being floated are Reliance Jio Infocomm and an international studio. “There has been no formal conclusion of any such investments by the board or shareholders for any such transactions,” Balaji Telefilms has said. The statement was in response to a clarification sought by the stock exchanges from Balaji Telefilms on a report by BloombergQuint that the company may sell up to 26% stake in ALTBalaji. “While the company regularly explores various synergic opportunities for expansion in the media business, there is no proposal relating to acquisition of any stake in ALT Balaji by the company,” ZEEL has clarified. Balaji is planning to invest up to Rs 400 crore in ALT Balaji and is eyeing break-even in 3.5 years. ALT Balaji hopes to become profitable when it attains four million paid subscribers in India and abroad. Last year, Balaji Telefilms had raised Rs 150 crore by diluting stake in the parent company to fund its OTT venture. It had made an allotment of 1,07,20,000 equity shares at Rs 140 each on preferential basis to Atyant Capital India Fund – I, Vanderbilt University, GH, GHI LTP, GHI HSP and GHI ERP for launching ALT Balaji. The company had diluted 14.1% equity in that transaction. Balaji Telefilms’ current market capitalisation is Rs 1,456 crore. Shares of Balaji Telefilms have gained with the expectation that the company would be able to rope in an investor in its OTT arm. ALT Balaji, which will offer 250+ hours of original content, has four key content areas—original shows, movies, kids and comedy. The OTT platform is expected to consume an annual expenditure of Rs 120 crore for the next three years with 80% of this expenditure going into content production. In late May, the TV production house said that the management is actively considering the options available and has appointed Axis Capital as bankers for the investments.

Read more at: Balaji Telfilms’ talks with investors to dilute stake in ALTBalaji | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com

 

[Shantanu]

The Board of Directors of Balaji Telefilms in its meeting held today considered and approved an investment by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), one of India’s leading corporates, through a preferential issue of 2,52,00,000 equity shares at Rs 164 each, aggregating to Rs 413.28 crores, subject to necessary shareholder and other approvals.


Balaji is India’s leading entertainment content producer operating across television, movie and digital platforms. Over the years, the Company has demonstrated sustained success in pioneering the production of differentiated content across different genres and languages. The Company has recently launched ALTBalaji (ALT), a multi-device subscription video on demand platform, which offers original, premium and exclusive content for a global digital audience and in a short span post its launch has garnered over 4 million downloads across80 countries. ALT’s early success has further reinforced the Company’s OTT strategy, which allows it to own the intellectual property rights and have direct access to the viewers. ALT is reflective of the Company’s strategic intent to build a consumer facing brand by leveraging its enjoyable and engaging content appealing to the tastes of digital audience globally and monetising the immense potential of original on-demand entertainment.

Mukesh Ambani's RIL acquires stake in Balaji, pumps in Rs 413 crore | TelevisionPost.com

 

[abhishek]

Nic update.
But information about the deal is already shared.
Breaking News - Balaji telefilms mulls selling upto 26% stake in ALT balaji
Plz merge both

 

[Sarkar]

Slowly RIL is becoming Skynet of movie Terminator who will control everything that we Indians need in our dailylife. Bad days are coming

 

[wewake]

Slowly RIL is becoming Skynet of movie Terminator who will control everything that we Indians need in our dailylife. Bad days are coming

In coming years, Jio will the primary owner of all digital content. And thus they'll make all profit from there only. We have to pay for this free voice and data which we are using today, in coming years

 

[Sarkar]

In coming years, Jio will the primary owner of all digital content. And thus they'll make all profit from there only. We have to pay for this free voice and data which we are using today, in coming years

So consume now and pay later policy

 

[wewake]

So consume now and pay later policy

Yes almost! He will skew next generation

 

[PRK]

alt balaji will be free for jio users?

Slowly RIL is becoming Skynet of movie Terminator who will control everything that we Indians need in our dailylife. Bad days are coming

not going to happen. I bet.