Reliance Industries to buy 25% stake in Balaji Telefilms for Rs 413 crore

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said its board has approved to pick around 25 per cent stake in Balaji Telefilms by acquiring 2.52 crore shares for around Rs 413 crore.

The company's board has approved making investments in the equity shares of Balaji Telefilms Ltd for acquiring 2.52 crore equity shares constituting 24.92 per cent, Reliance Industries said in a BSE filing.

In a separate filing, Balaji Telefilms said its board today considered and approved an investment by RIL through a preferential issue of 2.52 crore equity shares at Rs 164 each, aggregating to Rs 413.28 crore.

The Mumbai-based media and entertainment firm said proceeds from the transaction would be utilised to further speed up content development initiatives, especially for its over-the-top content platform ALTBalaji, to help it compete with other global and India OTT service providers.

The decision is, however, subject to Balaji Telefilms shareholder and other approvals. Balaji Telefilms Chairman Jeetendra Kapoor welcomed RIL as a partner in its 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 move to own our IP and our viewers," he added. Yesterday Balaji Telefilms said several financial and strategic investors have expressed "strong interest" to partner for its over-the-top content platform ALTBalaji.

Axis Capital Ltd was the sole investment banker for this transaction.