RIL to pick up 66% stake in Den and 51.3% in Hathway for Rs 5,230 Cr
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is all set to pick up controlling stakes in India’s largest cable operator, Hathway Cable and Datacom as well as in Den Networks. The Mukesh Ambani-steered company has been in talks with the two companies for the past few weeks to provide impetus to its ambitious plan to disrupt broadband space.
RIL will pick up a 66 per cent stake in DEN through a primary investment of Rs 2,045 crore via a preferential issue and secondary purchase of shares for Rs 245 crore from the existing promoters.
In Hathway–a cable television service operator, RIL will invest Rs 2,940 crore through a preferential issue for a 51.3 per cent stake.
According to Ambani, with local cable operators now as part of the Jio ecosystem, the company will look forward to bringing Jio’s advanced JioGigaFiber and Smart Home Solutions to more Indian homes.
Through the investments, Reliance and Jio will be strengthening the 27,000 local cable operators aligned with Den and Hathway. They together have 14.4 million cable and about 800,000 broadband connections.
This is part of the Reliance gameplan to bring JioGigaFiber to more than 50 million homes across 1,100 Indian cities and towns in the shortest possible time.
With the acquisition of Den and Hathway, Jio’s gigafiber will compete against Airtel, Tata Sky, DishTV.
Meanwhile, the telecom arm of RIL has released its financial statement for Q2 (FY19). Reliance Jio posted its consolidated net profit of Rs 9,516 crore in the September quarter, an increase of 17.4 per cent from Rs 8,109 crore in June quarter.
The telecom operator added 37 million customers to make the total customer base to 252.3 million at the end of the September quarter.
Source: Entrackr
To Read Our Daily News Updates, Please visit Inventiva or Subscribe Our Newsletter & Push.
