Reliance Industries (RIL) has acquired a 66 percent stake in Den Networks and 51.3 percent in Hathway Cable and Datacom in order to expand into the fixed broadband market. The acquisitions of the cable networks is expected to support its plan to bring fibre broadband to 50 million homes across India.
The company said it made a primary investment of INR 20.45 billion through a preferential issue and a secondary purchase of INR 2.45 billion of shares from existing investors in Den Networks. Reliance Industries also made a primary investment of INR 29.40 billion through a preferential issue by Hathway. The company will launch open offers to acquire the remaining shares in the companies.
Through the transactions, Reliance and its mobile operator Jio plan to strengthen the 27,000 local cable operators that are aligned with Den and Hathway to enable them to participate in the digital transformation of India through access to superior back-end infrastructure; tie-ups with content producers; access to the latest business platforms to improve business efficiencies and deliver customer experience; and investment in digital infrastructure for connecting customers.
Jio plans to bring its JioGigaFiber service to more than 50 million homes across 1,100 Indian cities and towns, in the shortest possible time, it said. JioGigaFiber will offer UHD entertainment on large screen TVs; multi-party video conferencing from everyone’s living room; artificial intelligence in the form of voice-activated virtual assistants; as well as virtual reality gaming and digital shopping; and smart-home services.
Jio has already started work on connecting homes. It will work together with Hathway and Den and local cable operators to offer an upgrade to a lineup of JioGigaFiber and Jio Smart-Home Solutions to the 24 million existing cable connected homes of these companies across 750 cities.
The transactions remain subject to customary regulatory and other approvals.
