NEW DELHI: Media mogul James Murdoch-backed Viacom18 has reduced its planned investment in billionaire Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance’s broadcast venture Viacom18 by about 70% and will be pumping in Rs 4,306 crore.
Bodhi Tree had last year committed Rs 13,500 crore in the planned 15,000-plus investment in Viacom 18 but the strategic partnership statement between the different parties shows that Reliance is infusing Rs 10,839 crore and only Rs 4,306 crore contributed by Bodhi Tree.
While Viacom18, a joint venture between Ambani’s Reliance and Paramount Global, didn’t specify as to why Bodhi Tree reduced its pledged investment, reports say this decision by Bodhi may have come due to a broader funding squeeze amid a slowdown in dealmaking activities. Murdoch had announced Bodhi Tree with former Disney executive Uday Shankar last year. Qatar Investment Authority is the largest investor in Bodhi Tree.
When Viacom18 and Bodhi had inked a partnership in April last year to help pivot Indian media to a “streaming-first”, Reliance had said that it would invest Rs 1,645 crores ($216 million) through its subsidiary--Reliance Projects & Property Management Services Limited -- in Viacom18.
Following the changes in previously committed investment, Bodhi Tree’s shareholding in Viacom18 is reduced from an expected 39% to 13.08% on a fully diluted basis. As Viacom18 has completed the transaction for strategic partnership with Reliance, Bodhi Tree Systems and Paramount Global, it believes that partnership will enable them to innovate and disrupt the M&E sector.