NCLT Approves Viacom18-Star India Merger

The Mumbai bench of the NCLT has accepted the merger plan between Viacom18, Digital18, a division of Reliance Industries, and Star India, a division of Walt Disney. According to industry reports, the tribunal has chosen retired Justice Suresh Chandrakant Gupte to oversee the talks on behalf of Viacom18's secured and unsecured creditors as well as Star India's unsecured creditors.

In an event that Justice Gupte is unavailable, Naina Krishna Murthy will assume the role. The task of supervising the creditors' meetings for both businesses has been given to B Narsimhan, the owner of BN Associates.

The TV and streaming assets of Viacom18 are first transferred to Digital18 as part of the merger process. Afterwards, these assets are demerged and given to Star India. Viacom18 will give Digital18 JioCinema in exchange for a payment of Rs 24,186 crore, which is equivalent to 24.18 billion fully paid-up shares at a price of Rs 10 apiece. Additionally, Viacom18 will transfer its media operations to Digital18 in return for Rs 2,769 crore, which would be paid for by issuing 2.76 billion fully paid-up shares at a price of Rs 10 per.

After Digital18 transfers Viacom18 assets to Star India, all Digital18 stakeholders will receive equal shares.

Walt Disney (36.63 per cent), Digital18 (46.11 per cent), and RIL (16.34 per cent) will share ownership of Star India after shares are allotted to Digital18 and RIL.

On May 15, the Mumbai branch of the NCLT issued a decision approving Novi Digital Entertainment's (the business that runs Disney+ Hotstar) merger with Star India, its parent firm. Information about corporate and performance guarantees, contingent liabilities, pending IBC cases, litigation information, letters of credit, and margin money must all be disclosed by the companies applying for approval.