Nita & Akash Ambani Join Viacom18 Board Ahead Of Merger With Disney

Ahead of the much-anticipated merger of Reliance Industries (RIL) Viacom18 and Walt Disney's Star India, founder and chairperson of Reliance Foundation and a board member of Reliance Industries Nita Ambani and her son Akash Ambani have joined the board of Viacom18, a media company owned by RIL and Bodhi Tree Systems, as per sources.

The appointments of Nita and Akash, who is the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, arrive at a pivotal moment and are a key step in the merging process of these major media entities.

According to sources, other people joining the Viacom18 board are James Murdoch, co-promoter of Bodhi Tree Systems; Mohammed Ahmed Al-Hardan, head of technology, media, and telecom at the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a key investor in Bodhi Tree; Jyoti Deshpande, president, media & content business at RIL, and Shuva Mandal, partner at Anagram Partners.

Under the merger scheme approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Viacom18 will first transfer its assets to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Digital18, which will then transfer them to Star India in return for shares in the latter, effectively merging the operations of both companies under a unified structure.

The joint venture of Viacom18 and Walt Disney’s Star India is valued at Rs 70,352 crore (US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis, excluding synergies.

The JV will be controlled by RIL and owned 16.34 per cent by RIL, 46.82 per cent by Viacom18 and 36.84 per cent by Disney. Disney may also contribute certain additional media assets to the JV, subject to regulatory and third-party approvals.