Viacom18 Becomes Fully Owned Subsidiary of Reliance Industries

Viacom18 Media, a media and entertainment company, is now a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This followed a conversion of compulsorily convertible preference shares worth 24.61 crores into an equivalent equity share.

Reliance Industries on 30th December converted 24,61,33,682 compulsorily convertible preference shares into the same amount of equity shares after getting the approval from the shareholders of Network18. Earlier, Viacom18 was a subsidiary of Network18 Media and Investments under the Reliance Industries group.

Further, in a regulatory filing, Reliance Industries stated, “Consequently, Viacom18 has become a subsidiary of the company effective December 30, 2024, and has ceased to be a subsidiary of Network18. The company received intimation of allotment of equity shares from Viacom18 on December 30, 2024”.

According to reports, Reliance Industries owned a fully diluted 70.49 percentage stake in Viacom18 Media as of the disclosure dated November 14, 2024. The filing lists 5.57 crore equity shares and 24.61 crore CCPS.

After the conversion, RIL confirmed that Network18 does not control Viacom18 anymore, according to the filing, “After this conversion, the company holds 83.88 percent of Viacom18’s total equity share capital and continues to hold 70.49 percent on a fully diluted basis”.