Reliance Capital on Wednesday announced the merger of its global film and media services business with Prime Focus to create an entity with a combined turnover of over Rs 1,800 crore.
The multi-layered deal includes the infusion of Rs 120 crore by Reliance MediaWorks in Prime Focus for a 30.2 percent stake, while existing promoters of Prime Focus would also pump in a similar amount. Prime Focus promoters as well as Reliance MediaWorks will also launch an open offer for a further 26 percent jointly
In a joint statement, the two companies said the deal would create the world’s largest media services power house, which already has an order pipeline of Rs 2,000 crore, over 5,500 employees and operations in the US, UK, Canada, China and Singapore, besides India.
Prime Focus chief Namit Malhotra will head the combined entity while its current promoters will have a 33.5 percent stake after the transaction.
Prime Focus said it would use the deal proceeds to fund its recent acquisition of US-based Double Negative, an Academy Award-winning visual effects studio.
“We are hugely excited about the transformational growth opportunity created by the powerful combination of the global film and media services business of Reliance MediaWorks and Prime Focus,” said Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, Group Managing Director of Reliance Group.
Some blockbusters handled by the two entities include The Dark Knight trilogy, ‘Transformers 4’, ‘Avatar’, ‘Inception’ and ’Gravity’.
