As it rumoured in the last few weeks, Reliance Industries Limited, the parent company of Reliance Jio Infocomm has officially announced its strategic investment in and partnership with Den Networks Limited and Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited. RIL made this move so that it can accelerate the rollout of Jio GigaFiber. For the unaware, Reliance Jio launched its high-speed broadband services in the country back in July and it's currently offering Jio GigaFiber services on an invite-only basis. Jio wants to grab 50 million users in the country across 1,100 cities. Den Networks and Hathway has a strong foothold in various cities across the country and this partnership will help Jio to rack the operations. These transactions are subject to customary regulatory and other approvals.
RIL-Den Network and Hathway: Partnership Details
Reliance Industries also revealed the transaction details today. According to the information available, RIL made a primary investment of Rs 2,045 crore through a preferential issue under SEBI regulations and secondary purchase of Rs 245 crore from the existing promoters for a 66% stake in Den Networks Limited. Moving onto Hathway deal, RIL made a primary investment of Rs 2,090 crore through a preferential issue under SEBI regulations for a 51.3% stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited.
Furthermore, it's also said that RIL would make open offers in DEN and Hathway as well as for the following companies as required under SEBI Takeover Regulations: GTPL Hathway Limited, a company jointly controlled by Hathway with 37.3% stake and Hathway Bhawani Cabletel and Datacomm Limited, a subsidiary of Hathway.
As part of this transaction, Jio will be strengthening the 27,000 Local Cable Operators (LCOs) that are aligned with DEN and Hathway to enable them to participate in the digital transformation of India through access to superior back-end infrastructure, tie-ups with content producers, access to latest business platforms to improve business efficiencies and deliver customer experience and investment in digital infrastructure for connecting customers.
And the LCOs will continue to provide localised, intimate, people-friendly and ultra-fast customer services. This will create multiple future opportunities for LCOs as Jio rolls out new services and platforms.
Jio has also confirmed that it started work on connecting 50 million homes across 1,100 cities. It will work together with Hathway and DEN and all the LCOs to offer a quick and affordable upgrade to a lineup of Jio GigaFiber and Jio Smart-Home Solutions to the 24 million existing cable connected homes of these companies across 750 cities.
Reliance is Now Committed to Take India to Top 3 in Wired Broadband Segment
"Reliance is privileged to partner with the Rajan Raheja Group, one of the most respected business houses in India, and Shri Sameer Manchanda, a first generation entrepreneur, who have created strong businesses through their business acumen and perseverance," said the company in a press statement. "Reliance has the highest regard for the management teams in the respective companies and will work with them to further strengthen and improve business operations," it further added.
As we already know, Reliance Industries is aiming for 50 million user base in the wired broadband segmented. And the company today stated that these strategic investments are in furtherance of Reliance’s mission of connecting everyone and everything, everywhere – always at the highest quality and the most affordable price and transforming India’s digital landscape.
It's already known that Jio has taken India to the top position in the mobile broadband space, and the company is now committed to take India from a global rank of 135th to among the top-3 countries in the world on wireline digital connectivity.
Reliance Jio GigaFiber: Registrations Going On Right Now
Reliance Jio started taking registrations to the Jio GigaFiber broadband service since August 15. At the moment, the company is offering Jio GigaFiber services based on the maximum registrations it receives from a particular service. Jio is providing free broadband service under JioGigaFiber Preview Offer for three months. And the company is yet to announce tariff plans as well.
