Mukesh Ambani's RIL to take control of Hathway & DEN

Reliance Industries is soon to take controlling stakes in two companies that are into cable TV and broadband service providers - Hathway Cable to speed up its rollout of Jio Gigafiber service and DEN Networks to provide high-speed broadband network. It will spend 52.3 billion rupees to acquire controlling stakes in the two cable TV operators that will connect 50 million households with high-speed Internet in the world’s second-most populated nation.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani will purchase a 51.3 percent stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd. and 66 percent shares of Den Networks Ltd., Reliance said in a statement on Wednesday. Both the companies have informed the stock exchanges that the respective boards had a meeting on October 17 to discuss and approve a proposal for raising funds.

Hathway Cable is owned by the Raheja Group while Sameer Manchanda owns DEN Networks. The equation is like - Hathway has 7.2 million cable subscribers and 0.77 million broadband subscribers in 350 cities in India, whereas DEN networks has 7.2 million cable subscribers and 0.10 million broadband subscribers in 200 cities in India.

With this, RIL would enter into infrastructure of MSOs (multiple system operators) to give both video and broadband services, which is of great demand. The go-to-market would be through Hathway and DEN networks - RIL would cover North, Central and Western part of the country, since DEN is strong in Uttar Pradesh and North India whereas Hathway has a strong presence in central and western India. The interesting thing is that RIL’s own subsidiary, Reliance Jio Media owns a pan-India cable licence since 2015. This would mean that there will a strong digital push in the country.