Ramoji Rao-Mukesh Ambani’s secret deal exposed

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has invested about Rs 2,600 crore in the ETV channels owned by media baron Ramoji Rao. Yes, It’s true.

Reliance holds a major stake in Eenadu group which was bought at Rs 5,28,630 per Share. Now, the same stake has been sold to the Network 18 group, which runs the channels CNBC TV18 and CNN IBN.

There were allegations against Ramoji Rao in the past that he helped Reliance Industries in bagging the gas blocks in the Krishna-Godavari basin, by influencing the then Chief Minister to keep the state out of the bidding. Mukesh Ambani payed it back to Ramoji Rao, by helping the Eenadu Group when it faced a severe financial crisis (Controversy over raising crores of money from the depositors of Margadarsi) few years back.

As part of the deal, Network 18 would now have the complete control over the management and board of ETV news channels and ETV non-Telugu entertainment channels. This include 49% stake in Telugu channels (ETV Telugu and ETV Telugu News), 100% stake in regional news channels (ETV Uttar Pradesh, ETV Madhya Pradesh, ETV Bihar and ETV Urdu) and 100% stake in regional entertainment channels (ETV Marathi, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla, ETV Gujarati and ETV Oriya). With these developments, Ramoji Rao lost his hold on the Eenadu Group.