Moneycontrol

History

1996–2007: Acquisition and restructuring

SGA Finance and Management Services was incorporated on 16 February 1996, as a private limited company by Geeta and Rakesh Gupta and acquired soon afterwards by Vidya Devi and Anil Jindal. The company had remained inactive without any clear prospects until it was later acquired by the promoters of Television Eighteen India Limited.

The news broadcasting company Television Eighteen (TEIL) founded by Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, became a public limited company in 1999 and its initial public offering (IPO) received an overwhelming response. The investments through the IPO exceeded the target set by the company by a magnitude of over 50 times by the end of the year, raising ₹2,511 crore (equivalent to ₹34 billion or US$350 million in 2026) in the process. This decreased the promoters' stake in the company from 75% to 26.11% by 2002 causing complications. The company was in the middle of preparations to launch a Hindi business news channel but could no longer meet regulatory guidelines. TEIL was in a joint venture with CNBC since 1998, and the news channel to be launched was called CNBC Awaaz. The guidelines required the Indian promoters to have more than 51% stake in their company to be able to establish a new uplink for broadcasting.

In 2003, SGA Finance was acquired by Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, in to order to launch the channel and Bahl became its managing director. The company raised ₹5 crore (equivalent to ₹6.8 crore or US$700,000 in 2026) through two batches of investments from the two promoters in March 2003 and in January 2004, and then incorporated a subsidiary called SGA News. In the meantime, the government introduced a 26% foreign equity cap in the news broadcasting industry. In response to the new regulations the joint venture with CNBC was discarded and the partnership converted into a content branding and franchise agreement. In the financial year 2004–2005, TEIL invested ₹25 crore (equivalent to ₹34 crore or US$3.5 million in 2026) in SGA News for preferences stocks. CNBC Awaaz was launched on 13 January 2005.

In the financial year 2005–2006, TEIL supplemented its initial investment with an additional ₹39.10 crore (equivalent to ₹53 crore or US$5.5 million in 2026) in SGA News for common stocks. Following this, the boards of both the companies proposed a restructuring which received approval from the shareholders. The companies underwent several rounds of restructuring which came to a conclusion in November 2006. TEIL became a subsidiary of SGA Finance, the promoters gained a majority stake in TEIL, CNBC Awaaz was transferred to TEIL and shareholders of TEIL were accommodated with a stake in SGA Finance. On 20 October 2006, SGA Finance was converted into a public limited company and re-incorporated as Network18 Fincap Limited.

2007–2011: Expansion, consolidation and increasing debt

Global Broadcast News (GBN), the subsidiary operating CNN IBN became a publicly traded company in January 2007 and its IPO generated a successful response, similar to that of Television Eighteen India Limited (TEIL). GBN was renamed as IBN18 Broadcast, and on 1 December 2007, Network18 Fincap itself was renamed to Network18 Media & Investments. Network18 began diversifying with cross media interests in 2008. It had high liquidity and expanded rapidly, it started the film production house called Indian Film Company (IFC), launched the shopping channel Home Shop18, and entered into an franchise agreement to launch the Indian edition of the Forbes business magazine, while IBN18 Broadcast entered into a joint venture with the Marathi language newspaper Lokmat to launch the Marathi news channel IBN Lokmat, and began a joint venture with ViacomCBS to initiate the group's foray in mass media and general entertainment channels under Viacom18.

Network18 registered losses in the financial years 2008–2009 and 2009–2010. Its investments had outstripped the profits generated by its operational assets. In addition, the group had existing debt obligations and requirements for providing returns to its investors which resulted in net losses of ₹331.64 crore (equivalent to ₹450 crore or US$47 million in 2026) and ₹276.89 crore (equivalent to ₹375 crore or US$39 million in 2026) respectively. Viacom18 in particular was a drain on the company's funds. The financial statement of the company in 2009 had reported that it was retiring outstanding debt and raising funds through equity investments. In response to the financial challenges, the group began restructuring and consolidating its assets in the same year. IBN18 Broadcast was renamed to TV18 Broadcast and Television Eighteen India Limited (TEIL) which operated the business news channels of the company was merged into it. The digital media and publishing operations were transferred to the parent company Network18 under the divisions of Web18 Software Services and Network18 Publishing respectively.

In the financial year 2010–2011, Network18 registered a loss of ₹43.53 crore (equivalent to ₹59 crore or US$6.1 million in 2026), which was a considerable decrease from the previous two years and Bahl reportedly told the shareholders during the presentation of the annual report that "the best times are still ahead of us". In 2010, Network18 went on to announce a new joint venture AETN18 with the American media company A&E Networks to launch History TV18, the Indian edition of History channel. The company had also entered into a distribution joint venture with the Sun Network called Sun18. It had 2 divisions named Sun18 North and Sun18 South, the former was managed by Network18 and the latter by the Sun Network. The joint venture was later restricted to Tamil Nadu and replaced by the TV18–Viacom18 distribution joint venture IndiaCast in 2012. The consolidation of assets was completed by 2011 but it alone could not mitigate the financial challenges. Over the past years, the market had changed rapidly, the group was facing increased competition from other broadcasters, and advertising revenue had decreased due to economic downturn.

2011–2014: Takeover by Reliance Industries

Network18 had made optimistic projections for years but after 2011, it came to face a possible financial collapse and loss of control for its managing director Raghav Bahl. The group had accumulated an outstanding debt of over ₹1,400 crore (equivalent to ₹19 billion or US$200 million in 2026) by September 2011. Employees were convinced that the company had expanded too aggressively and the market could not support it. In search of assistance in the form of external financing, Bahl decided to begin talks with the multinational energy giant Reliance Industries.

In November 2011, the CEO, Haresh Chawla resigned despite having been one of the founders of the media conglomerate. According to company insiders, he was persistently trying to convince Bahl to not enter into a debt agreement with Mukesh Ambani and instead raise funds by divesting part of the group's stake in the subsidiary Viacom18. In a later interview, he had commented that his resignation was an easy decision as he did not want anything to do with the Ambanis. According to a senior editor at the group, the decision to enter the talks was made reluctantly, as "[Bahl] was in a bind about entering a pact with the devil".

On 3 January 2012, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Network18 announced a partnership. Reliance Industries set up a body called the Independent Media Trust (IMT) and infused funds into the company through a number of shell companies as part of a complex financial transaction. ₹5,400 crore (equivalent to ₹73 billion or US$760 million in 2026) was transferred to Network18 and TV18 Broadcast, half the amount to each respectively, of which Network18 received a net amount of ₹4,000 crore (equivalent to ₹54 billion or US$560 million in 2026) due to its stake in TV18. The shell companies gained rights to debentures convertible to equity within 10 years. RIL also forced Network18 to buy its stakeholding in ETV Network for a sum of ₹2,100 crore (equivalent to ₹28 billion or US$300 million in 2026) without which the net sum would have been for a much smaller amount. The purchase also included two regional broadcasters; Panorama and Prism. The acquisition included most of the television broadcasting properties of the Ramoji Group. The group retained the rights to ETV brand, while Network18 acquired 100% shareholding of 5 general news channels, 50% shareholding of 5 general entertainment channels and 24.5% shareholding in 2 other channels. The entertainment channels were held by the joint venture of Viacom18. One point of disagreement for Chawla had been in the valuation of ETV at ₹3,500 crore (equivalent to ₹47 billion or US$490 million in 2026) when the company was worth only ₹525 crore (equivalent to ₹712 crore or US$74 million in 2026) in March 2011.

2014–Present: Reliance Industries era

Following the takeover, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reshuffled the management and board of directors of both Network18 and its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast. The nominees of the RIL backed Independent Media Trust (IMT) joined the board of Network18. Deepak Parekh, the chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Adil Zainulbhai were also inducted into the company as independent directors in the board. While retaining the position of independent director at RIL and Larsen & Toubro, and being the newly elected Narendra Modi government's appointment to the position of chairman of Quality Council of India (QCI), Zainulbhai was appointed by RIL to the position of chairman of the board. Commentators raised concerns that the editorial integrity of the network may not be preserved under the new management. The channels of the network had stopped all coverage of Kejriwal and the new Aam Aadmi Party who had levied corruption accusations at RIL. The editor-in-chief of the flagship general news channel CNN IBN, resigned within a week of the takeover with the reason that the management was interfering in editorial decision making and dictating what could or could not be aired.

A. P. Parigi, the former managing director and CEO of Entertainment Network India Limited (The Times Group subsidiary operating Radio Mirchi), was recruited by RIL and appointed as the new CEO of Network18 on 29 January 2015. Parigi resigned as CEO and was moved to an advisory role in the company on 1 October. Rahul Joshi replaced Parigi as the new CEO and was made the editor-in-chief of the group. Joshi was the editorial director of The Economic Times, a financial newspaper published by The Times Group before he had resigned from the company to join Network18 in August 2015. The editorial departments were unified with the operational and commercial divisions of the company, the chairman Zainulbhai stated that Pairigi had helped stabilise the operations and that Joshi would now run the company with an "ownership mindset".

The acquisition of the company by RIL, the largest conglomerate in India with deep interests in the energy sector, was considered to be a part of a trend of growing commodification of information, detrimental to the treatment of journalism as a public service. It increased the concentration of cross media ownership in the hands of a small group of large corporate actors in a market that was already oligopolistic and reduced the diversity of information disseminating outlets. Control over the news organisation, had strengthened RIL's ability to influence the formation of public opinion and as a result the political economy of the country, and also decreased space for reporting which could be detrimental to the energy giant's interests and public relations. Between 2014 and 2016, Network18 attempted to expand into regional markets of the news broadcasting sector with a spate of new channels, which was seen with apprehension among media observers. The expansion occurred as part of RIL's ₹150,000 crore (equivalent to ₹2.0 trillion or US$21 billion in 2026) investment in the rollout of its 4G data business.

Owned assets

Magazines

Better Interiors

Better Photography

Forbes India

Digital Media

Firstpost

Moneycontrol

News18.com

Corporate affairs

Ownership

The group was acquired by Mukesh Ambani led conglomerate Reliance Industries in 2014. The acquisition occurred by maneuvering a complex deal through the Independent Media Trust (IMT), set up by Reliance Industries to issue a loan for the debt encumbered Network18 in 2012. It resulted in Reliance receiving 78% of the shareholding, and as of 2019, the conglomerate holds 73.16% of the shares.

Teesta Retail is a private limited company which holds 1.85% shareholding of the group. It is an arm of Reliance Industries Investments and Holdings and is listed in the promoters group shareholders of Network18. The ownership of Teesta Retail is held by ten shell companies registered at the same address and with Reliance Industries domain names for their websites. The ten companies have listed directors of whom seven appear across all of them, who are also directors at various Reliance subsidiaries.

Network18 is a public limited company and the public holdings constitutes around 25% of its shareholdings. Among major individual shareholders was the Chief financial officer (CFO) of Network18, Hariharan Mahadevan who held 1.11% of the shares as a part of the public in 2019.

Currently, 56.89% is held by Reliance Industries and 43.11% in equity.

Management

Ritu Kapur was the first director of the company after the resignation of the Jindals and was followed by Raghav Bahl, who was the managing director of the company between 2003 and 2014. Haresh Chawla is considered to be the founding CEO of the company. He was appointed as the CEO of TV18 in 1999, having formerly worked at Times Music and Amitabh Bachchan Corporation. Chawla became the first CEO of Network18 after it was acquired and converted into the holding company of TV18. He resigned from the company in November 2011 before Network18 entered into a deal with Reliance Industries, publicly stating that he wanted nothing to with the Ambanis. According to Raghav Bahl, the entire credit for enabling Network18 to establish a diverse variety of partnerships with the likes of CNN Worldwide, CNBC, Forbes, Viacom and History Channel belonged to Chawla. The COO, B. Sai Kumar succeeded Chawla as the CEO of Network18, and resigned before the takeover of the company by Reliance.

One of the directors at Reliance Industries and the Prime Minister of India's appointment to the Quality Council of India, Adil Zainulbhai became the chairman of the board of directors of the company following the takeover. Kshipra Jatana was the general counsel at the group and had resigned during the takeover. She remained associated with the company to oversee the transition, and became the manager in the interim period. A. P. Parigi was appointed as the new CEO of the company after Sai Kumar's exit and held the position until he was moved to an advisory position by Reliance Industries in October 2015. Rahul Joshi, the editorial director at The Economic Times was recruited and appointed as both the CEO and editor-in-chief of the entire group following the takeover. In 2018, Joshi was elevated to the position of managing director by the board and Jatana resigned from her position.