Saregama acquires 52% stake in Pocket Aces for Rs 174 crore
Saregama is also investing an additional Rs 15 crore through a primary purchase of 25,974 shares of Pocket Aces
The company said the transaction will consist of Saregama acquiring 51.82% of the issued and paid-up share capital in the first tranche for Rs 174 Cr. The remaining 40.79% of the acquisition would be on the basis of the adjusted equity value of Saregama’s holdings or the enterprise value of PocketAces, whichever is higher. Overall, the company intends to buy as much as 92.6 percent in the future.The company has not stipulated the date for executing the full acquisition.
"This acquisition will further strengthen Saregama’s strategic ambition to take leadership positon in New Music across all Indian languages. Pocket Aces, a Youth-focussed digital content creator and publisher, boasts of an IP catalog of over 3000 content pieces ranging across web series, sketches, music videos and reels on its channels FilterCopy, Nutshell and Gobble, and releases over 30 new pieces of content every day. The company’s talent management arm, Clout, manages over 100+ digital influencers, and its long-form studio, Dice Media, has created relatable youth-centric web series across OTT platforms such as Netflix, Hotstar, and Amazon," said Saregama.
"Acquiring Pocket Aces will add on a whole new dimension of IP and a distribution network of over 95 million followers, which Saregama will leverage to further popularize its music library among the 18-35 audience segment. It will also create synergies across the artiste & influencer management and long-format video creation businesses of the two companies," it added.
Avarna Jain, Vice Chairperson Saregama, said, "This acquisition signifies the confluence of tradition and innovation. While we have always been leaders in the realm of music and media, this partnership with Pocket Aces will add new dimensions to our business as we tap into the burgeoning young digital audiences."
The transaction is an all-cash deal.
