Times Group: Inside details of the MoU finalized between Samir & Vineet Jain

The much-awaited MoU of the Times Group is believed to have been finalized on Thursday. Once the deal is finalised Samir Jain is likely to get hold of the entire Print businesses of the conglomerate, including the Times of India, Economic Times and language papers like Navbharat Times and Vijay Karnataka along with their online editions. 

Younger brother Vineet Jain is expected to occupy Broadcast, Radio Mirchi, Entertainment (ENIL), and other businesses such as Filmfare, Femina, the event IPs along with their respective online editions (clubbed under Times Internet Ltd.), highly placed sources have told e4m. Vineet will also retain ET Money and the OTT platform MX Player. 

At present, all online editions along with MX Player are part of the Times Internet Limited, which was a major bone of contention between the Jain brothers. 

Sources add that since the Print businesses of the group are far bigger in terms of revenue, Vineet is likely to receive a cash payout of at least Rs 3,500 crore from his elder brother to balance out the partition. This amount may go up to Rs 5,000 crore depending on various factors.

“The bifurcation of the Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) conglomerate was fine tuned on Thursday at the Lutyens bungalow of the Jain brothers in Delhi. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed by the duo, followed by a family puja and brothers roping a plant together to signal a fresh beginning,” sources said. 

The MoU needs to be converted into a legal document and top law firm Khaitan & Co is believed to be taking care of the legal technicalities. 

“The real estate belonging to the company, which includes various properties and printing press across India, have also been valued and are expected to be divided equally between the two brothers,” people privy to the matter said. 

Repeated emails sent to Samir and Vineet Jain and the group’s corporate communications personnel remained unanswered till the time of writing this story. 

Times Group officials said on the condition of anonymity that Samir was already handling the print business and Vineet was running TV, Radio and Times Internet. 

University & Investment Arm to be valued later

While most of the entities at Bennett University will be put in an independent trust, it would be run by professional trustees and is believed to be valued later. 

Brand Capital, the strategic investment arm of the Times Group, has not been valued yet. It will too likely be valued and bifurcated later. 

Investors to be roped in 

Samir is believed to have started looking for funds to finance the partition, so that he can pay his younger brother his dues worth Rs 3,500 crore. Both brothers may also rope in more investors for their respective entities, sources said. 

Merger of 5 entities 

The BCCL is also merging five of its subsidiaries - Mind Games Shows Pvt (MGSPL), Ananta Properties Pvt (APPL), Amrita Estates Pvt (AEPL), Times Digital (TDL), Times Journal (TJIL) and Vinabella Media and Entertainment Pvt (VMEPL) - with itself as part of its plan to clean up the company's structure, in accordance with a National Company Law Tribunal order. The NCLT cleared the merger on May 4, effective April 2021. 

Tedious process of partition  

India’s oldest and one of the most influential media companies Times Group (Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd or BCCL) has been facing uncertainty for a long time due to growing differences between the brothers on how to run the businesses. The talks of spilt were going on for about two years. 

Samir is elder to Vineet by 10 years and serves as the vice chairman of BCCL, while Vineet is the managing director. Jain brothers are reportedly distinct from each other when it comes to business acumen, lifestyle and vision for the company. 

People privy to the matter claim that assets of the company underwent an elaborate evaluation process to divide over 70 entities, including the most complex one, Times Internet Ltd (TIL). 

Two mediators were appointed to oversee this auction. This included Sunil Bharti Mittal, the billionaire chairman of telecoms operator Bharti Airtel, and a member of the Dalmia family, which owned BCCL in the 1950s before handing the company over to the Jains. 

Selling of businesses

TIL has been working hard over the past two years to consolidate its business and offload the loss-making entities. 

The company sold the restaurant reservations app Dineout as well as short video platform MX TakaTak in early 2022. It recently sold two of its content websites—MensXP and iDiva—and its creator management vertical Hypp to Mensa Brands. 

It is in the process of selling OTT platform MX Player also which has reportedly been punching a hole in their coffers. The company is now in the talks with Amazon to sell it off at a price which is reportedly less than its acquisition cost. 

Times Internet acquired MX Player in 2018 for an estimated sum of $140 million or Rs 1,000 Cr. “Amazon has offered roughly $60 million, almost half of its purchasing cost,” sources claimed. This is despite the fact that MX Player has been regarded as the most downloaded app in India and third most downloaded in the world in 2022, according to the State of Mobile 2023 report by Data.ai. 

The company’s arm Gradeup has already been merged with Byju’s through NCLT approval, its financial report stated. 

According to media reports, Times Internet has also undergone a shareholding change and stakes held by different Times Group entities and family members were all transferred to BCCL in 2021-22.