Saregama acquires majority 51.8% stake of Pocket Aces for Rs 174 crore

Saregama, the country's oldest music label company owned by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, on Thursday announced the acquisition of a majority 51.8 per cent stake in Pocket Aces Pictures, the youth-focussed digital content creator and publisher, for Rs 174 crore in an all-cash deal.

The over 100-year-old Saregama, which was formerly known as The Gramophone Company of India, will also be picking up an additional 41 per cent in the fast-growing digital entertainment company over the next 15 months, the RPG Group statement said, adding the transaction completed is an all-cash deal.

Pokcet Acers owns direct relationship with over 95 million younger digital-first customers across Instagram, Youtube, etc and boasts of an IP catalogue of over 3,000 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.

Its 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, the statement claimed.

This acquisition will further strengthen Saregama's strategic ambition to take leadership position in new music across all Indian languages, it added.

Pocket Aces had revenue of Rs 104 crore in FY23, which has been growing 34 per cent annually in the past four years and is expected to grow even faster in future.

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 popularise its music library among the 18-35 age bracket audience.

The acquisition will add new dimensions to our business, which already is the market leader as we tap into the burgeoning young digital audiences, said Avarna Jain, the vice-chairperson of Saregama.