According to six sources familiar with the situation, Blackstone-owned Nucleus Office Parks and Viacom18, the broadcasting arm of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, will soon enter into a lease agreement for Viacom18's new 400,000-square-foot headquarters in Mumbai.
In India, Viacom competes with Walt Disney and other media companies by operating TV networks and the digital streaming service JioCinema. Its new headquarters will be located in Mumbai's Lower Parel commercial sector on around eight floors of the "One International Centre" project.
"It is a marquee deal in terms of area. In Mumbai, rents are so high and every year only three to five such deals happen. This type of relocation is rare," said the first source, who said the monthly estimated rent paid by Viacom18 will be 60 million Indian rupees ($722,178).
Blackstone declined to comment, while Viacom18 did not respond to a request for comment.
Ambani's Reliance, Paramount Global, and Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, a former senior Disney executive, are among the shareholders in Viacom18.
Viacom18 is moving to a new headquarters in order to integrate all of its business units—be they tax, finance, sports, or digital—in one space, according to two persons familiar with the office relocation plans.
They continued by saying that relocation will probably take place before December.
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