MUMBAI: The Board of Directors of TV18 Home Shopping Network Limited and Shop CJ Network Private Limited approved entering into a definitive agreement to combine the businesses of both entities.

HomeShop18 has a portfolio of over 14 million SKUs across multiple categories and a logistical reach of over 3000 locations across India. Shop CJ Network (formerly Star CJ Network) was is a 50:50 joint venture between the South Korean home shopping major, CJO Shopping, and the P5 Asia Holding Investments (Mauritius), belonging to the Providence Equity Partners group.

The transaction is aimed at uniting two of India’s top home-shopping players, to create the largest home-shopping platform in India.

The resultant benefits of scale shall better the growth prospects for the combined entity, allowing it to improve its standing in the TV home-shopping landscape and compete better with the challenge from e-commerce players. HomeShop18 has optimised its operations substantially since the challenges faced in the last year. It believed multiple synergies with respect to sourcing, marketing and delivery can be exploited through a combination with Shop CJ, which shall further accelerate this process.

This combination shall be effected by way of a share-swap. The shareholders of Shop CJ shall be issued 25 per cent equity in HomeShop18, making Shop CJ a subsidiary of HomeShop18. Post the transaction, HomeShop18 shall cease to be a subsidiary of Network18 Media & Investments. However, Network18 shall continue to be the largest shareholder in the combined entity.