Disney strikes deal to sell stake in India's Tata Play, Bloomberg News reports

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Walt Disney has struck a deal to sell its stake in Tata Play, valuing Indian conglomerate Tata Group's satellite TV provider at about $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The stake sale news comes as the U.S.-based media giant looks to focus on its merger with India's top conglomerate, Reliance Industries, in a bid to create an $8.5 billion entertainment juggernaut far ahead of rivals in the world's most populous nation.

Last month, Tata Sons, the holding company of India's Tata Group, increased its stake in Tata Play to 70% by buying a 10% stake from Singapore state investment firm Temasek for about $100 million, local media had reported.

With Temasek's exit, Tata Play operates as a 70:30 joint venture between Tata and Disney. The change in the ratio of joint venture shareholding post the stake sale news are not mentioned in the Bloomberg report.

Disney and Tata Group did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Disney took its stake in Tata Play from the acquisition of Star India via the purchase of 21st Century Fox's India assets in 2017.

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)