Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, India’s ‘big bull’, is trying his luck in the media sector for the third time. This time, he has bought a minority stake in Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Reliance Broadcast Network, which recently inked a 50:50 joint venture with CBS to launch a bouquet of English language channels for the Indian subcontinent.

“I have made a small investment via the preferential issue of equity shares,” Jhunjhunwala, who owns Rare Enterprises, told Financial Chronicle.

The market seemed to have got the whiff of the Big Bull’s plans. On BSE, the stock hit upper circuit at Rs 110.5 on Wednesday.

RBNL, which operates a national radio network under the brand 92.7 Big FM and is into the out-of-home media and experiential marketing businesses, informed the BSE that it had raised over Rs 400 crore by a preferential issue of equity sha-res to the promoter group and other investors. The preferential offer, which is subject to necessary appr-ovals, will be made at Rs 85 a share, the statement said.

The promoter group will subscribe to approximately 2.9 crore shares, aggregating approximately Rs 250 crore, while investors will pick up approximately 1.9 crore shares aggregating over Rs 150 crore, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange.

Prior to the fresh issue of shares, promoters held 63.55 per cent of equity capital via 2.93 crore equity shares. It’s not clear whet-her the issue of almost as many fresh shares to promoters will need to be followed by an open offer for another 20 per cent stake in the company.

The infusion of equity is almost equal to four-fifths of RBNL’s Rs 509 crore market value, and is a crucial step forward in wiping out its negative reserves of Rs 29.64 crore at the end of March (the latest date for which audited reserves figure has been published).

In the June quarter too, RBNL posted a net loss of Rs 15.04 crore on a total income of Rs 50.77 crore. RBL CEO Tarun Katial, however, said the company was Ebidta positive in the June quarter with a turnaround in the radio business.

“We do not have any external debt. All the loans were raised from our group companies,” Katial told FC.

Jhunjhunwala, called the Warren Buffet of India, has not been as successful in his media investments so far. He sold his 4.26 per cent stake in Mid-Day Multimedia at levels similar to his purchase price in April this year after holding them since late 2004.

Similarly, Jhunjhunwala sold his 7.57 per cent stake in Infomedia18 completely in two tranches – first in the December quarter of 2009 and then in the March quarter of 2010.

Soon after his exit from Mid-Day Multimedia, Jagran Prakashan bought the loss-making Mumbai tabl-oid through a share-swap deal. Jhunjhunwala declined to specify his exact investment in RBNL stating that he did not ‘discuss his investments.’ He is related to Adag group managing director Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, who is considered the chief architect of the CBS-RBNL JV.