Adani Group acquires over 50% stake in news agency IANS: Report
The Adani Group has acquired a majority stake in news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) for an undisclosed sum, thereby expanding its footprint in the media sector after acquiring NDTV last year.
The Adani Enterprises in a regulatory filing said that its subsidiary AMG Media Networks Ltd (AMNL) acquired a 50.50 per cent stake comprising equity shares of IANS India Private Ltd, PTI reported.
In a regulatory filing, the Adani Group said, “AMNL has also signed a shareholders’ agreement with IANS and Sandeep Bamzai, a shareholder of IANS, to record their inter-se rights with respect to IANS.”
The news agency had reported a revenue of ₹11.86 crore in the fiscal year 2022-23 (April 2022 to March 2023). As per the filing, all the operational and management control of IANS will be with AMNL, which will have the right to appoint all the directors.
“Pursuant to the acquisition as set out above, IANS is now a subsidiary of AMNL,” the filing added.
Earlier Adani Group had acquired Quintillion Business Media, which operates business and financial news digital media platform BQ Prime. The business conglomerate acquired broadcaster NDTV last year.
The NDTV founders transferred most of their shares in the company to Adani, giving his conglomerate control over nearly 65 per cent of the news network.
Radhika and Prannoy Roy sold 27.26% stake in NDTV to an entity owned by Adani, giving it 64.71% of NDTV, regulatory filings by the Delhi-based news media network showed. Adani already held more than 37% in NDTV after an open offer and an earlier acquisition of a company owned by the founders.
