Adani forays into media business, buys minority stake in Quintillion Business Media

PTI

New Delhi, March 1

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate has forayed into the media business, buying an unspecified minority stake in Raghav Bahl-curated digital business news platform Quintillion Business Media Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

Adani Group has entered into a binding term sheet with BSE-listed Quint Digital Media Ltd to acquire a minority stake in Quintillion Business Media Pvt Ltd (QBM), an indirect subsidiary of Quint Digital, the companies said in a statement.

QBM is a business and financial news company and operates a leading business news digital platform BloombergQuint. US-based Bloomberg Media quit the venture just as Adani entered.

“The proposed transaction with the Adani Group is only for QBM which is a digital business news platform and not in relation to other digital media/ media tech properties owned by Quint Digital viz. The Quint, Quintype Technologies, thenewsminute and Youthkiawaaz,” it said.

The port-to-energy conglomerate helmed by India’s second richest man has been eyeing entry into the media space for the past few months. In September last year, it hired veteran journalist Sanjay Pugalia to lead its media company, Adani Media Ventures.

Pugalia previously was president of Quint Digital Media, the parent company of QBM.

Bloomberg Media, in a separate statement, said it is ending its equity joint venture with QBM in India, which together ran the business news website BloombergQuint.

The companies did not disclose the stake Adani has bought. It was not clear if Adani picked up Bloomberg’s stake.

Adani’s latest move will yet again pitch it against richest Indian Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group which owns Network18 that runs several TV news channels and online platforms.

The two groups have announced competing forays into new energy business, including hydrogen.

After quitting Quint, Pugalia was named chief executive officer and editor-in-chief to lead Adani Group’s media-related initiatives.

“Adani Media Ventures intends to lead the path for new age media across different platforms. The adoption of technology and the increased ability of our nation to consume information has dramatically transformed the way media is expected to disseminate authentic information. This is exactly what Adani Media Ventures (AMV) aims to do,” Pugalia, CEO, Adani Media Ventures Ltd, said in the statement.

“This relationship between AMV and QBM marks a strong beginning of Adani Group’s foray into Indian media,” he added.

The closure of the transaction with Adani Group is subject to customary due diligence and definitive documents.

“We are delighted to welcome the Adani Group as an investor in QBM. Given the proven execution record of the Adani group, their support to fulfill the ambitions of QBM will lay the foundation for accelerating the growth of the business and scale of QBM’s high-quality content for the Indian audiences,” said Anil Uniyal, chief executive officer, QBM.

Earlier in the day, Quintillion Media announced that it had ended its equity joint venture with Bloomberg Media in favour of a new content licence agreement.

Bloomberg Media and Quintillion Media will no longer co-produce content but will continue to distribute Bloomberg content in India through a licence agreement, the two said in a statement.

In an internal mail to employees, Raghav Bahl, co-founder of Quintillion Media, said he was delighted to share two bits of great news that should be “transformational” for BQ’s onward journey.

Adani Group has a market capitalisation of over USD 150 billion, comprising seven publicly listed companies that are in the business of operating airports and ports, power generation and transmission, coal and city gas distribution network.

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