Billionaire Gautam Adani's group acquires majority stake in news agency IANS

New Delhi, December 16

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s group has acquired a majority stake in news agency IANS India Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed sum as the group expands its presence in the media space.

In a regulatory filing, Adani Enterprises — the firm that holds the group’s media interests — said its subsidiary “AMG Media Networks Ltd has acquired a 50.50 per cent stake constituting equity shares of IANS India Pvt Ltd”.

The company did not disclose the acquisition price.

Adani had forayed into media business in March last year when it acquired Quintillion Business Media, which operates business and financial news digital media platform BQ Prime. It thereafter in December took nearly 65 per cent stake in broadcaster NDTV.

AMNL was the vehicle for these acquisitions as well.

In the filing, it 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.”     

IANS had a revenue of Rs 11.86 crore in the fiscal year 2022-23 (April 2022 to March 2023).

“All operational and management control of IANS will be with AMNL and AMNL will have the right to appoint all directors of IANS,” the filing said.

“Pursuant to the acquisition as set out above, IANS is now a subsidiary of AMNL.”