Industrial major Adani Group, which has gained control over virtually every sector in India – whether it is shipyards, highways, airways, cement, steel, iron ore, irrigation and real estate, has not been sparing even the media, including smaller players.
On Saturday, there were reports that the Adani group has acquired a major stake in the popular news agency – Indo-Asian News Service. According to the filing by the group in the stock exchange, it has acquired a 50.5 per cent stake in the IANS.
The acquisition was done through Adani Enterprises’ subsidiary AMG Media Networks, which signed an agreement with IANS and its shareholder Sandeep Bamzai, who will hold the remaining stake, but he plans to exit the company over some time.
The AMG Media will have all the operational and management control of IANS and the right to appoint all directors to its board.
The IANS was set up in 1986 originally to cater to the Indian diaspora in North America. About three decades later, it changed its focus to India and South Asia and became a full-fledged wire agency.
It reported a turnover of Rs 12 crore in FY23, Rs 9.4 crore in FY22 and Rs 10.3 crore in FY21, according to the filing.
The wire service has about 200 employees and about 350 subscribers worldwide, including North America, Europe, the Middle East and China.
In March last year, Adani had ventured into media business with the acquisition of Quintillion Business Media, which operates business and financial news digital media platform BQ Prime. Thereafter, in December, it took nearly 65 per cent stake in broadcaster NDTV.