AMG Media Networks Ltd (AMNL), a subsidiary of Adani group, has acquired a 50.5% stake in news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). The company said that it has acquired the equity shares with and without voting rights, and that IANS will become a subsidiary of AMNL. Earlier last year, Adani-group owned Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) acquired 99.5% of NDTV’s equity share capital.
According to reports, the company, through an exchange filing, announced that the stakes they acquired includes Equity (Category I shares - with voting rights) and Equity (Category II shares - without voting rights) of IANS, as per a share purchase agreement entered between the parties on December 15. The company has also said that the acquisition is ‘strategic in nature’.
In its regulatory filing, the Adani Group said that, “All operational and management control of IANS will be with AMNL and AMNL will have the right to appoint all directors of IANS”.
The Adani group, in March 2022, entered into the media business by acquiring Quintillion Business Media, which owns the financial media organisation BQ Prime.