Adani makes foray into media business with Quintillion stake

Quint Digital Media Limited, a digital media group, announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a binding term sheet with the Adani Group.

Adani Group will acquire a minority stake in Quintillion Business Media Private Limited.

“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,” said Quint Digital in a stock exchange filing without quantifying the stake Adani was taking.

“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 aims to do. I have had the privilege of working with QBM’s talented, credible and diverse team. This relationship between AMV and QBM marks a strong beginning of Adani Group’s foray into Indian media,” said Sanjay Pugalia, CEO, Adani Media Ventures Limited.

QBM is a business and financial news company and operates a leading business news digital platform in India. QBM’s main content is based on the Indian economy, international finance, corporate law & governance and business news, amongst others through its platform Bloomberg | Quint.

“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, CEO, QBM.

Last year, there were media reports claiming that Adani is looking to acquire a Delhi-based media house, which many speculated to be NDTV.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg Media and Quintillion Media on Tuesday announced the restructuring of their partnership in India. The companies have ended their equity joint venture in favor of a new content license agreement. Bloomberg Media and Quintillion Media will no longer co-produce content but will continue to distribute Bloomberg content in India through a license agreement

“We have valued our relationship with the Quintillion Media team. While we have mutually decided to shift the focus of our work together, Bloomberg Media remains committed to our presence in India and look forward to a continued relationship with Quint,” said M Scott Havens, CEO, Bloomberg Media

“Our joint venture with Bloomberg Media was the embodiment of resilient energy. Our digital-only premium subscription product has quickly become the market leader. Even as our terms of engagement with Bloomberg Media have changed, we look forward to imparting a new energy and spirit to the new website,” said Raghav Bahl, Co-founder, Quintillion Media.

With Tuesday’s move, Adani is set to face off with Reliance which owns India’s Network18 that runs several business TV news channels and online platforms.

Adani Group has a market capitalization of over $150 billion, comprising seven publicly listed companies which are in the businesses of operating airports and ports, power generation and transmission, coal and gas trading.

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