The billionaire’s media investments are in the nature of insurance against bad publicity.
Talk to any Adani group executive and the recurring theme of the conversation is the Ahmedabad-headquartered conglomerate’s obsession with controlling costs. As most of its businesses are leveraged and the group continues to be highly indebted, the focus at all Adani units is to pare costs to the bone and curb unwanted expenditure.
In that light, it may be pertinent to ask why group chairman Gautam Adani is investing in the media business, which by any yardstick is not a fit in an empire that is largely focused on infrastructure and commodities.
Rough estimates suggest that the group will end up spending about Rs 700 crore on the stake in Quint Digital Media’s digital business news arm Quintillion Business Media (picked up in March 2021) and the acquisition of a majority stake in NDTV. On Wednesday, the Adani group’s media arm, Adani Media Ventures, reportedly paid Rs 113 crore to gain control of a 29% stake in the news broadcaster and will
Surendar helps lead the newsroom at The Morning Context as managing editor. Over the years, Surendar has worked across the pharmaceuticals, process engineering, diamonds and jewellery industries, as well as a stint as an equity research analyst. In his long career as a business journalist, he has been the national business features editor at Times of India, the business editor at India Today and led a team of feature writers in Fortune India, where he also conceptualized the only ranked list of India’s most powerful women in business. He was part of the founding team at Forbes India and interned and published in The Times, London. His areas of interest include large companies and entrepreneurship.
Managing Editor
surendar@mailtmc.com
Mumbai