India's Adani Group raises stake in news agency IANS

BENGALURU (Reuters) -The media arm of India's Adani Group on Wednesday said it increased its stake in IANS India by subscribing to fresh shares issued by the news agency worth 50 million rupees ($601,801).

AMG Media Networks, a unit of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship firm Adani Enterprises has increased its ownership of IANS shares with voting rights to 76%, and nearly all non-voting shares, up from 50.5% each earlier.

The IANS acquisition, announced in December, is Adani's latest media venture, following the conglomerate's purchase of 65% stake in news broadcaster NDTV in December 2022 and Quintillion Business Media earlier that year.

Adani had initially acquired a 50.5% stake in IANS for 510,000 rupees.

The group's existing media assets, such as NDTV and NDTV Profit competes with Reliance Industries-owned broadcaster News18 and business news site Moneycontrol.

($1 = 83.0840 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)