UNI shareholders give nod to stake sale

The shareholders of United News of India (UNI) today gave their nod to the Subhash Chandra-promoted investment company Media West's proposal to acquire a 60 per cent stake in the news agency. Four representatives of Media West have been inducted into the UNI board.

The stake was acquired by Media West earlier this month, at an estimated cost of Rs 32 crore, pegging the news agency's valuation at Rs 53.33 crore.

The equity sale had sparked off protests from political parties as well as employees of the organisation as they did not approve of a private player buying into a news agency.

The annual general meeting today unanimously inducted Subhash Chandra, Jawahar Goel, P C Lahiri, and C S Vishwanathan of the Essel Group into the UNI board as directors.

Besides, the seven-member board will have Vir Sanghvi of HT Media and Arindham Sengupta as directors, while Manoj Kumar Sonthalia will stay as the chairman, stated a release.

The release added that the reconstituted board of directors had assured that the basic character or activities of the company would not be changed. "The activities of the company will be expanded to give it a global footprint," it added.

The news agency was set up under Section 25 of the Companies Act and has to be run as a non-profit organisation through a trust that ploughs back its profits.

Earlier, it had nine media organisations as shareholders, which were also on its board. The other shareholders and board members of UNI include media companies like HT Media, the Times of India Group, Ananda Bazar Patrika and The Hindu.

At present, UNI has over 1,000 subscribers in more than 100 locations in India and abroad. These include newspapers, radio and television networks, websites, government offices, and private and public sector companies.

The agency's communication network stretches over 90,000 km in India and the Gulf states, and it has bureaus in all major cities and towns of India.

It has more than 325 staff journalists around the country and more than 250 stringers. UNI's wire service is available in three languages "" English, Hindi and Urdu.