Sekunjalo founder and chairman Iqbal Surve. Photo: Ian Landsberg. Sekunjalo founder and chairman Iqbal Surve. Photo: Ian Landsberg.
There will be be “no surprises” when full details of the new ownership of Independent News & Media SA are presented tomorrow, says Sekunjalo chairman Iqbal Survé, pictured.
The businessman, who heads the consortium buying the group, was speaking on the eve of the announcement of its full shareholding.
Independent News & Media (INM) agreed in April to sell its South African interests to the Sekunjalo Independent Media Consortium for R2 billion in a deal that gives the consortium a 75 percent controlling stake in INMSA and the Government Employees Pension Fund 25 percent.
INM shareholders on Monday approved the group’s proposed sale and Survé is due to disclose the other shareholders of the consortium tomorrow.
Talk show host John Robbie of Radio 702 in Johannesburg today asked Survé during an interview whether there would be any “surprises” in the new ownership, to which he replied: “I’d be surprised if there were any surprises!”
Survé said neither his own struggle background, nor the involvement of the Government Employees Pension Fund, constituted any threat to editorial independence.
He pointed out that the pension fund was a shareholder in a number of other major South African media companies, where there was no hint of editorial interference.
INM held two extraordinary general meetings in Dublin on Monday to consider the proposed disposal of their South African interests, among other matters.
“Great news. INM shareholders today approved the sale of Independent (SA) to Sekunjalo. The vicious campaign by competitors to stop this has failed,” Survé said on Twitter following the vote.
INMSA publishes 18 newspapers, including the Cape Argus, Cape Times and Daily Voice.
Survé has previously said that the return of INMSA to South African ownership was an opportunity “to reinvigorate the group and recover lost circulation as we expand to create further print media in indigenous languages in South Africa and on the South African continent”. - Cape Argus