ANN7 and The New Age are now officially 100% black-owned!
Afrotone Media Holdings (AMH) released a statement over the weekend.
The formerly Gupta-owned ANN7 and The New Age was recently bought by former journalist and businessman Mzwanele Manyi.
Manyi bought the Gupta-owned media companies for R450 million last August through vendor financing.
“Afrotone Media Holdings (AMH) is proud to announce its settlement of the ANN7 and The New Age acquisitions.
“The paid up position comes after very tough negotiations between Oakbay and Manyi's consortium which led to the varying of the initial vendor finance deal.
“Owing to the current operating environment, Oakbay agreed to fully relinquish its hold on the companies' pledged shares leading to a newly negotiated settlement deal,” the statement read.
The statement also goes on to say that Afrotone Media Holdings' ownership of Infinity Media Networks (Pty) Ltd (ANN7) and TNA Media (Pty) Ltd (The New Age) “is now debt free and unencumbered.”
“As a truly South African 100% Black owned and managed company, this development strengthens AMH's position to realise the benefits of this strategic acquisition.
“This development should finally put to rest any suspicions of lingering involvement of the Guptas and importantly should provide the much needed market confidence to avert potential job loss of over 500, mainly black and young employees,” the statement also said.
