Tanzanian businessman Rostam Azizi has bought East Africa’s largest media company, the Nation Media Group (NMG), from the Aga Khan family, the broadcaster reported on Tuesday. The cost of sale was not immediately communicated.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), through NPRT Holdings Africa Limited (NPRT), owned slightly over 54% of NMG’s total shares, making AKFED the majority shareholder of the public listed media company.
Businessman Azizi, 61, through his company Taarifa Limited, bought all the shares that AKFED held in NMG, Kenya’s Nation newspaper reported.
This technically transfers NMG’s majority shareholding to Azizi, who has interests in telecommunications, media, agriculture, real estate, port facilities, energy, mining, and construction.
Financial distress
Since its founding in Kenya in 1959, the Nation Media Group had been linked to the Aga Khan family. When it was founded, Nation published the Taifa Leo newspaper in Swahili, a language widely spoken in Kenya and the neighbouring nations, including Tanzania.
The media house operates NTV Kenya and NTV Uganda television stations; Nation newspaper, which is Kenya’s leading newspaper by circulation; The East African regional weekly newspaper; the Business Daily newspaper in Kenya; the Daily Monitor newspaper in Uganda; The Citizen newspaper in Tanzania, radio stations, digital platforms, and other media products.
For several decades, NMG, which relies on advertising revenue, was a profitable business entity, but with digital disruption, the company has experienced financial distress in recent times.
For instance, in 2023, it made a full-year net loss of 203 million Kenyan shillings ($1.6 million), and the following year, the loss worsened to 254 million shillings ($2 million).
Azizi hopes to turn the tide
The company’s new owner, Azizi, hopes to turn the tide through “further investment in its digital transformation,” a joint statement by AKFED and Taarifa Limited said on Tuesday.
Taarifa Limited pledged to protect NMG’s “longstanding tradition of public interest journalism.”
The sale of NMG is set to be completed within three to four months, subject to obtaining regulatory approvals, Nation newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The NMG is listed in the stock exchange of several East African countries. These are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda.
First Tanzanian dollar-billionaire
According to African Financials, NMG had more than 1,100 employees as of 2024.
The company’s new owner, Azizi, became Tanzania’s first dollar-billionaire in 2013, according to Forbes ranking. As of 2015, his net worth had shrunk to $900 million. Details of his current net worth are unclear.
