Thapars To Sell Stake In Pioneer Ltd

The L M Thapar group, which controls The Pioneer Ltd, has decided to divest its shareholding in the company after the accumalted losses of the newspaper had piled up to about Rs 65 crore. A deal with the new promoters is to be signed soon which will see that the 133-year-old newspaper The Pioneer will not suspend publication from the middle of May.

Talking to Business Standard on Tuesday, The Pioneer Ltds chief executive Neeran Chhibber said, The equity structure of The Pioneer Ltd will undergo a change as the Thapars have decided to sell their entire holding in the company to the new promoters. The modalities are being worked out. He, however, did not disclose who the new promoters are.

 

Still, sources in The Pioneer indicated that the shareholding of the Thapars is likely to be sold to Chandan Mitra (at present the editor of the paper) and associates and the newspaper will receive immediate funds to run for about at least six to seven months when fersh funds will have to be located. Chhibber also insisted that after the equity restructuring he will have nothing to do with The Pioneer Ltdas he will remain an employee of The Thapars-promoted Ballarpur Industries Ltd.

In a related development, Gujarat Samachar group had opened up talks with Chandan Mitra for starting The Indian Post in Delhi in the eventuality of The Pioneers publication being suspended by the Thapars due to financial pressure.

Gujarat Samachars Bahubali Shah told Business Standard yesterday, We had heard that The Pioneer was closing down and we did hold some talks with Chandan Mitra for starting The Indian Post. But nothing has been decided yet.

Sources in The Pioneer revealed that the Thapars have also decided to extend the new promoters of The Pioneer a lumpsum amount in the form of seed capital so that the new promoters can carry on the newspapers publication.

The Thapars are believed to have also conveyed to the employees of the newspaper that any existing employee of the paper will be given a compensatory package if he/she decides to leave before May 15. Ballarpur Indistries Ltds chairman L.M. Thapar , however, could not be contacted for comments.

The Thapars had been looking for a buyer for The Pioneer for the last one year after the losses of running a newspaper started telling on the bottomline of Ballarpur Industries Ltd and within its restructuring package there was no scope for keeping The Pioneer alive.

The Thapars have an agreements with financial instituions and Middle east-based trading house Al-murjan Trading that Ballarpur Industries will not infuse fresh funds in The Pioneer Ltd.

In recent times, negotiations with several companies for selling The Pioneer failed to have the desired reults.

The most serious of them being with a non-resident Indian at whose behest a due deligence was done too.

Started in Allahabad in the last century, The Pioneer had shifted headquarters to Lucknow overnight without missing an edition during the early days under the British editor, Desmond Young.