Oakbay’s shareholding in Infinity Media‚ which operates the ANN7 News Channel‚ will be sold for R300m; and its two-thirds stake in TNA Media‚ the publisher of The New Age newspaper‚ will be sold for R150m.
In a video of the meeting‚ seen by Business Day‚ Williams told staff that the Gupta family had been put under “unprecedented and unrelenting pressure” over the past few years and they had been looking at its shareholding in the company from before the middle of 2016.
“Firstly the family decided if it will help it will abdicate its executive role in all our companies … to say to the world out there and the people we are dealing with‚ the banks‚ ‘okay the Guptas are moving out of the way‚ this is not about the Guptas‚ it’s about the seven-and-a-half thousand people the companies employ'… But in the last few months‚ as you may well have noticed‚ the situation has become even worse for us‚” Williams said.
“Most certainly we face an uncertain future.”
He said the family decided to move out of the media companies and save jobs.
Williams said it had become difficult for the media companies to operate lately. TNA had battled to secure advertising.