MUMBAI: The Republic Media Network said the editor-in-chief of the network, Arnab Goswami, controls over 80 per cent shareholder equity through his promoter entity in ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, said a company press release.

The network’s statement said: “Arnab Goswami though his personal investment and family structures entirely controlled by him, had around 84 % of shareholder equity through his promoter entity in ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd at the time of the launch of the English Channel Republic TV.”

The aim is to make the shareholder pattern public in the backdrop of a series of misleading reports in Indian and international media, making false and malafide claims about the ownership of the consolidated network, the statement said.

Along with the general English news channel the network has two other entities: Republic Bharat, a general Hindi news channel, and a news website www.republicworld.com. In this regard, the statement says, “Goswami being a sole promoter of the company owns 99 percent equity in the downstream digital entity that controls the digital assets of the network under the URL www.republicworld.com.”

Post raising initial capital to fund the launch of English news channel in February 2017, Goswami further raised capital for expansion through small equity raise two years later in February 2019. And, since then he continues to hold over 82 % of ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd.

Goswami’s present controlling equity of 82 per cent makes him one of the largest individual shareholders in the Indian news media landscape and the first journalist to achieve this feat.