NEW DELHI: The Johari family has bought back the business of MaXposure Media Group from Gruner + Jahr (the publishing division of European media conglomerate Bertelsmann) for an undisclosed amount.
Gruner + Jahr had acquired a majority (78.75 per cent) interest in MaXposure back in 2011. The remaining 21.25 per cent were held by the Group’s co-founder Prakash Johari.
Market sources said the buyback could be around 5.25 million Euros (Rs 40 crore). After the acquisition, MaXposure Media Group will solely be owned by the Johari family.
Prakash Johari is managing director and CEO of MaXposure and his brother Vikas Johari leads the creative departments as the publisher and COO.
Talking about his future plans, Johari said, “It’s interesting that we got this opportunity to get back in the exciting media space with controlling interest at MaXposure. We learnt and grew significantly over the last three years under the guidance of Gruner + Jahr. We plan to realign the company’s vision for the next three years under the new majority leadership and continue to expand our leading position in the corporate publishing space in India and enter foreign markets.”
The Johari family started MaXposure in 2006 and scaled it to be one of the largest magazine publishers in India. MaXposure publishes over 30 magazines in the corporate and consumer space, with India’s largest corporate publishing portfolio.
It is the largest in-flight magazine publisher in the Indian subcontinent with in-flight magazines of Air India, Spicejet, and Vistara.
Gruner + Jahr is one of the world’s leading media groups and its Electronic Media Sales (EMS) division is a leader in the digital advertising space in Europe. It offers nearly 500 magazines and digital offerings in over 30 countries. After the announced exit from its Indian digital media unit Networkplay earlier this week, Gruner+Jahr is now fully exiting the Indian market through this transaction.
