Billionaire media baron Maran hits the news

29 April 2006

Not that Maran is unaccustomed to wealth. Prior to the listing, the Maran family was rumoured to be one of the Asia's wealthiest.

Early this April, Sun TV took the building route to offer 68.89 lakh shares (10 per cent of the total equity) to the public at a price band of Rs730-875. As the issue was oversubscribed 47 times, the final price was fixed at Rs875.

And now Maran is in news for the wrong reasons. A report in The New Indian Express on April 27, 2006, reported that Maran wanted a 33-per cent stake in the Tata-Star group's DTH at par value. When the Tatas refused to accede to his request, Maran's younger brother and union telecom and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran is alleged to have threatened the industrial conglomerate with delaying sanctioning the group's telecom plans.

According to the daily, the Tatas declined to comment on the matter while the union minister was initially evasive. He subsequently refuted the allegation saying that his ministry was not the licensing authority for DTH operations.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has demanded removal of the minister from the union cabinet.

With Tamil Nadu in the election mode — the state goes to polls on May 8, 2006 — the Marans are under attack, mainly from MDMK leader and member of Parliament, Vaiko. The reason? Maran is the son of late union minister Murasoli Maran and the grandson of the DMK party chief M Karunanidhi, who is Jayalalitha's bitter political foe — and Vaiko has allied himself with Jayalalitha.