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Abu Dhabi’s boss of international media investment, Rani Lad is set to leave the group as he is approaching the end of an unfortunate two-year attempt to dominate British telegraph newspapers.
Raad, a former top CNN and executive at Warner Bros Discovery, will leave IMI next month, according to several people familiar with the situation.
IMI owns the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National and CNN Business Arabic and has a joint venture with Sky in the region. The media-focused investment vehicle is managed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Arnahyan, vice president of the United Arab Emirates and owner of the Manchester City Football Club.
During his tenure at IMI, Raad oversaw the scope of his investments, including the £1.1 billion acquisition of UK independent television producer All3Media, and helped rebuild and expand the media group.
However, the past two years have been overshadowed by IMI’s winding attempts to first purchase and then sell the UK Telegraph newspaper, along with US partner Redbird Capital Partners.
According to people close to the executive, Lard has left for family reasons.
This month’s Redbird finally agreed to dominate previous newspapers trying to buy it after the majority of the money provided by IMI was blocked by the UK government.
Under the terms of the new agreement, IMI will acquire a 15% stake in the newspaper group. The UK government allows foreign national support groups to be held.
Raad will remain at the company next month to support the interim executive committee that oversees the business and continue to advise IMI.
In a statement, IMI said: “Rani has made the decision to resign as CEO of IMI for personal reasons and will be created with full support from IMI and successfully complete the IMI transformational chapter.”
IMI said it expanded under his leadership, repositioned the brand and “layed the foundation for long-term growth.”
The statement added: “It’s completely wrong to suggest that the timing of the departure of Rani Raad has something to do with the (Telegraph Media Group) process.”
IMI is one of the Middle East’s most aggressive investment groups in the acquisition and investment of media, entertainment and sports assets.
He is also a major supporter of Redbird Imi, an investment group run by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker. Jeff Zucker had agreed to buy the telegraph in 2023 as part of a transaction to pay off the debts of previous owners, the Berkeley family.
However, the UK’s previous conservative government blocked the takeover after much pressure from backbench MPs and staff at the Telegraph Newsroom.
