Anti-Iran TV network's parent company received £650mn debt relief from shareholders: Report

The parent company of the so-called "Iran International," a UK-based anti-Iranian television network, received £650 million in debt relief from shareholders through a debt-for-equity swap carried out in December, a report says.

The Financial Times carried the report on Thursday, citing UK corporate filings.

The previously unreported restructuring strengthened the balance sheet of Volant Media UK, which also operates "Afghanistan International." Company filings for the financial year ending December 2024 show that Volant had accumulated losses exceeding £410 million over the past five years and owed related entities around £482 million.

Registry documents show that 648 million shares worth £648 million were allotted on December 13. A separate filing stated that all of Volant’s original 50,000 shares were transferred the same day from British-Saudi film executive Adel Abdulkarim Alabdulkarim to offshore firm Info-Cast Cayman Limited.

The filings did not specify who received the newly allotted shares. However, Alabdulkarim remains listed as a person with significant control over Volant because of his authority to appoint or remove most board members.

According to Cayman records, the sole director of Info-Cast Cayman is Saleh Hussain Aldowais, a name matching that of the chief operations officer of Saudi Research and Media Group. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for "Iran International" said the debt had been converted into equity "in order to strengthen the company’s balance sheet," stressing that "no new funds were introduced at that point."

The spokesperson also denied that the network receives backing from foreign governments or entities, saying, "The network has never received funding from any government or entity — including Saudi Arabia or Israel — whether directly or indirectly."

In October last year, a successful Iranian intelligence operation revealed the whereabouts of individuals linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad, who would serve the Israeli regime’s information war against the Islamic Republic.

The revelation, broadcast across national television channels at the time, showed how Iranian intelligence operatives had located the precise residences of several of those either directly employed by or frequently appearing on "Iran International."

Throughout the Israeli regime’s and its allies’ atrocities, including Tel Aviv’s war of genocide on Gaza that began in October 2023 as well as its and the US’s unprovoked and unlawful wars on Iran last June and this February-April, "Iran International" would invariably make a point of siding with the adversaries.

Such alarmism once prompted around 450 media activists, including those opposing the Islamic Republic, to decry it as a non-professional network, demanding its boycott, and describing it as "the mouthpiece of the Zionist regime" and a terrorist entity.

Barak Ravid, a reporter working with American website Axios, once averred in a post on X that "the Mossad is using this media outlet quite regularly for its information war."

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk