The Essel Group, promoted by Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra, is all set to join the board of news agency United News of India (UNI) as a major shareholder after successfully negotiating a deal to own 60 % stake in the agency.

The move is not a big suprise as The Essel group and Dainik Bhaskar groups already jointly own Daily News & Analysis (DNA) newspaper.

Besides Essel, other media houses are shareholders on the UNI board. These include The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, and Ananda Bazar Patrika.