ARY Group set to buy Malik Riaz’s Nukta, deal "almost final"

The ARY Group is set to buy Nukta, the digital media company launched by Kamran Khan and bankrolled by property tycoon Malik Riaz. 

Senior officials at both organisations confirmed to Profit that the deal is "almost final", although “a few final details were yet to be finalised.” If the sale goes through and is announced, it will mark the formal end to Malik Riaz’s longstanding ambitions to own a media business.  

It is not yet clear what the nature of the sale will look like, nor has a price tag emerged. However, initial reports indicate that the deal will also involve Kamran Khan receiving a prime-time television programme on ARY. Before this, Mr. Khan has served long stints first at Geo News and then at Dunya News. It is understood that Malik Riaz backed off from funding the project some time ago and Kamran Khan along with his family has been running the place on his own. 

The withdrawal of funding from Malik Riaz has had Nukta on the ropes for the past few months with major layoffs taking place in November 2025. The company announced back then they were laying off 37 individuals, mostly reporters and cameremen, because of budget cuts. Not only were the individuals laid off, more rounds of lay offs followed.

The Malik Riaz connection  

Nukta was officially launched in November 2024 with its headquarters in Dubai. The platform bills itself as a digital media platform and began operations with an extensive team of professional journalists picked from media houses across the country. 

Before its launch, Nukta recruited aggressively and spoke to some of the biggest names in Pakistan’s news media. The head of the organisation is senior journalist Kamran Khan. In Pakistan, they had started the hiring process as early as December 2023. Many journalists were in talks with Nukta, although some backed out when rumours emerged that the main investor behind the platform was real estate developer Malik Riaz. 

Malik Riaz has long been interested in acquiring a media organization in Pakistan. The trend of real estate developers acquiring media organizations has seen a rise in recent years, with one of the more significant transactions being Aleem Khan’s purchase of the Samaa TV. The idea has been that acquiring some form of news media gives the owner a mouthpiece. 

Back in 2023, Malik Riaz had been in talks to buy the Express Media Group as well. Reports from the time suggested that a formal agreement was even reached between the parties, but the deal was ultimately blocked by government agencies. At the time, Anwar Kakar’s caretaker cabinet was in power and the transaction did not receive the necessary security clearance for the transfer of the broadcast license and the deal fell through. 

In earlier attempts, he also launched an Urdu Daily Newspaper called “Roznamah Jinnah” which also flopped and was shut down. Later an attempt to run a television channel with senior journalist Aftab Iqbal was also made. 

Following the Express Group setback, Riaz invested in launching Nukta, a digital-only news platform that promised a new model for journalism in the region. It was a project on a major scale. Not only did Nukta begin in Dubai and hire a vast number of senior journalists, they also brought in corporate professionals and people outside journalism to give Nukta the boost it needed to immediately become a brand name. 

The business model 

The business model of Nukta was based on revenue from platforms like YouTube and other online advertising income. They also wanted to organise events, provide consults and digital media services to clients directly. However, with no subscription system and a very large team, the idea was that Bahria Town’s financial support would be able to sustain Nukta while it made a space for itself in Pakistan’s media landscape. 

Some journalists were told Nukta’s investors had guaranteed they had the appetite to invest in it without any returns for two to three years. Backed by what was assumed to be the bottomless financial support of the Bahria Town owner, the platform began operations from Dubai and Pakistan. However, the launch coincided with financial woes for Malik Riaz. The real estate tycoon’s Pakistani assets were seized by the state. With outstanding fines of billions of rupees, Malik Riaz’s troubles have only grown. 

“Malik Riaz decided to pull out early. He was bankrolling the whole thing but then he ran into trouble with the Pakistani government,” says one Nukta insider. “I think he got his hands on a media organisation too late and Nukta did not have the kind of heft he needed to fight back the allegations against him,” they added. 

In a year, Nukta definitely managed to make space for itself in Pakistan’s media landscape. With 168,000 YouTube subscribers and nearly 4000 videos produced in just over a year, Nukta has done some solid work through its large team of journalists. However, to develop this team they paid exorbitant salaries. Nukta’s hiring philosophy was simple, whatever a journalist was already taking you offer to double it. But because of the large scale of their operations, including offices headquartered in Dubai, the costs were too high. 

Nukta’s employees, who now have a high salary tag but not clear job security, are naturally concerned. There is no clarity over whether ARY will gut Nukta or keep it as it is. When layoffs took place back in November, Information Minister Atta Tarar had said he would hire all 37 of the laid off individuals. However, only seven journalists were hired for a government owned English language digital media channel that was supposed to rival Nukta but with a drastically trimmer team.  

What will ARY do with it? 

For the ARY Group, acquiring Nukta would add a ready-made digital news operation to an already expansive media portfolio. ARY operates one of Pakistan’s largest private television networks, including news, entertainment and digital verticals, and has an established footprint on YouTube and other social media platforms. 

However, it is not clear exactly what they will do with Nukta. If the deal hinges on Kamran Khan joining ARY for a prime time show then it is not clear what kind of monetary compensation will be given for the rest of the platform, particularly since Kamran Khan himself was the major draw for Nukta.

“I think if Kamran Khan is being given a show on ARY there will be very little heft left in Nukta. He is their main product and if they are shifting him to ARY, what is left of Nukta?” says one media professional with insights into the matter. “If that is the case, Nukta will have to be scaled back. Perhaps some of the team will be retained to work on Kamran Khan’s show or it will remain as some sort of digital platform to promote the show but they cannot sustain it as it is.”  

ARY’s existing infrastructure — including studios, production facilities, distribution networks and advertising relationships — could significantly lower Nukta’s cost base. However, a platform that has struggled under the weight of high salaries and standalone overheads might be in for a shock in terms of how legacy media organisations are run. 

If the deal is announced, key questions will revolve around branding and structure. It remains unclear whether ARY will retain the Nukta name as a standalone digital brand or fold it into its existing network under a new identity. What is more certain, however, is that ARY brings decades of legacy media experience, institutional knowledge and tighter financial discipline. Unlike a startup heavily dependent on a single financier, ARY operates within an established corporate framework with structured cost controls, advertising relationships and cross-platform distribution. Under such management, Nukta,  whether it is rebranded or retained, is likely to be run with greater operational restraint and clearer commercial targets than in its first year of existence.