NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy on Friday said they will sell all but 5 per cent of their remaining shareholding in the news broadcaster to Adani Group for up to Rs 647.6 crore. Roys, who founded New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) as India's first and largest private producer of news current affairs and entertainment television, lost their status of being the company's largest shareholder in recent weeks. This follows Adani Group becoming the majority shareholding of NDTV after first buying out a company backed by the founders and then acquiring more shares from the open market.
Battling a hostile takeover bid, NDTV's promoter entity RRPR Holding Ltd has sought clarity from Sebi on whether its earlier order bars the conversion of warrants issued to VCPL, now owned by the Adani group. Passing an order on November 27, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has restrained NDTV founders Radhika and Prannoy Roy to access the securities market for a period of 2 years. As restrictions are still in force, hence a prior written approval from Sebi was required for Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) for the exercise of the conversion option on the warrants, NDTV founders had said.
Richest Asian Gautam Adani's group on Tuesday said it will pay an additional Rs 48.65 a share to NDTV stockholders who tendered their shares in its open offer to help match what it had paid to buy out a stake of the news broadcaster's founders. Adani Enterprises in a stock exchange filing said it will pay an additional Rs 48.65 per NDTV share to investors, who had sold their shares in an open offer between November 22 and December 5, taking the payout to Rs 342.65 a share and matching what it paid to buy Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy's stake. Adani Group first acquired Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited, a little-known company that had given Rs 403 crore of an interest-free loan to RRPR Holdings - a company founded by the Roys and bore their initials in its name - in 2009-10 in exchange for warrants that allowed it to buy a stake in the newsgroup at any time.
With billionaire Gautam Adani launching a hostile takeover of NDTV, the Congress on Wednesday alleged that the bid by a company owned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'khaas dost' (special friend) is a brazen move to control and stifle any semblance of an independent media.
Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd, a little-known entity through which the Adani Group has launched a hostile bid for NDTV Ltd, had an annual turnover of just Rs 60,000 few years back but it gave Rs 400 crore of interest-free loans to the broadcaster in 2009, as per Sebi orders.
Adani group on Friday rejected NDTV's assertion that Sebi approval is necessary to acquire interests in RRPR, saying the promoter entity is not a part of the regulator's order that restrained Prannoy and Radhika Roy from accessing the securities market. Terming the contentions raised by RRPR as "baseless, legally untenable and devoid of merit", Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd (VCPL) said the holding firm is "bound to immediately perform its obligation and allot the equity shares" as specified in the Warrant Exercise Notice. In a regulatory update, Adani Enterprises Ltd said VCPL has received a reply on behalf of NDTV and RRPR over the Warrant Exercise Notice dated August 23, 2022.
Three firms, Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd along with AMG Media Networks and Adani Enterprises Ltd, have offered a price of Rs 294 for the acquisition of up to 1,67,62,530 fully paid-up equity shares of NDTV having a face value of Rs 4 from the public shareholders.
In an unusually lengthy statement, the agency said it has not conducted any search on the registered office of NDTV, media studio, news room or premises connected with media operations.
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