Adani Group owned by multi-billionaire Gautam Adani announced on Friday that one of its subsidiaries has acquired an additional 27.26 per cent equity stake in NDTV (New Delhi Television Limited). RRPR Holdings, currently owned by Adani Group acquired the equity from founders and former owners of NDTV, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy.
RRPR Holdings which was earlier owned by Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy is a member of the promoter group of NDTV. The acquisition of shares was made at a price of Rs 342.65 per share which is nearly 17 per cent higher than the open offer price of Rs 294 per share.
The total share acquisition deal was worth more than 602 crore rupees. The announcement regarding the acquisition was made by Adani Group through filings with stock exchanges.
A few days ago, on December 23, 2022, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy announced that they will be selling a 27.26 per cent stake in NDTV to Adani Group. Following the share transfer, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy will own nearly a 5 per cent stake in the news channel company.
“Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (an indirect subsidiary of the company) holds 8.27 per cent equity stake in NDTV and RRPR (prior to the present acquisition) held 29.18 per cent equity stake in NDTV. Consequent to the present acquisition, RRPR will hold 56.45 per cent,” the filing said. The filing also stated that the share transfer was completed through a block deal window in National Stock Exchange on December 30th, 2022.
In August 2022, Adani Group indirectly acquired more than 99 per cent stake in RRPR Holdings Private Limited. RRPR Holdings Private Limited which was at that time owned by the Roy’s had a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV. Even though Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy tried to challenge the acquisition saying that they were not informed beforehand, the Adani group prevailed and got access to a 29 per cent stake in New Delhi Television Limited.
Following the acquisition of RRPR Holdings, Adani Group launched an open offer to buy a further 26 per cent of the media company. In the open offer, the multinational conglomerate was able to acquire nearly 8.26 per cent stake in NDTV. Public shareholders sold over 53 lakh shares of NDTV to Adani Group.
Even though the group was not able to achieve the target acquisition through an open offer, they became the largest shareholder in the company with 37.44 per cent – higher than the 32.26 per cent holding of founders.
Soon after the acquisition of NDTV by Gautam Adani owned company, Ravish Kumar, Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India, resigned from the company. Reports suggest that Gautam Adani has requested Prannoy Roy to continue as head of NDTV. Radhika Roy is an executive director at NDTV.
