Prannoy Roy, Radhika Roy resign as directors of NDTV’s promoter company
The Adani Group had announced in August that it will acquire 29.18% stake in the promoter company, Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holding Private Limited.
NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy have resigned as the directors of RRPR Holding Private Limited, the news channel informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
RRPR, or Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy, Holding Private Limited is the promoter company of NDTV. It holds a 29.18% stake in the news channel that is being taken over by the Adani Group.
The Roys, however, still hold a 32.26% stake in NDTV as promoters and have not resigned from the board of the news channel, reported The Telegraph.
NDTV also said in the filing that RRPR Holding has approved the appointment of Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan as directors of the board.
Pugalia is the chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of media initiatives at Adani Group.
Radhika and Dr. Prannoy Roy have resigned from NDTV's holding company RRPR's board of directors, effectively immediately. pic.twitter.com/LX7J9QuJDx
— Abhishek Baxi (@baxiabhishek) November 29, 2022
Adani Group’s acquisition of NDTV stake
On August 23, AMG Media Networks Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, bought 100% of the equity stakes in Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited, or VCPL, for Rs 113.74 crore.
Later in the month, the Adani Group announced that it will acquire a 29.18% stake in NDTV through VPCL. NDTV had then said that the takeover was done without the consent or any sort of notice served to Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy.
The acquisition was possible as VCPL had given a loan of Rs 403.85 crore to NDTV in 2009. According to the terms of the loan, the company held the right to exercise its warrants and convert the loan amount into equity shares – which it did after being brought by the Adani Group.
In November, the Adani Group, a ports-to-energy conglomerate, decided to make an open offer to acquire an additional 26% stake in NDTV. This will bring the group’s total stake to 55.18%, enough to allow it to take NDTV’s ownership rights.
The offer opened for subscription on November 22 and win continue till December 5.
Meanwhile, NDTV has written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, asking the markets regulator to determine if its 2020 order barring its promoters from making any deals in the securities market restricts the Adani Group from acquiring its shares.
