NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy said on Friday they would sell all but 5% of their remaining stake 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 television news and entertainment, lost his status as the company’s largest shareholder in recent weeks.
This follows Adani Group becoming the majority shareholder of NDTV after first buying out a company backed by the founders and then acquiring more shares on the open market.
Now, Roys is selling 27.26% of his remaining 32.26% stake in NDTV, according to company filings.
The sale will take place on or after December 30 in one or more installments, he said without disclosing the price.
The volume-weighted average market price of NDTV over the last 60 trading days is Rs 368.43, according to the filing.
Based on this price, selling 1.75 crore of shares would earn Roys up to Rs 647.6 crore.
After acquiring the founders’ stake, Adani Group will control 69.71% of NDTV.
The (Adani group company) AMG Media Network, after the recent open offer (made to minority shareholders after the takeover of the promoter company), is now the main shareholder of NDTV.
“As a result, by mutual agreement, we have decided to divest most of our shares in NDTV to AMG Media Network,” the founders said in a statement to the stock exchanges.
The two together hold 32.26% of the capital of NDTV while the Adani group now holds 37.44%.
The announcement came hours after NDTV’s board appointed two nominee directors from the wealthiest Asian conglomerate led by Gautam Adani to the board.
“Since the launch of the open offer (by Adani Group), our discussions with Gautam Adani have been constructive; all the suggestions we have made have been accepted by him positively and with openness,” Roys said in the statement without giving. details.
NDTV is home to some of the best known journalists, presenters and producers. Its 23 offices and studios across the country house India’s most modern and sophisticated production and newsgathering facilities.
We started NDTV in 1988 with the belief that journalism in India was world class but needed a strong and efficient broadcast platform that would allow it to grow and shine.
“After 34 years, we believe that NDTV is an institution that has fulfilled so many of our hopes and ideals; we are so proud and grateful that across the world, NDTV is recognized as ‘the most trusted news broadcaster in India and Asia “” the founders said in the statement.
Adani, they said, “has invested in a brand synonymous with trust, credibility and independence, and we hope that he will preserve these values and develop them with all the responsibility required of a leader of an organization of this nature.”
“We look forward to seeing NDTV, and all of its amazing team, deliver the next phase of growth that India can be proud of,” they added.
Prannoy Roy began producing “The World This Week” in 1989.
He produced live coverage of the Union’s annual budget the following year and later moderated the analysis of the general and national election results.
NDTV contracted with STAR/NTVI to produce news content for its 24 hour news channel in 1997 and in the same year contracted with BBC India to produce a substantial part of its content from India.
In 1998, the company began producing content for the Star News Channel and launched NDTV Online with MSNBC. NDTV had launched its news channels ‘NDTV 24X7’ and ‘NDTV India’ on April 14, 2003.
She launched her commercial channel “NDTV Profit” on January 17, 2005.
It was listed on the stock exchange in 2007.
Adani Group acquired a 29.18% stake in NDTV by buying a company backed by the founders of the television network, Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy.
Subsequently, it made an open offer to acquire an additional 26% from public shareholders.
This open offering found investors willing to sell over 53 million shares of NDTV despite the steep share price discount.
The share offering resulted in an 8.26% stake, bringing the Adani Group’s total stake in NDTV to 37.44%, more than the founders’ 32.26% stake.
Therefore, NDTV offered two board positions to Adani Group.
And on Friday, Adani Group nominees Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan were approved as board directors.
As NDTV’s largest holding, Adani Group also secured the right to appoint a chairman of the newscaster.
But NDTV in the file did not mention it.
Currently, Prannoy Roy is the chairman of NDTV while his wife Radhika Roy is the executive director.
Prannoy Roy holds a 15.94% stake and Radhika Roy an additional 16.32%.
Prior to the hostile takeover of Adani Group, the promoters held 61.45% of NDTV shares. This included 1.88 crore shares or 29.18% held by RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd.
RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd is the company that Adani Group indirectly acquired in August, triggering an open offer to buy a further 26% of the media company.
Gautam Adani, the wealthiest Asian and founding chairman of the Adani Group, told the FinancialTimes that he intended to develop NDTV into an international media group and had asked Prannoy Roy to remain chairman.
NDTV will give Adani Group a footprint in the media space as part of its broader wave of diversification that has led to the conglomerate’s expansion beyond coal mines and ports into airports, data centers, cement and digital services.
In 2009, RRPR or Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holdings Private Limited, took an interest free loan of Rs 403 crore from a company linked to Reliance Industries which eventually ended up with a private company Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd (VCPL).
The loan enabled VCPL to convert warrants into shares of RRPR Holdings, which held a 29.18% stake in NDTV.
In August, Adani Group acquired VCPL and requested the conversion of warrants arising from unpaid loans into shares. NDTV initially said the move was “executed without any input, conversation or consent from” its founders.
But at the end of last month, the conversion was accepted and Adani got 29.18% of NDTV shares.
After the takeover, Adani Group appointed two of its executives – Sudipta Bhattacharya and Sanjay Pugalia – to the board of directors of RRPR, as well as Senthil Chengalvarayan, a journalist and independent director of Quintillion Business Media Pvt, another media company in which Adani purchased a stake earlier this year.
Pugalia, a former journalist, is Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Adani Group’s Media Initiatives.
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