Diversified business conglomerate Adani Enterprises, through a wholly owned subsidiary, has acquired a stake of 29.18 per cent in media major NDTV and has announced an open offer to further acquire a 26 per cent stake in the listed entity.
Started by Prannoy Roy and wife Radhika Roy in 1988, NDTV currently runs three television news channels – NDTV 24x7, NDTV India and NDTV Profit – with a presence in online as well. The media company primarily began as a production house for state-owned Doordarshan.
Interestingly, the founder couple still holds 32.3 per cent in the company - Prannoy directly holds 15.94 per cent while wife Radhika has a 16.32 per cent stake, as per the shareholding information available with the stock exchanges.
This assumes significance as the company, in a separate stock exchange announcement, stated: "The NDTV founders and the Company would like to make it clear that this exercise of rights by VCPL was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders, who, like NDTV, have been made aware of this exercise of rights only today. RRPRH, which owns 29.18% of NDTV, has been told to transfer within two days all its equity shares to VCPL."
Meanwhile, Adani has bought the stake in the company through AMG Media Networks, which houses the media business of the conglomerate. AMG Media Networks' wholly owned subsidiary Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) bought the stake by acquiring the shares held by RRPR Holding Private Limited, a promoter group company of NDTV.
The roots of the deal go back to July 2009 when, as part of a loan agreement, Vishvapradhan Commercial acquired warrants that gave the acquirer the right to exercise the warrants and convert those into equity shares to acquire 99.5 per cent stake in RRPR Holding.
The acquisition has triggered a mandatory open offer pursuant to which, AMG Media Networks has announced an open offer to acquire a further 26 per cent stake in the company.
The open offer price, however, has been fixed at Rs 294 even as shares of NDTV closed at Rs 366.20 on Tuesday. Shares of the media company have gained a little over 34 per cent in the last one month even as the benchmark Sensex has gained less than 6 per cent.
In May this year, AMG Media Networks had announced it was picking up a 49 per cent stake in Quintillion Business Media Pvt Ltd, a digital business platform company set up by Raghav Bahl.