Adani Group acquires NDTV promoters’ additional 27.26% stake for ₹602 cr

MUMBAI: Billionaire Gautam Adani now owns a majority stake in Prannoy and Radhika Roy-promoted news broadcasting company New Delhi Television Ltd.

On Friday, Adani Enterprises, through its indirect subsidiary RRPR Holdings, acquired additional 1.76 crore shares of NDTV for around ₹602 crore ( ₹342.65 apiece) from the Roys, amounting to 27.26% in the company.

The transfer of shares was done through an inter-se transfer under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Regulations, 2011, which allows share transfer at a premium to current market price, if the company is an existing promoter group.

The Adani Group owns 64.71% in NDTV after acquiring Roy’s stake.

RRPR Holdings was initially a promoter group company, which Adani Group’s AMG Media Network acquired in August this year by converting warrants. Following the acquisition, the Adani Group also announced an open offer to buy an additional 26% of NDTV in accordance with SEBI’s takeover regulations and increased its holding to 37.45%.

On 23 December, Roys announced their plan to sell part of their stake to the Adani Group, while keeping only 5% in the company they founded. The transfer was done on Friday morning in four block deals.

It all started in August when the Adani Group acquired Vishvapradhan Commercial, a company that extended a loan of ₹403.85 crore to RRPR Holding in 2009-10 in lieu of warrants, convertible into a 99.9% stake in RRPR Holding if the loan was not repaid.

Adani Group used the warrants to acquire the stake in NDTV and announced an open offer for an additional 26% at ₹294 per share. Despite the open offer price being much lesser than ₹376.55 apiece the scrip closed on the day, the Adani Group managed to buy an 8.26% stake in NDTV, making the group the single largest shareholder of the broadcasting company.

Shares of NDTV were trading at ₹347.1 apiece on BSE on Friday at 2 pm.