After buying 29.18 pc, Adani makes an open offer to acquire another 26 pc stake in NDTV

NEW DELHI: According to a Exchange filing, Adani group firms have made an open offer to acquire 26 pc stake in NDTV. This is after indirectly buying a 29.18% stake in New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV), the Adani group has said in an official communication to the Exchanges and Regulator.

The Hindu Business Line reported that the Adani Group acquired a stake in news channel NDTV from Vishwa Pradhan Commercial Ltd (VPCL.)

After this acquisition, AMG Media Networks, a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate Adani Enterprises, is likely to announce an open offer for NDTV shares shortly, Business Line quoted its sources as saying.

VPCL has control over RRRP Holdings (a company owned by Radhika and Prannoy Roy) via a loan agreement.

RRPR Holdings has a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV. The Roys who own RRPR had used the company to borrow ₹403 crore from VPCL in 2009 based on a loan agreement, wherein NDTV shares were placed as collateral.

The loan was granted by VPCL to the Roys for a period of 10 years, which ended in 2019. Now, since the loan was not repaid by the Roys to VPCL it gave a right to VPCL to sell RRPR Holdings along with its underlying NDTV stake to any buyer.

Hence, VPCL was in talks with Adani Group for a deal, the sources said.

The share price of NDTV was locked in the 5 percent upper circuit on the stock exchanges on Tuesday to close at ₹374.

NDTV share price has jumped by 426 per cent in the past one year in anticipation of a deal between VPCL and Adani, the sources said.

Reuters reported that Adani Enterprises in an official filing Tuesday said its media unit will indirectly buy a 29.18% stake in New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) and then launch an open offer for another 26% stake in the media house.