NDTV shares jump 5% as founders sell 27.26% stake to Adani Group

Shares of New Delhi Television Ltd. soared 5% on Monday after the company's founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy decided to divest most of their shares in NDTV to Adani-owned AMG Media Network.

Reacting to the news, the stock rose as much as 5% to hit ₹357.60 in the intraday trade on the BSE.

The Roys plan to sell 1.75 crore equity shares constituting 27.26% of the share capital in the news network to RRPR Holding Pvt. Ltd., the promoter entity of NDTV. Radhika Roy has proposed to transfer 89,12,467 shares while Prannoy Roy would divest 86,65,209 shares.

After the deal, the Roys will own 5% stake in the broadcaster compared with 32.26% earlier. On the other hand, the Adani group will hold 64.71% stake in NDTV compared with 37.45% before.

AMG Media Network became the single-largest shareholder in NDTV after the recent open offer. "With mutual agreement we have decided to divest most of our shares in NDTV to the AMG Media Network. Since the open offer was launched, our discussions with Mr. Gautam Adani have been constructive; all the suggestions we made were accepted by him positively and with openness," the Roys said in a joint statement.

In a separate stock exchange filing, NDTV said its board of directors have appointed Sanjay Pugalia as an additional director in the capacity of non-executive non-independent director. The board has also appointed Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan as an additional director in the capacity of non-executive non-independent director.

This comes weeks after RRPR Holding transferred 99.5% of its equity share capital to Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt. Ltd. (VCPL), which is owned by AMG Media Network Ltd., the media arm of Adani Group.

VCPL had lent around ₹400 crore to NDTV founders in 2009-10 in lieu of warrants of their company, RRPR Holding, which in turn owned 29.18% of NDTV. In August, VCPL exercised its right to convert those 19.9 lakh warrants into equity shares, constituting 99.50% of RRPR's equity share capital. Following this, the Adani group said the acquisition will be followed by an open offer by VCPL to buy another 26% stake from minority shareholders of the media company.

NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy had resigned as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Pvt. Ltd. on November 29. The board of directors of RRPR Holding last month appointed Sudipta Bhattacharya, Pugalia, and Chengalvarayan as directors on the board of RRPRH.

In August, NDTV had alleged that the Adani group acquired the news network without any discussion with the company or its founder-promoters Radhika and Prannoy Roy.