Adani Group, led by the world’s fourth richest man Gautam Adani, has acquired a 29.18% stake in India’s popular news channel NDTV. The move will help Adani Group to cement its position as a global tycoon in the media business. An unpaid loan of 403.85 Crore taken by NDTV owners Pranoy Roy and Radhika Roy became the key instrument for Adani to acquire a large stake in NDTV.
Acquisition of 29.18 % stake :
Vishwapradhan Commercial Pvt Limited (VCPL) had provided a loan worth 403.85 crores to NDTV promoters RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd. Against this unpaid Loan RRPR issued warrants to VCPL and entitled it to convert them into 99.9% equity stake, if the loan is Unpaid. On 22nd Aug 2022, Adani Group’s subsidiary AMG Media Networks acquired VCPL. Then it exercised its power to convert the unpaid loan to RRPR, into a 29.18% equity stake in one of the biggest media groups in the country.
Open Offer to buy 26% more stake:
It has further made an open offer of 493 crores in public to buy an additional 26% stake in the news channel for Rs 294 per share. AMG is paying the price for NDTV shares at a 24% discount. Shares of NDTV jumped 5% Wednesday to hit the upper circuit.
The takeover bid is seen as Adani’s ace move to compete with arch-rival Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries. The latter owns a substantial stake in another popular media group Netwok18 which runs channels like CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. On the other hand, NDTV operates 3 news channels; NDTV 24×7 , NDTV India and NDTV Profit.
NDTV’s take on the acquisition :
However, NDTV’s Founders Radhika and Pranoy Roy have claimed that they were not informed, nor called for discussion before the acquisition. The couple still owns a 32.26% stake in NDTV. The news channel with its headquarter in New Delhi has also said in its official statement that neither the group nor its founders have held any conversation, and gave consent or input for the majority stake acquisition. Website :
