(G.N.S) Dt. 30
New Delhi
NDTV promoters Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy have resigned from the board of RRPR Holding Private Ltd, the holding company of the NDTV promoters. The move came after 99.5 per cent of equity of RRPR Holding was transferred to Vishvapradhan Commercial Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd (VCPL) owned by the Adani Group.
The Roys resigned from the RRPR board effective from November 29, 2022 which is also informed to BSE. Three new directors have been appointed to the board of the company — Adani Group CEO Sudipta Bhattacharya, AMG Media Network CEO and Editor in chief AMG Media Network Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan, director at Adani group owned Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt. Ltd.
In August 2022, Adani Group announced that it had acquired 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV indirectly. The transaction involved Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd, owned by Adani Group, converting warrants of RRPR Holding Private Ltd (RRPR) into equity. VCPL decided to exercise the warrants, giving it over 99.5 per cent stake in RRPR. As RRPR owns 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV, this meant VCPL gained this stake in the media group.
The root of this transaction goes back to 2008, when the Roys had taken a loan of Rs 540 crore from Indiabulls to fund an open offer they made to buy NDTV shares from the market. The group has offered to buy around 16 million NDTV shares at the open offer price of Rs 294, which is much lower than the current market price of around Rs 425.
