"This exercise of rights by VCPL was executed without any consent of the founders”: NDTV

"This exercise of rights by VCPL was executed without any consent of the founders”: NDTV

On 23 August, the Adani Group made an open offer to acquire a 26% stake in NDTV.

NDTV

Mumbai: Hours after the announcement, the indirect acquisition of a 29.18 per cent stake in news broadcaster New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) by a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises’ AMG Media Networks Limited (AMNL), a document related to the development, accessed by Indiantelevision.com, stated, "This exercise of rights by VCPL was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders, who, like NDTV, have been made aware of this exercise of rights only today. As recently as yesterday, NDTV had informed the stock exchanges that there was no change in the shareholding of its founders."

Also, as informed earlier, AMNL will also present an open offer to acquire another 26 per cent stake in the media house.

The statement further added, "Without any discussion with New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) or its founder-promoters, a notice has been served upon them by Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL), stating that it (VCPL) has exercised its rights to acquire 99.50 per cent control of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPRH), the promoter-owned company that owns 29.18 per cent of NDTV."

In a statement released on 23 August, the Adani Group said, "RRPR is a promoter group company of NDTV (NDTV, BSE: 532529) and holds a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV. VCPL, along with AMNL & AEL (persons acting in concert), will launch an open offer to acquire up to a 26 per cent stake in NDTV, in compliance with the requirements of the SEBI’s (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011."

Also read : AMG Media Networks to indirectly acquire 29.18% stake in NDTV; launches open offer

Simultaneously, NDTV management also clarified that the notice from VCPL is based on a loan agreement it entered into with NDTV founders Radhika and Prannoy Roy in 2009-10. "The notice states that VCPL has exercised its option to convert 19,90,000 warrants into equity shares of RRPRH at Rs 10 per share and that a total of Rs 1.99 crore has been transferred to RRPRH."

RRPRH, the owner of 29.18 per cent of NDTV, has been told to transfer all its equity shares to VCPL within two days.

NDTV has also received a copy of the public announcement by VCPL dated 23 August of an open offer to acquire up to 26 per cent of the voting share capital of NDTV at Rs 294 per share (up to 16,762,530 fully paid-up equity shares) as per the requirements of the SEBI (substantial acquisition of shares and takeovers) Regulations, 2011.