From November 22 to December 5, the Adani group will open its open offer to acquire an additional 26% public holding in NDTV.
Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd. (VCPL) has proposed to acquire an additional 26%, or 1.67 crore equity shares, at an offer price of Rs 294 per share. In the previous open offer by Adani, the deadline was October 17 to November 1.
The Adani group launched an open offer in August this year after acquiring 29.18% of NDTV.
In September 2022, public shareholders owned 38.55% of the company, according to data from the BSE.
It was announced in August that Adani entities had acquired VCPL, which had provided NDTV founders headed by Prannoy Roy with a loan of over Rs 403 crore.
In 2009-10, VPCL lent the amount in exchange for warrants that enabled it to acquire a 29.18% interest in NDTV at any time. As a result of this interest-free loan, RRPR Holding issued warrants to VCPL to purchase 99.9% of RRPR at a discounted price.
According to the company’s website, RRPR owns 29.18% of NDTV. To extend the loan to RRPR, VCPL raised funds from Reliance Strategic Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd.
Upon completion of the transaction, the acquirer (Adanis) will not acquire any equity shares directly from the target company (NDTV) but instead will own a minimum of 99.5% and a maximum of the paid-up capital of the promoter company (RRPR Holdings). The offer document stated that 18,813,928 equity shares constitute 29.18% of the voting share capital of the target company.
It has been announced that NDTV and its subsidiary, NDTV Networks Ltd, are delaying the sale of their stake in Astro Awani Network Sdn Bhd. This Malaysian media company represents 20% of its total share capital.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation letter dated November 9, 2022, the transaction has been withheld for now from approval.
According to NDTV’s stock exchange filing, it is currently considering the legal options available to it and will take the necessary action accordingly.
