NDTV promoter firm RRPR Holding transfers 99.5% shares to Adani’s VCPL

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ News broadcaster New Delhi Television Ltd’s (NDTV’s) promoter firm RRPR Holding said on Monday that it had transferred shares constituting 99.5 per cent of its equity capital to Adani group-owned Vishvapradhan Commercial (VCPL). The transaction was done on Monday, RRPR Holding said in a disclosure to the stock exchanges, in consonance with a conversion notice, dated August 23, 2022, issued by VCPL.

This follows the expiry of the two-year restraint imposed by the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on November 26, it said. The transfer of shares will give the Adani group control over a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV. The port-to-power conglomerate is also conducting an open offer for another 26 per cent stake in the media firm.

The open offer, which began on November 22, has seen shareholders tender 5.3 million shares, or 31.78 per cent of the issue size of 16.7 million shares, so far, the exchange data showed. Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani group, in an interview with the Financial Times, recently said the NDTV purchase was a “responsibility” rather than a “business opportunity” for him, and invited NDTV owner-founder Prannoy Roy to remain its head.