NEW DELHI/BENGALURU/MUMBAI : Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man, signalled critical intent for a play in India’s media and leisure trade as his firms acquired a 29% stake in broadcaster NDTV Ltd and launched an open provide to amass a further 26% from shareholders, as mandated by legislation.
The acquisition capped months of hypothesis a few potential acquisition that noticed the NDTV inventory rally fivefold in 9 months (from ₹75.55 on 1 December to ₹376.55 on Tuesday on BSE).
Adani Group firms acquired the stake in NDTV not directly by shopping for Vishvapradhan Industrial Pvt. Ltd (VCPL), which owned convertible debentures (warrants that present for the conversion of debt to fairness) in RRPR Holding Pvt. Ltd that in flip owned 29.18% of NDTV Ltd. Vishvapradhan acquired the debentures in 2009-10 in return for a mortgage amounting to ₹404 crore it prolonged to the promoter holding firm.
In response to India’s securities legislation, an entity that acquires greater than 25% of the fairness in a publicly traded firm should launch an open provide to amass a further 26% from public shareholders. Adani Group and Vishvapradhan on Tuesday introduced an open provide at ₹294 per share (based mostly on Sebi’s takeover pointers), representing a 28% low cost to NDTV’s ₹376 closing value on Tuesday.
The acquisition drew fast protests from NDTV, which mentioned in a submitting to the exchanges on Tuesday night that Adani group corporations had acquired the stake with out consulting its promoters.
“The NDTV founders and the corporate wish to make it clear that this train of rights by VCPL was executed with none enter from, dialog with, or consent of the NDTV founders, who, like NDTV, have been made conscious of this train of rights solely at present.”
Adani’s acquisition of a stake within the high-profile broadcaster, though the topic of market hypothesis even earlier than the Adani group formally introduced its entry into media in March this 12 months, dramatically got here to mild in change filings fired in fast succession on Tuesday night. On Monday, NDTV instructed exchanges in response to a media question that its promoters weren’t engaged in any talks for a stake sale. On Tuesday night, Adani Enterprises first introduced its wholly owned subsidiary Adani Media Networks acquired Vishvapradhan from Eminent Networks and Nextwave Televentures—entities linked to entrepreneur Mahendra Nahata.
Then got here the announcement that VCPL had exercised the convertible warrants and now owned 99.5% of RRPR Holdings and, in flip, 29.18% of the fairness stake in NDTV. Alongside, Vishvapradhan and the Adani firms introduced the open provide triggered by the acquisition.
“This acquisition is a major milestone within the journey of AMNL’s aim to pave the trail of latest age media throughout platforms,” Sanjay Pugalia, chief government officer, AMG Media Networks Ltd, mentioned in an announcement.
NDTV founders Prannoy and Radhika Roy management 32.2% of shares in NDTV, whereas the general public shareholders personal 38.55%. The corporate posted revenues of ₹421 crore and a internet revenue of ₹85 crore within the 12 months ended March 2022.
The 2009-10 transaction between Vishvapradhan and RRPR Holdings was topic to regulatory ire because the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi) held in a 2019 order that the mortgage settlement between the 2 entities amounted to a transferring of helpful curiosity in NDTV and will have triggered an open provide by Vishvapradhan then. The regulator castigated the NDTV promoters in sturdy phrases, saying they perpetrated fraud on minority traders by coming into into this sort of association. The order was subsequently put aside by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which held that simply because no curiosity was charged on mortgage, it didn’t imply an oblique acquisition as there was no switch of administration management.
In Could, Adani Media Networks acquired a 49% fairness stake in Quintillion Media, based by media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl.
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