Days after the Adani Group became the largest shareholder in NDTV, the network’s founders Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy have said that they will sell 27.26 percent of their remaining 32.26 percent shareholding to the conglomerate.
“Since the open offer (by Adani Group) was launched, our discussions with Gautam Adani have been constructive; all the suggestions we made were accepted by him positively and with openness,” they said in a statement on Friday. “Consequently, with mutual agreement we have decided to divest most of our shares in NDTV to (Adani Group firm) AMG Media Network.”
After an open offer, the Adani Group earlier emerged as the majority shareholder in NDTV, holding 37 percent of the company. The open offer came after the media arm of Adani Enterprises acquired nearly 30 percent of NDTV shares through an indirect deal.
The Roys had resigned as directors of the board of NDTV promoter RRPR on November 29. Subsequently, Sudipta Bhattacharya, the chief technology officer of Adani Group; Sanjay Pugalia, senior journalist and CEO of Adani's AMG Media Network; and journalist Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan took over as directors of the board.
Rumours of Adani acquiring NDTV have been doing the rounds for close to a year but they were dismissed by the Roys earlier. In September last year, NDTV said in a statement that the company was “not in discussions now, nor has been, with any entity for a change in ownership or a divestment of any sort” and the “founder-promoters, Radhika and Prannoy Roy, who are both journalists, own 61.45 percent of the company and remain in control of it”.
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