All it seems is a hostile takeover of the most desired News Channel of India NDTV by Adani group. NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy have resigned as the directors of NDTV’s promoter company RRPR Holding Private Limited. Now the question is, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy have resigned from the board of RRPR Holdings, Does this also mean their exit from NDTV?
RRPR, which has been acquired by Adani Group, held 29.18% stake in the news channel. The Roys, however, still hold a 32.26% stake in NDTV as promoters and have not resigned from the board of the news channel.
In a stock exchange filing late on Tuesday, New Delhi Television Ltd said the two have resigned as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPRH) with immediate effect. Prannoy Roy is the Chairperson of NDTV and Radhika Roy is an Executive Director. The board of RRPR Holding has approved the appointment of Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan as Directors on its board with immediate effect, NDTV said.
The three are nominees of Adani Group which had earlier this week had taken control of RRPR Holdings. Pugalia is the chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of media initiatives at Adani Group.
Post its acquisition, Adani Group is also conducting an open offer running between November 22 and December 5 for a 26 per cent stake in NDTV. With this Ravish Kumar has quit the channel. His resignation “with immediate effect” came a day after Prannoy and Radhika Roy resigned. Few journalists have impacted people as much as Ravish did. Ravish has been an integral part of NDTV for decades, his contribution has been immense.
NDTV was famous due to the ethics and culture developed by the leaders and journalists. Post-acquisition of NDTV, the Shares of New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) have jumped more than 16% from August 23, the day when the Adani group announced the takeover bid, till December 1, and currently hovering around Rs 440 apiece level on the BSE.
Adani is now one step closer to gaining a larger footprint in India’s media sector as part of his broader diversification spree to expand his empire beyond coal mining and ports into airports, data centers, cement and digital services.
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