Senior Journalist, Ravish Kumar has resigned from NDTV according to news sources. This comes just a day after the founders and promoters of the channel Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy resigned from their positions as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPRH). The resignation of senior journalists comes after the news channel was acquired by the Adani Group, which holds a 29.18% stake in the news channel.
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Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy resigned as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited yesterday, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. 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.
Ravish Kumar Career in NDTV:
Kumar, winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award, used to host a number of programs including the channel’s flagship weekday show Hum Log, Ravish ki Report, Des Ki Baat and Prime Time. He has also twice been honored with the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Full acquisition history:
- Adani Group in August bought VCPL and sought to convert the warrants into shares. NDTV’s promoters initially opposed the move, saying they had not been consulted, but earlier this week relented and allowed the conversion, which gave VCPL a 99.5 percent stake in RRPR Holding.
- With Adani group controlled entity VCPL firmly in the saddle of RRPR Holdings, Roy resigned as directors of the company.
- RRPR, or Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holdings Private Limited, was hitherto classified as a promoter. It held a 29.18% stake in the news channel. Prannoy Roy holds 15.94 percent of NDTV and Radhika Roy another 16.32 percent (total 32.26 percent).
- After the VCPL acquisition, the Adani group launched an open bid to acquire a 26 percent stake in NDTV. This offer opened on November 22nd and will end on December 5th.
- The offer has so far received bids for 53.27 lakh shares or one-third of the entire open offer size. This despite a large discount to the open offer price compared to current stock levels.
- NDTV shares were trading up 5 percent at Rs 447.70 on the BSE against Adani group’s open offer price of Rs 294 apiece.
- The ports-to-energy conglomerate is seeking up to 1.67 crore shares or 26 percent equity from NDTV’s minority investors.
- A successful open bid would give the Adani Group a controlling stake of just over 55 percent, and it could then try to oust Royce from the channel’s board. Pugalia is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Media Initiatives at the Adani Group.
