Adani’s open offer to acquire a 26 per cent additional stake in NDTV will commence on October 17, according to a public statement by Adani. Since NDTV promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, as well as Adani, await final clarity from the SEBI regarding the transfer of shares, the date for open offer will be tentative.
Although Adani bought Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) last week, the formal transfer of shares from promoter holding company RRPR to Adani-owned VCPL has not been done yet. Therefore at present, Adani holds no stake in NDTV. Citing SEBI’s 2020 order which withholds NDTV promoters from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, RRPR had written to SEBI seeking clarity. VCPL, too, sought clarity from SEBI on the same matter on August 29.
Adani needs to formally own the original 29.18 per cent stake in VCPL before it can trigger an open offer. However, it issued a statement in a financial newspaper ad, noting that the tentative open offer date for public shareholders to sell their stake in NDTV to Adani is October 17. As per regulations, the open offer price per share is ₹294. However, NDTV shares continued to gain momentum, trading at ₹471 on Tuesday.
Experts remain sceptical that public shareholders will sell NDTV shares to Adani at the decided price. However, they also note that there is a good chance that Adani will have direct or indirect control over 50 per cent of NDTV’s stake. This will mean that Adani will have unbridled control over the company’s operations and would be easily able to outvote founder promoters, the Roys.