Adani group to launch open offer for NDTV on November 22

The Adani group has announced a revised timeline for its proposed open offer to acquire an additional 26 per cent shareholding in NDTV, the news broadcaster said in a filing to stock exchanges late Friday.

The Adani open offer will now be open for subscription on November 22 and will close on December 5. The previous timeline for the open offer by Adani was October 17 to November 1.

Last month, the Adani Group had written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) re-affirming its commitment to complete the open offer process for additional shares in NDTV.

The group in August had unveiled plans to acquire a 29.18 per cent stake in the news network, through the acquisition of Vishvapradhan Commercial (VCPL), which holds a 99.99 per cent stake in promoter firm, RRPR Holding, an NDTV promoter firm.

This had triggered an open offer, which was tentatively scheduled for October 17, a Draft Letter of Offer (DLOF) by JM Financial, managing the offer, had said in September.

In its letter to Sebi, the Adani group said that it intended to complete the open offer regardless of the status of the share transfer by RRPR to VCPL. It had also urged Sebi to provide its observations on the DLOF filed in connection with the open offer.

However, the matter moved to the Supreme Court after Sebi filed an appeal against NDTV over an order passed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on July 20 this year. NDTV had moved the apex court over the same order earlier.

The SAT order had slashed a penalty of Rs 25 crore on the Roys of NDTV and their promoter company – RRPR Holding – to Rs 5 crore. It had also reserved the Sebi finding that the founders had ceded control to Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) through loan agreements entered into 2009-10.

NDTV had said that SAT had found that there was no indirect transfer of control of the media company by its founder-promoters.