Sebi moves Supreme Court against NDTV over SAT order

The legal proceedings come even as the Adani Group unveiled plans last month to acquire a 29.18% stake in the news network, through the acquisition of VCPL, which holds a 99.99% stake in RRPR Holding

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has moved the Supreme Court against New Delhi Television (NDTV), the media company said in an exchange filing on Tuesday. The markets regulator has filed an appeal in the apex court over an order passed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on July 20, NDTV said, coming within days of the founder-promoters of the broadcast company moving the Supreme Court over the same order.

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

The legal proceedings come even as the Adani Group unveiled plans last month to acquire a 29.18 per cent stake in the news network, through the acquisition of VCPL, which holds a 99.99 per cent stake in RRPR Holding.

This had triggered an open offer for an additional 26 per cent stake in the company. The open offer, which will be launched on October 17, will be for acquisition of up to 16.7 million equity shares, the Draft Letter of Offer (DLOF) by JM Financial, managing the offer, said.

A price of Rs 294 per share has been fixed for the open offer, which will amount to Rs 492.81 crore, if fully subscribed, the DLOF said.

The DLOF also specifies that the last date for SEBI observations is Wednesday (September 28). And the last date for dispatch of the letter of offers to the public shareholders is October 10.