Senior journalist Ravish Kumar resigns from NDTV following Adani acquisition: Ramon Magsaysay award-winning journalist Ravish Kumar has resigned from NDTV on Wednesday, just a day after the channel’s founders and promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy resigned as directors from the board of the news broadcaster’s promoter entity RRPR Holding Private Limited. The departure of the senior journalists comes after the news channel was acquired by the Adani Group, which holds 29.18% of the company.
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Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy had resigned as Directors on the Board of RRPR Holding Private Limited, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. RRPR Holding’s board of directors has approved the immediate appointment of Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia, and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan as Directors.
Career of Ravish Kumar in NDTV:
Kumar, a winner of the 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 received the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award.
Whole story of the acquisition:
- Adani group in August bought VCPL and sought to convert the warrants into shares. NDTV promoters first resisted the transaction, claiming they were not consulted, but relented earlier this week and allowed the conversion, giving VCPL a 99.5% share in RRPR Holding.
- With Adani group controlled entity VCPL firmly in the saddle of RRPR Holdings, the Roys resigned as directors of the company.
- RRPR, or Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holdings Private Limited, till now was classified as a promoter entity. It owned 29.18 percent of the news channel. Prannoy Roy owns 15.94% of NDTV, with Radhika Roy owning the remaining 16.32%. (together 32.26 per cent).
- Post acquisition of VCPL, Adani group launched an open offer to acquire a 26 per cent stake in NDTV. That offer opened on November 22, and will close on December 5.
- The offer has got offers for 53.27 lakh shares, or one-third of the entire open offer size. This despite the deep discount of the open offer price in comparison to the current stock levels.
- The NDTV stock is up 5% on the BSE at Rs 447.70, compared to the Adani group’s open offer price of Rs 294 a share. The ports-to-energy conglomerate is seeking as much as 1.67 crore shares or 26 per cent of equity from NDTV’s minority investors.
- A successful open offer will give Adani group a controlling stake of just over 55 per cent and it may then seek to oust Roys from the board of the channel. Pugalia is the chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of media initiatives at Adani Group.
