Radhika, Prannoy Roy resign from RRPR board; now hold 32% stake in NDTV

New Delhi: NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy have resigned as the directors of promoter group vehicle RRPR Holding Private Limited as the Adani Group neared takeover of the television channel.

RRPR, which has been acquired by Adani Group, held 29.18 per cent stake in the news channel.

The Roys, however, still hold a 32.26 per cent stake in NDTV as promoters and have not resigned from the board of the news channel.

In a stock exchange filing late on Tuesday, New Delhi Television Ltd said the two have resigned as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPRH) with immediate effect.

Prannoy Roy is the Chairperson of NDTV and Radhika Roy is an Executive Director.

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, NDTV said.

The three are nominees of Adani Group which had earlier this week had taken control of RRPR Holdings.

More than a decade ago, Roys had taken an interest-free loan of over Rs 400 crore from Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) that Adani group acquired in August. In exchange, they issued warrants that allowed the company to acquire a 29.18 per cent stake in the news group.

RRPR, or Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holdings Private Limited is the promoter of NDTV. It held 29.18 per cent stake in the news channel. The conversion of warrants into equity because of non-payment of the loan, gave the Adani group entity almost all shares of RRPR Holdings.

Pugalia is the chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of media initiatives at Adani Group.

Adani owns NDTV

Now, Roys together own a 32.26% stake in their individual capacity. Radhika Roy has a 16.32% stake while Prannoy Roy’s stake in the company is 15.94%.

They continue to be on the board of directors of NDTV for now. However, it is not clear if they will continue to hold their stake and remain on board after December 26 when Adani’s will become the majority shareholder with more than 55% stake.

Adani’s will complete the takeover of an additional 26% stake through an ongoing open offer. The open offer closes on December 5 and the process will complete by December 26.