SEBI Moves Supreme Court Against NDTV Over SAT Order
Moneylife Digital Team 03 October 2022
Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has moved the Supreme Court (SC) against New Delhi Television (NDTV), the media company revealed in an exchange filing. The market regulator has filed an appeal in the apex court over an order passed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on 20th July, 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 Rs25 crore on the Roys of NDTV and their promoter company – RRPR Holding – to Rs5 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.
 
Interestingly, the two promoters of NDTV—Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy and their investment vehicle RRPR Holding Private Ltd—have separately approached the SC against the same 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. NDTV is under an hostile takeover postion by takeover tycoon Gautam Adani's Adani group.
 
This had triggered an open offer for an additional 26% stake in the company. The open offer, which will be launched on 17th October, 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 Rs294 per share has been fixed for the open offer, which will amount to Rs492.81 crore, if fully subscribed, the DLOF said.
 
The DLOF also specifies that the last date for SEBI observations was 28th September while the last date for dispatch of the letter of offers to the public shareholders is 10th October.
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