Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, NDTV’s founders, have resigned as directors of RRPR Holding Private Limited, the news channel said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The promoter firm for NDTV is RRPR Holding Private Limited. The Adani Group stated in August that it would buy a 29.18% share in the promoter business, Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holding Private Limited.
On August 23, Adani Enterprises’ wholly-owned subsidiary, AMG Media Networks Limited, purchased 100% of the equity holdings in Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited, or VCPL, for Rs 113.74 crore.
Later that month, the Adani Group stated that it would acquire a 29.18% share of NDTV via VPCL. NDTV has then stated that the takeover was done without their consent.
However, The Roys still hold a 32.26% stake in NDTV as promoters and have not resigned from the board of the news channel.
NDTV also said in the filing that RRPR Holding has approved the appointment of Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia, and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan as directors of the board.
Pugalia is the chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of media initiatives at Adani Group.
“NDTV’s promoter group vehicle RRPRH has approved Prannoy Roy & Radhika Roy’s resignation following a meeting held on 29 November, the statement read.
“RRPRH has approved Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan as new directors on the Board with immediate effect,” the statement added.
The resignation comes a day after NDTV said an entity backed by the founders had issued shares to a unit of Adani Group, taking the billionaire Gautam Adani-led conglomerate a step closer to taking over the media firm.
NDTV, founded in 1988 and owned by husband-and-wife team Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, had previously said the takeover move “was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders.”
