NDTV Founders Resigned As Director Of  RRPR Holding Private Limited

NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy have resigned as the directors of RRPR Holding Private Limited, the news channel informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

RRPR Holding Private Limited is the promoter company of NDTV. The Adani Group had announced in August that it will acquire 29.18% stake in the promoter company, Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holding Private Limited.

On August 23, AMG Media Networks Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, bought 100% of the equity stakes in Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited, or VCPL, for Rs 113.74 crore.

Later in the month, the Adani Group announced that it will acquire a 29.18% stake in NDTV through VPCL. NDTV had then said that the takeover was done without the consent or any sort of notice served to Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy.

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 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.”