NDTV shares trades 5% up in afternoon trade

Mumbai, Aug 25 (IANS) NDTV shares were trading 5 per cent up, the maximum permitted limit during the afternoon trade, after the company blocked Adani Group's attempt to acquire shares.

At 1.40 p.m., shares of NDTV were trading at Rs 407.60, up 5 per cent from its previous close.

Earlier on Thursday, NDTV through exchange filing informed that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in November 2020 had banned its promoters from accessing the securities market, and further prohibiting buying, selling, or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly, or being associated with the securities market in any manner whatsoever for a period of two years.

Further, it added that unless pending appeal proceedings were to successfully conclude, prior SEBI approval was needed for Adani to secure 99.5 per cent in the promoter group entity since this would consequently lead to acquisition of voting rights in respect of 29.18 per cent held by the RRPR Holdings in the news network.

The shares have surged sharply on Wednesday after the Adani's conglomerate said it was seeking a controlling stake in the news channel, a move NDTV said was "entirely unexpected" and was without any discussion or consent of the network.

"AMNL's wholly owned subsidiary VCPL holds warrants of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPR) entitling it to convert them into a 99.99 per cent stake in RRPR. VCPL has exercised warrants to acquire a 99.5 per cent stake in RRPR. Such acquisition will result in VCPL acquiring control of RRPR," the media release said.

This will trigger an open offer to acquire up to a 26 per cent stake in NDTV in terms of SEBI's takeover regulations, the organisation said.