Adani raises payout on NDTV acquisition to shareholders

New Delhi: Richest Asian Gautam Adani's group on Tuesday said it will pay an additional Rs48.65 a share to NDTV stockholders who tendered their shares in its Open Offer to help match what it had paid to buy out a stake of the news broadcaster's founders.

Adani Enterprises in a stock exchange filing said it will pay an additional Rs48.65 per NDTV share to investors, who had sold their shares in an Open Offer between November 22 and December 5, taking the payout to Rs342.65 a share and matching what it paid to buy Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy's stake. New Delhi Television Ltd stock on Tuesday closed Rs5.75 or 1.69 per cent higher at Rs345 on BSE.

Adani Group first acquired Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited, a little-known company that had given Rs403 crore of an interest-free loan to RRPR Holdings - a company founded by the Roys and bore their initials in its name - in 2009-10 in exchange for warrants that allowed it to buy a stake in the newsgroup at any time.

Adani group exercised those rights in August last year, which NDTV at that time said was done without its consent. By virtue of that, the Adani group took control of RRPR Holdings, which held a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV. Thereafter, it made an open offer to acquire an additional 26 per cent from public shareholders.