Billionaire Gautam Adani last week unveiled plans to control a majority stake in NDTV. (File)WITH the Adani Group set to launch its open offer for NDTV Ltd on October 17, its bid to acquire 26 per cent more in the television company will depend on existing investors tendering their shares at Rs 294 a piece. The stock closed at Rs 515.1 on the Bombay Stock Exchange Friday.
The single-largest shareholder of NDTV, besides promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy (32.26%) and the Adani Group (29.18%), is Mauritius-registered foreign portfolio investor (FPI) LTS Investment Fund Ltd with a 9.75% stake. It bought this stake in the quarter ending September 2016.
An analysis of LTS Investment Fund Ltd’s portfolio reveals that of the Rs 20,710.2 crore value of its shareholding as on June-end 2022 — the most recent quarter for which data is available — 97.78 per cent comes from Adani Group companies.
The break-up of LTS portfolio, as of Saturday:
Adani Power Ltd: Rs 1,692.3 crore
Adani Enterprises Ltd: Rs 6,475.1 crore
Adani Transmission Ltd: Rs 7,010.7 crore
Adani Total Gas Ltd: Rs 5,073.9 crore
NDTV Ltd: Rs 326.7 crore
Others: Rs 131.5 crore
The next big FPI shareholder in NDTV is Mauritius-based Vikasa India EIF I Fund with a 4.42% stake in NDTV it acquired in the quarter ending September 2021.
While LTS Investment bought NDTV’s 9.75% from Oswal Greentech, Vikasa India EIF I Fund acquired 4.42 per cent in NDTV from Mauritius-registered Eriska Investment Fund Ltd which, in turn, had bought it from Oswal Greentech in the quarter-ended September 2016.
In other words, the 14.17 per cent stake in NDTV that Oswal Greentech bought in the quarter-ended December 2011 is now held by LTS Investment Fund and Vikasa India EIF I Fund.
Around the same time that LTS Investment Fund entered NDTV, Kolkata-based GRD Securities bought 3.47 per cent in NDTV in the quarter-ended March 2016.
Later, other entities with director linkages to GRD Securities also picked up NDTV shares. As on June 30, 2022, these four companies, GRD Securities (2.8 per cent in NDTV), Drolia Agencies (1.48 per cent), Adesh Broking (1.5 per cent) and Confirm Real Build (1.33 per cent), cumulatively hold 7.11 per cent in NDTV.