Ravish Kumar resigns from NDTV India amid Adani takeover

A day after Prannoy Roy Radhika ROy resigned from the board of RRPRH, senior journalist Ravish Kumar has resigned from NDTV India today.

New Delhi, Dec 01: Senior journalist Ravish Kumar resigned from NDTV on Wednesday, a day after channel's founder promoters- Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy- resigned as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited, the promoter firm through which they held 29.18 per cent NDTV shares. Kumar was working as the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India.

The information of his resignation became public during a regulatory filing made with the Bombay Stock Exchange. With the exit of the Roys, three new directors have been appointed to the board of the company. They are Adani Group CEP Sudipta Bhattacharya, AMG Media Network CEO and Editor in chief AMG Media Network and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan, director at Adani group owned Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt. Ltd.

In the regulatory filing, NDTV Ltd said Sudipta Bhattacharya, Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Sinniah Chengalvarayan have been appointed as Directors on the Board of RRPRH, with immediate effect.

The Adani group had acquired 99.5 per cent holding in RRPR Holding Private Ltd, the promoter group vehicle of news media company New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV).

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.

Earlier in August, Gautam Adani's group had announced it will buy a majority stake in NDTV, one of the nation's most popular news channels, as it looks to boost media investments as part of an ambitious expansion plan.

An Adani Group firm first acquired a company that in the past was linked to rival billionaire Mukesh Ambani. The particular company had loaned Rs 250 crore to NDTV in 2008-09 and the Adani group firm now exercised the option to convert that debt into a 29.18 per cent stake in the news channel company.

The open offer was approved by India's capital markets regulator earlier this month.