Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest businessman and a close friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has bought 29.2% stakes in NDTV with an intention to take full control of the media outlet in the future. The Adani Group has offered to buy another 26% stake at Rs. 294 per share.
NDTV has been a target of the Centre’s Narendra Modi government as its founders Prannoy Roy and his wife, Radhika Roy, were raided by the CBI in 2017. Both of them were stopped from travelling abroad in 2019.
According to the Bloomberg website, Adani Enterprises Ltd.’s media arm, AMG Media Networks Ltd., bought Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt. for Rs 1.14 billion ($14.3 million), giving it a 29.2% stake in New Delhi Television Ltd., which owns NDTV.
Sanjay Pugalia, the Adani Group’s chief executive officer, said that the acquisition of NDTV was a ‘significant milestone’ for AMG Media Networks, which aims to ‘pave the path of new age media across platforms.’
“NDTV is the most suitable broadcast and digital platform to deliver on our vision,” Pugalia said.
Earlier this year, the Adani Group had agreed to buy stakes in Quint, a media platform founded by Raghav Bahl.
