SEBI, the securities regulatory authority, has imposed a hefty fine of 27 crore rupees on Radhika Roy, Pronnoy Roy, and RRPR (Radhika Roy Pronnoy Roy Holding Private Limited)-owned NDTV for withholding important information from shareholders.
NDTV entered into a secretive loan agreement with ICICI Bank in 2008 and later with VCPL in 2009 and 2010. The loan with VCPL was warranted with the transfer of shares by the promoters, but the management failed to disclose these deals despite being a publicly-traded company.
“Consequently, information about the said agreements and off-market transactions were essentially material, price-sensitive information which would have influenced the decision of investors about trading in shares of NDTV,” said the SEBI in its order.
SEBI imposes a Rs 25 crore fine on NDTV and 1 crore each on Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. @SEBI_India @PrannoyRoyNDTV @ndtv #NDTV pic.twitter.com/FPdBRxAmIY
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) December 25, 2020
Therefore, the securities transaction regulator has imposed a fine of 25 crore rupees on RRPR Holding Private Limited and 1 crore each for Radhika Roy and Pronnoy Roy. In June 2018, when the SEBI directed Vishva Pradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) to make an open offer to New Delhi Television (NDTV) for indirectly acquiring up to 52 per cent stake, TFI published a detailed article explaining how the promoters illegally sold the majority stake of NDTV to a Mukesh Ambani linked firm, without making the information public.
VCPL owns a majority stake in NDTV after it gave a loan of 350 crore rupees to NDTV in July 2009 for ten years, which the company had not been able to pay back in due time. Since the loan was against the collateral of shares, now the VCPL is practically the owner of the NDTV.
NDTV’s promoter group made an open offer in 2008 and took 540 crore rupees from Indiabulls Financial Services. The promoters then took another loan of 375 crore rupees from ICICI Bank to repay Indiabulls and the ICICI Bank loan was repaid in 2009 with a Rs 350 crore loan from VCPL.
The ownership of VCPL was in the hands of Reliance Investment Limited (RIL) when it was incorporated in 2008. The RIL led by Mukesh Ambani later sold VCPL to Nahara Group. Very little is known about Nahara group except that Reliance had bought Infotel Broadband from them in 2010 to enter the telecom business.
SEBI, in its order of open offer, observed, “source for the loan was the borrowing from Reliance Strategic Investment Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited.” The SEBI order also said that “the company had revenues of only 60,000 rupees in FY2017 and more than 400 crore rupees in long-term loans and advances. VCPL neither have the history of advancing such loans nor do they appear to have had the financial wherewithal to advance loans on such liberal terms.”
This suggests that VCPL was incorporated to provide ‘soft’ loans to NDTV for their survival. Had NDTV been a private company, there was no problem with the deal because retail shareholders of the company would have not made any losses on shares. But, NDTV made this deal to Mukesh Ambani linked firm without informing the public despite being a publicly-traded company, and therefore, they are under SEBI’s radar since last few years.
Last month SEBI barred Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy from the securities market for two years and fined them 16.97 crore rupees in an insider trading case in another ruling.
Such transactions make it crystal clear that NDTV has been involved in fraudulent activities since decades and they were not penalized by previous governments, perhaps due to their editorial stances and entrenchment in the ecosystem.
The promoter group of NDTV is RRPR Holding Private Limited, named after its founders Radhika Roy and Pronnoy Roy. Radhika Roy is the sister of Brinda Karat who is a Politburo member of CPM and was Rajya Sabha member for 2005-2011. Brinda Karat’s husband Prakash Karat was the General Secretary, the highest decision-making member of CPM for 2005-2015. On the other hand, Pronnoy Roy’ cousin Arundhati Roy is a political activist alleged to be involved in anti-national activities.
Even when the Modi government came to power, the ‘deep state’ tried to protect the Roys and NDTV, but the case moved forward thanks to people like Subramanian Swamy.
Both of these are Christians. Pranoy James Roy