NDTV’s largest investors sell shares in bulk deals

LTS Investment Fund Limited, a foreign portfolio investor in NDTV, sold over 5.46 lakh of its shares in the company network in a bulk deal on Wednesday. LTS, which held 9.75 percent of NDTV shares, sold the shares for Rs 358.53 each.

In all, the investor sold 0.84 percent of its stake in NDTV, bringing its holding in the company down to 8.9 percent. 

LTS is a curious investor. Nearly 98 percent of its investment in India is in four companies of the Adani group. It is thus seen as a holding vehicle for large investors who favour Adani.

LTS, based in Mauritius, purchased its stake in NDTV in 2016 and is the largest shareholder in the network after the founders, Radhika and Prannoy Roy, and their promotor vehicle RRPRH. 

The latest installment of our 'Who Owns Your Media' series explains NDTV’s ownership pattern in detail. Read.

The Adani group’s open offer to NDTV shareholders, meanwhile, came to an end on Monday, with 31.79 percent of the 167 lakh shares subscribed. This is 8.26 percent of the company’s total shares. Along with RRPRH shares transferred to VCPL has made Adani the majority shareholder of NDTV, holding 37 percent of the news company.

The other main shareholder in NDTV is another Mauritius-based portfolio investor Vikasa India EIF I Fund, which holds 4.42 percent of NDTV shares. Vikasa India too sold NDTV shares in bulk deals over the last few days, according to filings submitted to the National Stock Exchange. 

A bulk deal, as explained in this  Hindu BusinessLine article, is when an investor buys or sells more than 0.5 per cent of the outstanding equity shares of a company listed on the exchange. Such a deal is usually done by institutional investors, mutual funds and high net worth individuals for a high transaction value and is expected to signal institutional moves to small investors.

Since the investors participating in bulk deals are considered to be more informed about the opportunities and risks facing a company, the pricing and timing of these transactions help investors understand how the interest in the stock is changing. 

Coming back to bulk deals of NDTV shares, Vikasa India sold a total of 1,320,720 shares or 2.05 percent of its stake in three bulk deals over the last week, bringing down its hold in the company to 2.37 percent from 4.42 percent.

The company sold 3,89,119 shares of NDTV in a bulk deal at Rs 414.54 per share on December 2. Three days later, Vikasa India sold 4,59,903 more shares at Rs 394.08. On December 6, it sold 4,71,698 more shares for Rs 375.39 a share. 

While the list of investors who tendered their shares in the open offer has not been disclosed yet, exchange data reveals that corporate investors offered the most with 39 lakh shares. Retail investors, meanwhile, tendered over seven lakh shares and qualified institutional buyers six lakh shares.

The shares tendered in the open offer were offered at a steep discount. The share price in the open offer was Rs 294 while NDTV shares were trading much higher at around Rs 426. 

Read our report to see what this all means. 

In the market, NDTV is currently trading at Rs 339.

Last week, the Roys quit as directors of RRPRH with immediate effect. They were followed out the network by veteran journalist Ravish Kumar.