SpiceJet's Ajay Singh set to take control of NDTV, total deal value seen Rs 600 cr, says report

SpiceJet’s chairman and managing director Ajay Singh is all set to buy a controlling stake in media company NDTV for a total consideration of Rs 600 crore, according to a report in The Indian Express citing a source.

However, there is no confirmation of the development from both the sides. Reacting to the news, the shares of NDTV rose 5 percent to Rs 53.10.

“Yes, the deal has been finalised and Ajay Singh will take control of NDTV along with editorial rights,” a source has been quoted as saying in the report.

The source has told the newspaper that after the deal Singh will hold 40 percent stake in the company and founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy will hold 20 percent each.

The Roys and the holding company RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd is being probed by the CBI for an illegal share transaction that happened in 2008.

The investigative agency had in June week searched the houses of the Roys for allegedly causing financial losses to ICICI Bank in connection with the transaction.

The agency has registered a case against Roy, his wife, a private company and conducted searches at Prannoy Roy’s south Delhi residence in Greater Kailash-I and his house in Dehradun for “loss of Rs 48 crore” to the bank.

Prannoy Roy has maintained that the CBI case against him was “ridiculous and a concocted set of facts” and that he and his wife Radhika Roy “never touched black money and never bribed even a single person” in their lives.

Singh has been an entrepreneur and also part of the BJP’s election campaign in 2014.

According to the IE report, the transaction will include Rs 400 crore debt of NDTV. Of the total deal value, the Roys will get up to Rs 100 crore, says the report.