The Hindu Business Line : Goldman Sachs buys 8.16% in NDTV

Mumbai, April 24 Goldman Sachs last week picked up an 8.16 per cent stake in New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV). This comes when an open offer by the company is around the corner.

Mr Prannoy Roy and his wife Ms Radhika Roy, promoters of NDTV, had, end of last year, announced an open offer to acquire 20 per cent equity stake i.e 12,525,446 shares of the company for Rs 438.98 a share, worth Rs 550 crore.

Open offer

The open offer followed the promoters’ acquisition of 7.73 per cent stake from GA Global Investments in December. Mr Prannoy Roy bought the stake of 48,36,000 shares from the PE Fund. This increased the stake of the promoters to 61 per cent from 53.3 per cent in the company.

The open offer was supposed to commence on February 12 and close on March 3, 2008 but has been delayed.

After the acquisition of 7.73 per cent stake in the company by the promoters from GA Global Investments Ltd, a foreign company, NDTV had informed the BSE that the limit to the extent of 7.73 per cent stands released and accordingly FIIs/NRIs etc can now acquire shares of the company. Last week, the promoters sold their 7.85 per cent stake or more than 49 lakh shares at Rs 435.10 each, according to BSE data. Trading data showed that Goldman Sachs Investment Mauritius bought around 8.16 per cent stake in the media house.

A better deal?

Some analysts feel that they might have got a better deal by selling some stake to Goldman Sachs, compared to their open offer in which investors may not fully tender their shares.

“The open offer will definitely lift the valuations of the stock,” said a media analyst with a brokerage house.

The company had earlier said that it was planning to go in for restructuring, including demerger, according to recent media reports.