Thread by @churumuri

🪡 The “hostile” bid by Gautam Adani to take over #NDTV has resulted in shock, sadness, and schadenfreude.

But who offered the channel, the baby of @PrannoyRoyNDTV and his wife Radhika Roy—to Adani behind their backs?

Could it be Mukesh Ambani, who saved it 13 years ago?

Why?

2️⃣ The way @timesofindia puts it, @gautam_adani’s acquisition route was simple.

Adani bought the Roys’ stake in @ndtv by buying up Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd (VCPL), from two shareholders: Nextwave Televentures and Eminent Networks, for Rs 114 crore.

This gave him 29%.

3️⃣ VCPL, Nextwave and Eminent share the same 4th floor address in Gurgaon.

The common director in all three companies with the same director identification number (00548276) is a Anil Kumar Jain.

Is he an Ambani man or a front? Jain sits on more than boards.

4️⃣ ‘Mint’, the business paper of the @HindustanTimes group, says both Nextwave and Eminent are linked to Mahendra Nahata of Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL).

However, it is unsure of when VCPL came into the hands of the two companies. @livemint

5️⃣ Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance had acquired Infotel Broadband, which owned spectrum in 22 zones, from Mahendra Nahata, in 2010.

It was on HFCL’s scaffolding @reliancejio was built.

Nahata now sits on the board of Reliance Infocomm with Ambani & Sons.

Read: tinyurl.com/yfhp3t6m

6️⃣ The @EconomicTimes reports that Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd was sold to the Adani Group “last week”.

It quotes Surendra Lunia, managing director of “Infotel Group”, as saying that he owned VCPL for the last 10 years.

VCPL had lent Rs 403.85 crore to NDTV in 2009-10.

7️⃣ Surendra Lunia was CEO of Mahendra Nahata’s HFCL Infotel Group till 2010.

Lunia is an investor in Rajat Sharma’s India TV which has the shadow backing of Mukesh Ambani.

Lunia also sits on the board of Infotel Telecom Limited, which operates out of RIL headquarters in Mumbai.

8️⃣ @IndianExpress reports that the VCPL loan to NDTV, routed through various Reliance front companies, was free of interest.

Rs 403.85 crore without interest for 13 years.

@scroll_in reports that NDTV never returned the loan it took from VCPL.

Read: tinyurl.com/2p8fjmc6

9️⃣ All this raises the obvious questions:

# Why did Mukesh Ambani suddenly run out of patience?

# Why did he feel the need to gift @ndtv to his biggest competitor?

# Was he pushed into doing so? If so on what terms?

# Would he have really given in without informing the Roys?

1️⃣0️⃣ #NDTV says VCPL has acquired control of the Roys’ stake “without any input from, conversation with, or consent of” @ndtv founders.

Its viewers, its admirers and its wellwishers could well ask why they were never told of the Ambani hand for so long.
ndtv.com/communication/…