No criminal conspiracy by ICICI officials in NDTV loan repayment case: CBI

There was no collusion, criminal conspiracy or abuse of position by officials of ICICI Bank in accepting repayment of a loan at a reduced rate of interest from promoters of NDTV Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, the CBI has concluded in its closure report in the 2017 case.

The CBI FIR registered on the basis of a complaint from Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities Ltd had alleged that ICICI Bank had sanctioned a loan of Rs 375 crore in 2008 against the entire 61 per cent shareholding of the promoters as collateral.

The bank had allegedly accepted the repayment of the loan by reducing the interest rate from 19 per cent per annum to 9.5 per causing a wrongful loss of Rs 48 crore to the bank and corresponding gain to the promoters, it had said.

 

The central investigation agency after nearly seven years of probe came to the conclusion that the reduction of the rate of interest from from 19 per cent to 9.65 per cent as approved on August 5, 2009 was based on various factors -- borrowers' inability to pay, weak financial performance of NDTV, timely payments in the past, volatile share price, etc, officials in the know of the development said.

The CBI, which filed its closure report last month, also said that the reduction of the rate of interest for NDTV was not a "one-off incident". The repayment of the loan at the reduced interest was "higher than average cost of funds", they said.

The central probe agency also found a forensic audit of the case conducted by Pramod Kumar and Associates which termed the repayment to be a "normal business transaction and closure of loan" with no violation of the Banking Regulation Act.

In 2022, the Adani Group acquired a controlling stake in NDTV, purchasing shares from the Roys at a premium of nearly 17 per cent over the price paid to minority shareholders.

The CBI found no merit in the allegation that the loan proposal of RRPR, promoter of NDTV, was accorded a BB rating yet it was sanctioned and disbursed, they said.

The agency has said that loan proposals worth Rs 8400 crore having BB rating were sanctioned by ICICI Bank in 2008-09 and 2009-10 which shows that the sanction of loan to RRPR was "not an isolated case" and the bank had been sanctioning loans to such companies, officials said.

NDTV promoters had taken the loan from ICICI Bank to foreclose the liability to India Bulls on a personal guarantee of Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy and a "contractual comfort of shares" of NDTV under NDU-POA (Non-Disposal Undertakings-Power of Attorney) in favour of ICICI Bank for financial and projected operations of the channel.

The CBI found that the proposal note dated October 10, 2008, mentioned that NDTV's share value accepted by ICICI Bank was Rs 535 crore which was 1.42 times the loan amount of Rs 375 crore.

The agency found that the volatile share price of NDTV and the six-month average price of share value pegged contractual comfort to be Rs 1555 crore which was beyond the "threshhold limit of 30 per cent of paid-up capital of the company" as per the Banking Regulations Act.

The allegations of non-disclosure of the pledge of the share to market regulator Sebi by NDTV promoters did not hold water in the CBI probe.

The agency found that the provision of foreclosure of pledged shares was inserted in Sebi (SAST) Regulations 1991 with effect from January 28, 2009, whereas the pledge in the case was made in 2008, they said.

There was "no requirement" to take permission from SEBI for entering into an agreement of securing loan under NDU-POA Agreement, they said.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting also said that the company was not required to take permission from MIB regarding the pledge of collateral of shareholding with any financial company as per government's guidelines.

Following the registration of the FIR in 2017, the CBI had conducted searches at the premises of NDTV and its promoters. One more FIR was registered later for alleged violation of FIPB norms in which the probe is still going on.

NDTV, following searches conducted on June 5, 2017, stated that the ?375 crore loan from ICICI Bank, which it was accused of defaulting on, had been repaid over seven years ago.

The company also asserted that the allegation of failing to disclose the pledging of shares to SEBI was "incorrect and false".

"NDTV and its promoters have never defaulted on any loan to ICICI or any other bank. We adhere to the highest levels of integrity and independence," the company had emphasised.