Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Corporate drama often holds key personal finance lessons. And if you learn anything from the Adani-NDTV saga that’s been playing out over the past 48 hours, let it be this: 

High debt can be very dangerous. 

And if you let it get over your head, it can pull the rug from under you. 

Without warning. 

Like on Tuesday, when Adani Enterprises—the flagship of the Adani Group—dropped a bombshell. It would, the company told stock exchanges, buy a ~29% stake in broadcast and digital news network NDTV Ltd., and make an open offer to buy an additional 26% from public shareholders. 

To say this was a surprise is an understatement, and it came as one even to NDTV’s promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. NDTV’s statement says that the move was “executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of” its founders. 

That’s because Adani’s stake purchase was an “indirect” one—made possible by a decade-old debt that has finally come home to roost. 

And there may be some twists left in the tale yet.