Lenders Sold Rs 600-Crore Zee Shares Pledged By Promoters In Two Months
Essel Group’s lenders sold Rs 600 crore worth of Zee shares pledged as collateral by Subhash Chandra-led promoters in April, May.
Lenders to Essel Group sold Rs 600 crore worth of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.’s shares pledged as a collateral by Subhash Chandra-led promoters in April and May.
While lenders had agreed to a standstill with the Essel Group, not all mutual funds, including Reliance Mutual Fund, were part of the pact. Zee Entertainment, however, didn’t disclose which entity sold the pledged stake.
The shareholding of Cyquator Media Services Pvt. Ltd., a promoter group firm, declined from 22.80 percent in the broadcaster as of March to 21.15 percent by June 7, according to exchange filings.
Nearly 1.58 crore shares were sold since April 1. These are worth Rs 600 crore based on the average stock price in April and May. Bulk of these were offloaded by Catalyst Trusteeship Ltd., Axis Trustee Services Ltd. and IDBI Trusteeship Services Ltd. on behalf of the debenture holders.
Lenders have sold nearly 4 percent in the broadcaster pledged by Cyquator since September after the Zee Entertainment stock tumbled over promoter debt concerns. Essel Group then struck a standstill agreement till September-end with lenders, primarily mutual funds, having an exposure of Rs 13,500 crore to loans against shares of Zee Entertainment and Dish TV Ltd.
The promoter group is expected to announce a plan to sell stake in Zee Entertainment by the end of this month or early July, and complete the process by September.
The lenders appointed former banker PJ Nayak as the mediator for all dealings, a senior executive in the mutual fund industry said. He didn’t want to be identified as the information is not public yet. This has been done to ensure uniform communication is shared with all the parties as interaction with multiple lenders has its own challenges, he said.