Zee Denies Reports of Renewed Talks with Sony for Merger

21 Feb 2024 , 10:41 AM

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. stated on Tuesday that the company is ‘not involved in any negotiations’ and that the rumours of new talks with Sony to resurrect the abandoned merger proposal are untrue.

Zee Entertainment responded to a news article regarding the alleged resumption of talks with Sony by saying, ‘We would like to clarify that Company has not been involved in any negotiations,’ in a stock exchange filing.

Tuesday saw an intraday gain of more than 10% in the media company’s shares. Zee’s shares on the BSE ended Tuesday’s trading 8% higher at ₹193.

‘We wish to clarify that the Company is not aware of any information that has not been announced to the exchanges which could explain the movement in the trading,’ stated Zee.

As ET reported earlier today, representatives from both parties have been trying to save the agreement, with efforts to bring the merger back gaining steam over the last two weeks.

According to the article, there’s a risk that the talks won’t succeed because there are still a lot of unsolved issues and both sides are adamant about their stances.

Due to unresolved ‘closing conditions’ and leadership conflicts, notably differences on CEO Punit Goenka’s involvement in regulatory matters, Sony terminated its merger with Zee.

After two years of planning, the Zee-Sony merger would have produced an Indian television behemoth with over 90 stations covering sports.

Sony Group Corporation (SGC) filed for arbitration before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) claiming $90 million (about ₹748.5 Crore) as a termination fee after ZEEL failed to meet the merger criteria.

In an application submitted to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), ZEEL requested that Sony Group be instructed to carry out the merger plan. 

Sony Group’s interim request to stop ZEEL from using NCLT to enforce the failed merger was rejected by SIAC on February 4.

Sony has already received notice from the Mumbai bench of the NCLT regarding a petition that was filed in this regard.

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