ZEE shares in focus as firm seeks extension of timeline to complete Sony merger

Shares of ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd will be in focus on Monday morning after the media firm in a filing to stock exchanges said it has asked Bangla Entertainment Private Limited (BEPL) and Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited (formerly known as Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited) to extend the date required to make the merger scheme effective, as per the terms of the merger cooperation agreement.

"Pursuant to Regulation 30 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (‘LODR Regulations’), we hereby inform you that pursuant to the Merger Cooperation Agreement dated December 22, 2021 entered into amongst the Company, BEPL and CMEPL, the company has requested CMEPL and BEPL to extend the Date required to make the Scheme effective, as per the terms of the Merger Cooperation Agreement," ZEE informed stock exchanges.

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Earlier on Saturday, ZEE suggested that the resolutions to re-appoint Vivek Mehra and Sasha Mirchandani as independent directors failed to get requisite majority of votes, as required under Section 149 (10) of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Regulation 25 (2A) of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. ZEE has appointed Venkata Ramana Murthy Pinisetti, Shishir Babubhai Desai and Uttam Prakash Agarwal as Additional Directors in the category of independent directors of the company, ZEE said.

To recall, ZEE had in September 2021 entered into a non-binding term sheet with Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited to bring together their production operations, digital assets, linear networks and programme libraries. As per the deal,  Sony shareholders would be holding 50.86 per cent of the combined entity, while Zee’s promoters will hold 3.99 per ecnt. Zee ‘s shareholders will be holding the remaining 45.15 per cent.

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