ZEE Entertainment shares fell 6% today; here's why

Shares of ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) saw its shares falling 5 per cent in Monday's trade as reports suggested an FIR was registered by CBI against founder Subhash Chandra for allegedly inflating his net worth to avail loans from the Life Insurance Corporation Housing Finance Limited (LICHFL), and later becoming a defaulter.

Subhash Chandra is among ZEEL promoters, as of June 2026, as per data available with BSE. Following the development, the stock fell 5.07 per cent to hit a low of Rs 86.70 apiece. The stock is up 9.22 per cent in the past six months.

As per a PTI report dated September 5, LICHFL alleged in its complaint, which is now part of the FIR, that Chandra submitted inflated his net worth to secure approval and disbursal of two loans totalling Rs 980 crore.

The complaint was relateed to a Rs 500-crore facility extended to Vasant Sagar Properties Pvt Ltd, with Pan India Infraprojects Pvt Ltd as co-borrower, and a Rs 480-crore facility sanctioned to Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd, with Spirit Infrapower and Multiventures Pvt Ltd as co-borrower.

LICHFL was among the lenders that approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) opposing a recent NCLT repayment plan that would allow creditors to recover only about Rs 6.5 crore from Chandra’s personal estate, against claims of roughly Rs 22,006 crore.

Earlier, a five-member special bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) stayed the operation of the August 25 verdict passed by a single-member bench of the tribunal, which had allowed Chandra to settle his personal insolvency proceedings.

Chandra had earlier offered to pay Rs 6.25 crore to his creditors against claims of over Rs 22,000 crore. Essel Group, for whom the flagship is ZEE, made a foray into infrastructure – this included power transmission, road construction and solar energy – for which the promoters had pledged their shares of ZEEL. It transpired later that Chandra had provided personal guarantees or that he would be responsible for the repayments. That blew into a full-blown crisis leading to now lenders potentially losing 99.97 per cent of the receivables.