Zee may tap private equity investors for stake sale as Sony talks fail

Zee Entertainment Ente­rprises is said to be considering tapping private equity (PE) investors as part of their stake sale process after the breakdown in talks with Sony.

Zee’s promoters had been in talks with multiple investors to offload 20-25 per cent stake from their shareholding of around 40 per cent, as they wanted to pay off loans taken against their shares.

Around 59 per cent of the promoters’ stake in the Essel group company was pledged to lenders as of December 2018. And, Japa­nese entertainment major Sony Corporation and Comcast-Atairos were the frontrunners in the race for the Zee promoters’ stake.