Zee Entertainment hopes to sign stake sale pact with investors by July

Subhash Chandra-led Zee Entertainment Enterprises on Monday said discussions with identified buyers on selling the promoter’s stake is “progressing well” and it is confident of signing a binding agreement by July. The stake sale, while aimed at helping Zee become a global media-tech player, will also serve to partly trim Essel Group’s (the promoter of Zee) debt of around `20,000 crore, according to analysts.

“With the political uncertainty behind us, we expect the discussion to progress at an accelerated pace,” Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive at Zee, said at Q4FY19 earnings call. The shortlisted players include companies from Japan, India, Europe and the US, Chandra had said earlier.

In November last year, the promoters of Zee Entertainment said they would sell up to 50% stake in the company to a strategic partner (also open to financial investors). In an interview to a local publication in December 2018, Goenka had said the company’s objective was to enable people to consider ZEE as a mainstream media company like a Disney or a Fox or NBC.