Business conglomerate Essel Group said its lenders have unanimously agreed to extend the timeline for making pending payments. The extension, it added, will enable the group to optimise the value output from sale of its assets.
“The timeline was requested purely in the interest of deriving the right value of the precious assets of the Group,” it said in a statement on September 25, adding that Essel Group remains confident on further divestments, including its non-media assets.
Sources told Moneycontrol that Essel Group has received a six months extension to repay dues from Aditya Birla Asset Management Company, HDFC AMC, Franklin Templeton AMC, and three others.
On September 20, the group had said it was in a steady and progressive dialogue with all lenders. It had also asked its lenders to extend its September 30 deadline for repayment of debt of around Rs 7,500 crore owed to few mutual funds and non-banking institutions.
The statement comes in the backdrop of speculation that Kotak Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund had sold 7.25 million shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) that were pledged by its promoters. The sales were executed for over Rs 200 crore on September 23 as per data available on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
As of June 30, the promoters held over 35 percent stake in the company. Of this, around 210 million shares were pledged.
Reports suggest that lenders to Zee have recovered nearly 50 percent of their outstanding dues.
As of December 2018, the promoters have obligations of around Rs 13,000 crore to lenders, with borrowings by its businesses around Rs 16,237 crore. Subhash Chandra, Chairman of Essel Group, met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on September 23.
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