Essel Group to sell up to 16.5% stake in Zee Entertainment to financial investors: Report

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Essel Group plans to sell 16.5 percent stake in its flagship company  Zee Entertainment Enterprises to financial investors, CNBC-TV18 reported.

The stake sale will be to clear loan obligations to certain lenders of the group.

Of the 16.5 percent, 2.3 percent will be sold to OFI Global China Fund -- a subsidiary of Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund -- which already held 8.7 percent stake in the media company.

Invesco Oppenheimer Fund – one of the oldest investors of Zee – had in August agreed to buy out an additional 11 percent stake in Zee from its promoters for Rs 4,224 crore. The fund already held a 7.74 percent stake in Zee as of June 2019.

Promoter and promoter group held 22.37 percent equity shares in Zee Entertainment, of which 96 percent was pledged with lenders, as per shareholding data available on the exchanges.

Subhash Chandra along with his family owes over Rs 7,000 crore to domestic lenders, including mutual funds, and Russian lender VTB.

After the transaction, the total holding of Essel Group in Zee will come down to around 5 percent, while the encumbered holdings will be down to around 1.1 percent of Zee from 10.7 percent earlier.