Zee Entertainment, IndusInd Bank Announce Settlement, NCLAT Disposes of Appeal

According to media reports, Zee Entertainment and IndusInd Bank announced on Monday that all outstanding payments between the two parties had been made. The appeal has been decided by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

In March 2023, the two businesses informed NCLAT that they had resolved their payment disagreement. This cleared the way for the Sony transaction.

IndusInd Bank sought to initiate insolvency proceedings against Zee in February. This action could have jeopardized the merger by halting all transactions, including asset transfers.

In its complaint, IndusInd Bank accused the Subhash Chandra-backed media and entertainment company of defaulting by Rs 83.08 crore.

Sony and Zee agreed to merge their linear networks, digital assets, production businesses, and program libraries in December 2021. A legal dispute with lenders over loan defaults by a Zee group entity is one of the factors that have caused the deal to be delayed.

Due to an alleged fund diversion, the SEBI issued an ex-parte interim order on June 12 prohibiting Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka from holding any directorships or key managerial positions in listed entities. Chandra and Goenka challenged this ban. However, the SAT had reserved its decision on the petitions submitted by the two people questioning SEBI’s interim order on June 27.

Goenka stated that the merger between ZEE Entertainment and Sony will go through an exclusive interview with the Economic Times. “Regardless of my role as CEO, the ZEE-Sony merger is of utmost importance. Sony will be in charge of the resulting entity, and they have decided to keep me on as a promoter, MD, and CEO,” he had previously stated.

The insolvency proceedings against the media company were suspended by the NCLAT, an appeals court, last month.

The Sony deal had all the required approvals, but according to a lawyer for Zee, the start of corporate insolvency proceedings would cause it to be put on hold.

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Zee’s shareholders and India’s antitrust regulator had both given their approval to the merger, which had been planned for longer than Zed had initially stated.