Sony revives talks with Essel Group to buy Zee Entertainment

Sony Corp has revived talks with Essel Group to buy a majority stake in Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE). Sony has been in talks with Essel Group over deal valuation and the structure of the deal. Earlier, Sony’s bid to buy Zee had been called off following differences in valuation. Mounting pressure from lenders and assurance of policy stability are the main reasons, which have led to the revival of talks. Sony will get right of first refusal on any future stake sale in Zee once the deal has been finalized.

Sony wanted promoters to reduce the stake in Zee to below 10 percent. Promoters currently hold 38.20 percent stake in the company as on March 31, 2019. The present market capitalization of Zee is around Rs 35,500 crore. In November last year, Essel had announced that the company will sell a part of its stake in Zee Entertainment to a global strategic investor.