NEW DELHI: The Essel Group owned by media baron Subhash Chandra on Tuesday announced plans to sell around 50 per cent of its promoters’ equity in Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), the group’s media arm, to a strategic partner.
The promoter and promoter group firms hold 41.62 per cent stake in ZEEL as of September 2018. The company said it has appointed Goldman Sachs Securities India as the investment banker and the multinational LionTree as an international strategic advisor for the deal, which is expected to be closed around March-April next year.
“Even though our business is on a strong footing, given our global ambitions and the rapidly converging world of content and technology, we have decided to get a strategic partner with a strong technological expertise and global reach, which will help us achieve our ambitions faster,” agencies quoted ZEEL managing director and chief executive Punit Goenka as saying.
“The move will also transform us from a content only entity to a content-technology company, which can thrive in the new digital world,” Goenka said.