MUMBAI: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday dismissed IDBI Bank’s insolvency plea against Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), clearing decks for the merger of Subhash Chandra-promoted company with Sony Entertainment.
IDBI moved to the bankruptcy court in December last year after ZEEL defaulted on a loan of Rs 149 crore from the lender. The Mumbai bench of NCLT, led by judicial member Kishore Vemulapalli and technical member Prabhat Kumar in its oral order dismissed an application filed by the IDBI Bank.
In December 2022, ZEEL informed the bourses that IDBI Bank, claiming to be a financial creditor, filed the petition before the NCLT bench. IDBI claimed an amount of Rs 149.60 crore, which has been disputed by ZEEL. IDBI, in its application, demanded the initiation of an Insolvency Resolution Process against ZEEL.
The merger between Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and ZEEL is expected to be completed by the first half of the current fiscal year, Sony Corp CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said on Thursday. Zee and Sony signed definitive agreements in December 2021 to merge their businesses. The proposal has received approvals from the BSE, NSE and ZEEL shareholders. CCI has also approved the merger with modifications.
Under the terms of the proposed deal, Sony Pictures Entertainment will indirectly hold a majority of 50.86% in the combined company, while the founders of Zee will own 3.99 %, and 45.15% will be with the other shareholders of Zee. Sony will also pay a non-compete fee of Rs 1,100 crore to Essel Group promoters.