Essel Group to sell 16.5% stake in ZEEL

Essel Group has said that it is planning to sell an additional 16.5% stake in ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) to meet its repayment obligations.

LiveMint reports that the deal includes the 2.3% stake sale to OFI Global China Fund. The sale will see Subhash Chandra’s stake drop to around 5%.

A statement from Essel Group said, “The group seeks to sell up to approximately 16.5% stake in ZEEL to financial investors, in order to repay loan obligations to certain lenders of the group for whose benefit such shares are currently encumbered (and who have consented to such share sale by the group). Out of the aforesaid, the group seeks to sell about 2.3% stake in ZEEL to OFI Global China Fund, Llc and/or its affiliates.”

Earlier, Essel Group sold 11% of its stake to Invesco-Oppenheimer fund for over Rs 4,224 crore and then retired debt worth Rs 4,000 crore.

“This development reaffirms the Group’s positive progress on its overall asset divestment approach, undertaken to generate adequate liquidity for the repayment process. The Group is also working actively on further divestments including its medial non-media assets and remains confident to complete the same,” it added.