The announcement was made after the market hours and the stock ended at Rs 160.34 on the NSE on Monday, up by Rs 4.84 or 3.11% over the closing price on Friday.
Zee Entertainment shares have been market laggards and have seen their price erode by over 30% in the past 12 months. On the year-to-date basis, the correction has been even sharp at 44%.
The steady decline in Zee’s share price was mainly after the company’s merger deal with Sony failed to see the light of the day. Sony Group withdrew agreement to merge its India operations with Zee, scrapping a two-year-old plan that sought to create a $10 billion media giant. The Japanese entertainment firm had made multiple filings to India’s National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to pull out of the merger pact with Zee.
Sony had sent the termination notice to Zee on January 22 for failing to meet the merger agreement conditions and sought $90 million in break-up fees. Zee “categorically” denied that it had breached the pact announced in December 2021.It was followed by ZMCL’s CEO Abhay Ojha’s termination in May. The company, however, did not elaborate the reasons for his termination, a PTI report said.