India’s National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is reserving its order on the controversial merger plan between Sony’s India division and Zee Enterprises.
Sony’s local business is Culver Max Entertainment and has been planning a merger with Subhash Chandra-backed Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL). NCLT is pausing so that the two parties can make further submissions to the Tribunal.
Senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas representing ZEEL stated that non-creditor objectors in the matter, who are not even the company’s creditors, are holding the merger to ransom.
“Currently, 70 per cent of the equity is held by the public institutions, who are lenders, while about 25.88 per cent is held by public non-institutions, and merely 3.99 per cent is held by promoters,” argued Dwarkadas.
Dwarkadas’ reference to ‘the promotors’ is a reference to the Chandra family.
