Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ Subhash Chandra has agreed to sell 11% stake to the Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund, the media magnate said on Wednesday. Oppenheimer, which is already a shareholder with 7.74% stake in the company, is purchasing the additional shares for $614 million.
Abneesh Roy, analyst at Edelweiss Securities, opined the decision to sell to Oppenheimer was perfect for Chandra. It’d help him to repay the debt nearly $1.8 billion at the group level.
The news of the extra stake sale to Oppenheimer was open a day after widespread reports in Indian media that a group of companies in the U.S. including Atairos, Blackstone and James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems had submitted an offer to buy out the share. The multibillionaire and India's richest man Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio was also in the queue.
It came to the light in the month of November that Chandra was gearing up to sell half of his then 41.6% stake in Zee; India’s first home-grown private broadcaster. Zee has the highest number of channels in the country and it telecasts across the globe.
