Sebi scuttled Zee's merger with Sony: Chandra to FM

A week before Japan's Sony Group Corp called off the merger of its local unit with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Subhash Chandra, founder-promoter of the Indian entertainment giant, wrote to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, accusing the country's markets regulator of attempting to scuttle the $10-billion merger.

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At the same time, many minority investors of Zee too have written to the regulator and institutional investors, expressing their outrage at the promoters. While pointing out that the firm's financial performance has deteriorated over the last two years, they urged Sebi and the bigger investors to take immediate action against the board and investigate the matter.

In his 16 January letter, a copy of which Mint has seen, Chandra said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has been acting with a predetermined mind, and sought the minister's intervention to safeguard minority investors. Chandra cited excerpts from an order by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which had overturned a Sebi order barring him and son Punit Goenka from holding any key position in the merged entity.