“There Is No Question Of Me Not Meeting The Deadline”

Punit Goenka, the 43-year-old Managing Director and CEO of Zee Entertainment, is fondly called ‘Mr Positive’ by his colleagues. Goenka has lived up to his positive and calm image even during the toughest phase of his professional life when the company has to repay a 6,776 crore debt by September 30. The promoters of Zee (part of Essel Group) recently sold 11 per cent stake for 4,224 crore to financial investor Invesco Oppenheimer in a bid to reduce their total debt of 11,000 crore. “It is life as usual,” says Goenka as he stresses that he is confident of repaying the debt. In a conversation with BT’s Ajita Shashidhar, he talks about how he has been approaching the debt crisis and his plans after he gets done with the repayment. Edited excerpts:

- Ajita Shashidhar

Last few months must have been a roller coaster ride for you, not just from a business point of view but also emotionally. What did you tell yourself?

It’s not so much emotional for me, (but) it’s been a learning process. It is something that I need to learn from, that is how I am looking at it. I need to come out of it and that’s what I am doing.

Have you been spending long hours at work meeting prospective buyers?

It’s the same as before. Nothing has changed. Earlier, I just had the company to run, now debt repayment has become the second part of my job. The number of hours that I put in at work is actually the same.

What lessons have you learnt in the last few months, ever since the debt crisis broke out?

The two things I have learnt are that every opportunity needs to be studied thoroughly before one commits to it; one needs to know how much to commit and how much not to commit. Secondly, resolution of issues needs to be handled piece by piece rather than trying for an overnight solution. Overnight solutions don’t work.

Now that you have sold the majority stake in your best performing asset, Zee Entertainment, what do you see as the future of this company?

Nothing changes in Zee Entertainment. It has been business as usual, apart from the fact that the promoters won’t own as much of the stake as they did. The company has been functioning as it is, safe from the economic issues that we are facing in the short term. The company is poised to do well going forward as well. We will continue investments in Zee5; we are going to continue investments in the linear business too. There is still a lot of growth left in the media sector.

Your team at Zee must have been feeling uncertain amidst all the chatter about the debt crisis? What do you tell them?