NCLT Adjourns Hearing In Sony-Zee Merger Case To July 10

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Thursday decided to adjourn hearing in the Sony-Zee merger case to July 10, 2023. The NCLT bench led by judicial member HV Subba Rao, and a technical member, Madhu Sinha, is hearing the matter, according to a report in The Economic Times.

Appearing for Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), Senior Advocate Janak Dwarkadas said that the scheme of arrangement between ZEEL, Culver Max Entertainment (Sony) has been approved by 99.97% of shareholders of the company and regulatory bodies like the BSE, NSE, and the Competition Commission of India (CCI). On the issue of the non-compete fee that Sony will pay ZEEL promoters, Dwarkadas argued that the Rs 1,100 crore will be redeployed as share capital into the merged entity, added the The Economic Times report.

Earlier, in September 2021, Sony Pictures Networks India and ZEEL entered into a non-binding term sheet to bring together their linear networks, digital assets, production operations and programme libraries, as per the PTI report.

The combined entity will own over 70 TV channels, two video streaming services (ZEE5 and Sony LIV) and two film studios (Zee Studios and Sony Pictures Films India), making it the largest entertainment network in India.

Shareholders of ZEEL had given their ascent to the merger last year in October weeks after the fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India gave its conditional nod with some modifications, added the PTI report.