The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has accepted the plea from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited shareholder Mad Men Films, requesting the implementation of the abandoned merger with the Indian arm of a Japanese company. As per a CNBC-TV18 report on January 30, the shareholder’s counsel argued that the two media companies should proceed with the merger plan, previously approved by the NCLT, which aimed to create a $10-billion media giant.
The NCLT has issued a notice to Sony Pictures Network, instructing them to respond to the shareholder’s petition within three weeks. It rejected Sony’s argument that the NCLT approval was conditional and dependent on various conditions being fulfilled or waived off in writing.
The case is scheduled for a hearing on March 12. Sony officially called off the merger on January 22, citing Zee’s failure to meet certain financial terms and address them in a plan. Zee denied the allegations and accused the Japanese company of acting in “bad faith.”
In response, some of Zee’s public shareholders have written to the company, seeking details on the events leading to the termination of the merger agreement. The Zee stock saw an 8.9% surge in the morning following reports of an emergency arbitration hearing in Singapore on January 31 regarding the abandoned Zee-Sony merger. According to CNBC-TV18, Zee had approached both the NCLT and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre against Sony Pictures on January 24. As of 1:30 pm, the stock was trading at Rs 170.60, reflecting a 5.47% increase from the previous close.
