New Delhi: Shares of ZEE group companies came under massive selling on Friday, plummeting up to 33 per cent, and suffered a combined erosion of Rs 13,352 crore in market valuation. Dish TV shares crashed 32.74 per cent to close at Rs 22.60 on BSE. Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises plunged 26.43 per cent to Rs 319.35, Zee Learn tumbled 18.49 per cent to Rs 27.55 and Zee Media Corporation slumped 9.05 per cent to end at Rs 22.10. The BSE on Friday sought clarification from Dish TV India with reference to news that a link has emerged between Essel Group and a company being probed for suspect demonetisation deposits. Later in a clarification, the company said, “In this regard, we – Dish TV India, would like to state that there is no information by the company, which in our opinion needs to be reported to the stock exchange and which may have bearing on the stock price of the company.
Further we would also state that the company is not aware of the alleged transactions mentioned in the said news report.” Zee Entertainment Enterprises in a separate clarification to BSE said, at this point in time, the company is unaware of the news item referred in your letter or its source or factual correctness of the information contained therein. The filing also added that there is no information/announcement (including impending announcement) by the company which in our opinion needs to be reported/ disclosed and which may have bearing on the price/ volume behaviour in the company’s scrip. Meanwhile, in an open letter released after market hours Friday, Essel Group promoter Subhash Chandra said his company is in a financial mess and has blamed the same for the aggressive bets on infra, which has gone out of control since the IL&FS crisis and also the acquisition of Videocon’s D2H business.