Scripting a survival
Zee’s founding family plots a twist in the tale and stays in control
Punit Goenka, Managing Director and promoter of Zee Entertainment, on Thursday said the battle with Invesco was about preserving the future of Zee, and not his position.
"This fight is to ensure the company continues to gain immense growth opportunities and becomes a stronger and more formidable player in the Media & Entertainment sector. We should not let anyone impact the future of ZEE or diminish the shareholder value it has been consistently generating over the years," Goenka said in an open letter.
This comes a day after Reliance Industries debunked Goenka's claim that an offer to merge Reliance's media business with Zee was undervaluing Zee shareholders. Invesco had disclosed that Goenka himself was negotiating the merger deal with Reliance, before he went ahead with a proposal to merge ZEE with Sony Pictures.
"During my briefing to the Board, I emphasised on the points pertaining to the proposal from Invesco. My attention was on the imbalance observed in the valuation and how it was not in the best interest of our shareholders. The only reason I did not agree to the proposal was because shareholder value was getting compromised. I will withstand any amount of pressure to preserve ZEE’s intrinsic value and ensure that nothing impacts the returns being delivered to all the shareholders," Goenka said.
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The genesis of the current battle was Inevsco's demand to oust Goenka from ZEE 's board citing corporate governance issues. Goenka questioned Invesco's initial letter to the company board, which did not disclose the offer from Reliance. "I have some questions as well. Why didn’t Invesco make its plans public earlier? Does good corporate governance only apply to corporates and not their institutional investors? As a law-abiding citizen and a representative of a responsible corporate citizen, I have and repose complete faith in the Indian judicial and regulatory system and hence I am most certain that these questions will be answered for all of us," Goenka said.