Subhash Chandra is no stranger to corporate battles, but the 71-year-old chairman of the Essel group and founder of Zee TV wants to move on from the current set of controversies by offering an olive branch to lenders.
Chandra, who ceded control of flagship Zee Entertainment Enterprises to Sony Pictures Networks India, says he wants to “move on in life” and carve a new niche in the media space. “I started Zee in 1992 with just Rs 9 crore and made it a billion-dollar company. I still have a lot of fire left to begin afresh. In any case, digital ventures don’t need a lot of money,” he said.
In an extensive conversation with FE on Tuesday, Chandra said that he’s willing to walk out of his DTH venture, Dish TV, if the company’s largest stakeholder Yes Bank decides which role it wants to play – that of a shareholder or a lender – and allows him to settle his dues honourably.
“My brother (Jawahar Goel) is willing to step down as chairman and managing director of Dish TV if that’s what Yes Bank wants, but then they need to decide what they are, a shareholder or lender,” Chandra said. “If they feel that we are not running the company well, they should take over, but then they have to be clear that they are a shareholder, not a lender,” he added.
Chandra said that he’s reached out to Yes Bank and asked them to suggest the way forward but has not got a satisfactory response from them so far. He said that he’s even willing for a third-party mediation to resolve the Dish TV problem as he wants to move ahead.
Chandra said that he’s been able to clear around 91% of his debts with lenders and if the Dish TV matter is resolved, he would be able to clear the balance.
About piling up a huge debt of around Rs 16,000 crore way back in 2019, of which around Rs 11,000 crore were owed to banks and NBFCs, Chandra said he accepts he made mistakes but added he has no regrets. “I made mistakes but they were good intention mistakes. I have no regrets and have faced the mistakes honourably,” he said, adding that he should not have got into unrelated areas like infrastructure and when the businesses were not working should have exited rather than pumping more money into them.
Chandra’s family, which owns a stake of 5.93% in Dish TV, recently faced a big setback and embarrassment when the results of an annual general meeting held at the end of December 2021 were declared on March 8 following a direction from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
The shareholders had rejected all the three proposals mooted by the promoters – the re-appointment of Ashok Mathai Kurien as director and two other ordinary resolutions, including adoption of financial statements. Chandra accepted the embarrassment stating, “It has never happened that the accounts of a company have not been approved in the AGM.”
Yes Bank had acquired a stake in Dish TV after private entities owned by Chandra’s Essel Group had defaulted on the Rs 5,270-crore loan taken from the bank. The bank had then decided to invoke the pledged shares and acquired the shareholding in May 2020.
Chandra said that he’s meanwhile busy building new businesses centered around digital publishing in Zee Media Network where the family has clear 26% shares, which are not pledged.
The focus is on scaling up ventures like India.com and Zeenews.com to unlock value. “In the last one year, the monthly active users (MAUs) of these two sites have grown from 100 million to 300 million,” he said. “The Times of India is the number one in this space with 400 MAUs but then they also add the share of MX Player, which is an entertainment channel. So, overall, we are at No. 2 in this space and if only the news space is taken, we are No. 1,” Chandra added.
He said that he’s pursuing a three-pronged strategy centering around content, technology and monetisation to take the MAU to 1 billion over the next three years.
Talking about the new space where’s he creating tech offerings, Chandra said that there’s an app called Bazinga, which can be accessed on TV as well, where there’s game show, where the lowest bidder wins a prize, so one can win products for as low as Rs 1/2. Currently, this game show runs in Kerala.
Chandra also talked about scaling up the English news channel Wion which provides international news coverage. He said that 58% viewership of the channel comes from the international market. “On YouTube, the channel has 90 million users. It has a viewership higher than BBC but lower than CNN. It’s the only global news channel from the Asian region apart from Al Jazeera,” he said, adding that he plans to take its viewership to 500 million in the next five years. In the days to come, he plans to make Wion a more interactive channel.
Chandra said that he’s working in the area of Metaverse also, to which he has given a new name, Mayaaverse. “There’s plenty of scope here”.
On Dish TV, when asked why the family did not agree to the proposals of Yes Bank, which wanted to remove five directors, including chairman and managing director Jawahar Goel, citing governance issues, Chandra said that the board after consideration had turned them down. He said that the matter is before the National Company Law Tribunal.
He said that Dish TV did not disclose the results of the AGM because the Bombay High Court, which had given a go-ahead to the convening of AGM and had said that results should only be declared once it rules on the matter. “We submitted the results in a sealed envelope to the HC. Once Sebi issued a direction to us to declare, we challenged the same in SAT, but declared the results. The outcome of the AGM would not be acted upon till the SAT decides on our appeal and the Bombay HC passes its final order,” Chandra said.
On reports that Dish TV is exploring merger talks with Bharti Airtel’s DTH venture, Chandra said that there’s no move like this from his side but maybe Yes Bank is pursuing such a course.
