Zee shares surge over 15% after Invesco drops EGM demand

Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) rallied 15 percent on Thursday after Invesco Developing Markets Fund, Zee's largest shareholder said it had decided not to pursue an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to add six independent directors as Zee’s merger with Sony will achieve the fund’s aim of strengthening board oversight.

At 9:55 am, shares of Zee were trading at Rs 295.10, up 15.25 percent, or 39.05 points higher, on the BSE.

In September 2021, Invesco had put out a requisition to the Zee Board of Directors to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on the grounds that it felt the company was not running as smoothly as desired. The firm sought to remove three directors from Zee's Board, including Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Punit Goenka.

Bombay High Court allows Invesco appeal against injunction on EGM to remove Zee CEO Punit Goenka

On Tuesday, a division bench of the Bombay High Court vacated its earlier order restraining the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to hear an appeal by Invesco.

According to the most recent order, Zee has three weeks to appeal the High Court's decision to the Supreme Court. If the company fails to do so, the NCLT's Mumbai bench has the authority to reopen the case.

Following appeals filed in the High Court in November of last year, the panel had deferred its hearing. Zee Entertainment Enterprises had been directed by Invesco to call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders.

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Gurmeet Chadha, Co-Founder & CEO, Complete Circle Consultants said, "A key overhang would definitely be removed, with this merger going through though you probably now have a portfolio in broadcasting for almost 75 channels with great regional Hindi content. In fact, if you see if you exclude IPL the market share would be more than Star which has about 24 percent this could be like 26-27 percent, they have the war chest to even take on the digital space."

"These guys have the ability to produce good weekly content on a regional Hindi basis and not just be a me too player and they have the war chest also. So I think the structure looks good and I think there should be some obviously positive news on the stock in the near term. Once all approvals come is best when I think the more structural story can be built on this," Chadha added.