The merger of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) has been announced on Wednesday. Punit Goenka will continue as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

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The resultant merger ratio is expected to be 47.07 percent held by ZEEL shareholders and the balance 52.93 percent will be held by SPNI shareholders. The merger between ZEEL and SPNI is considered to be a win-win deal as the both the companies will now be able to share the content, distribution and enjoy each other’s digital space.

 

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Research analyst Varun Dubey said that it is a big day for the media industry. He said that the promoters here will have the option that the existing holding 4 percent which they have, can be increased to 20 percent in the coming time. He added that Zee Entertainment is a listed company and will remain listed on the Indian stock exchange.

Anil Singhvi, Managing Editor at Zee Business spoke on how this deal will impact the shareholders and said that when both the number one and number two companies merge then the type of value created for the minority shareholders and institutional investors is very good.

 

He said that such big mergers create a big giant and the scale of work increases, pricing power comes and lots of expenses gets reduced. The biggest expense in entertainment industry is of content creation and distribution which will get reduced.

Benefits of merger:

Talking about the benefits of the merger, research analyst Varun Dubey said that both the companies will be benefited with this mega merger. The companies will be benefited with each other's reach and distribution.

He informed that Zee has a presence in more than 190 countries and have more than 100 channels in more than 10 languages. While Sony has a presence in around 165-170 countries.

While Enam Group Chairman Vallabh Bhansali told Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi in an exclusive chat called it the biggest merger in the media space and said that both companies stand to gain from the ground level.  

Likening it to the Walt Disney- Star deal, the Enam Group Chairman said that this mega-merger will set trends and could lead to many more consolidations in the future. He said that as the economy matures and the consumer market develops, such consolidations go up.

Sony’s strength lies in its humor genre while Zee is a family entertainment channel with many regional channels. The chance of overlapping is minimum, and benefits are maximum, he opined. This deal will also reduce the operating cost, he added.

(Disclaimer: Zee Entertainment is not our sister concern/group company. Though our names sound similar but our company is owned by Zee Media Corporation, which is a different group.)