In view of the changing global media landscape, Essel Group is undertaking a strategic review of its shareholding in Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd (ZEEL) to maximise value for the business. Accordingly, Essel is looking to divest its 50 per cent shareholding in ZEEL to a global strategic partner who will help further transform the company into a global leader.
The group has appointed Goldman Sachs Securities (India) Ltd as the investment banker and the US-and Europe-based LionTree as an international strategic advisor for this exercise.
The move, Essel Group said in a statement, will transform ZEEL into a leading global media-tech player with a unique offering of content to mainstream audiences in 170-plus countries.
The decision was taken by Chairman Subhash Chandra and family along with advisers, post a recent meeting over the Diwali weekend in Mumbai. The strategic review of the group's businesses underscored the importance of technological advancements such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), among others on various businesses.
"There is informed recognition that the world is convergent today and the lines across media, telecom, manufacturing and technology are thinner than ever," said the statement, "The semiconductor business also appeared to be a promising opportunity, but due to its large capital requirement, it was ruled out. It was observed that these developments will impact virtually all businesses across sectors and business practices will be driven by technological innovation."
The review also showed that the family needs to accelerate efforts to stay ahead of fast-changing trends. It noted that with the current 1.3 billion viewers and close to 50 million digital viewers growing at a fast pace, ZEEL is well-placed to benefit from current market trends due to its strong brand and bouquet of domestic and international channels. Additionally, the Over-The-Top (OTT) platform ZEE5 will further enable the company to leverage the benefits of changing video consumption trends.
Commenting on where the business stands today, Jawahar Goel, a promoter of the Essel Group, said, "Punit and Amit Goenka have made the right sustainable investments for the future and the business is growing ahead on all fronts in a focused and disciplined way."
Essel Group is of the view that ZEEL, on its own, would remain a leader in both linear and digital distribution. "It has the consumer insights and know-how to produce and deliver content for the South Asian diaspora globally. The management depth the company has built over the last two decades, distributing content globally in 12 foreign languages, puts the company in a unique position. It has strong revenue streams including advertising and subscription – domestic and international," said the statement.
FORWARD, HO!
- Goldman Sachs Securities (India) Ltd has been appointed as the investment banker
- US-and Europe-based LionTree as an international strategic advisor for the exercise
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