Once the largest public shareholder in Zee Entertainment (Zee), global investment management fund Invesco, exited the firm completely on Monday. The fund offloaded its remaining 5.11% stake in the company for Rs 1,004 crore, via block deals, after holding nearly 18% in the company till March last year.

Stock exchange data on Monday evening showed that 49.11 million shares changed hands at a price of Rs 204.5 apiece. Invesco held its stake in Zee through OFI Global China Fund.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Mauritius-based fund Segantii India Mauritius were among the buyers of the shares offloaded by Invesco on Monday, picking up a 1.6%, 0.7% and 0.9% stake.

Zee shares closed trade on the BSE on Monday at Rs 203.80 apiece, down 2.11% over the previous day’s close.

Invesco had been reducing its shareholding in Zee since it withdrew its demand seeking the reconstitution of the company board under MD & CEO Punit Goenka in March 2022. At that time, it said that it would support the company’s proposed merger with Sony Pictures Networks India in a U-turn that had surprised many.

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Till that time, Invesco and Zee were involved in a bitter battle, with Invesco citing corporate governance issues at the company and Zee denying the same. The matter had escalated after Invesco called for an extra-ordinary general (EGM) meeting in September 2021, asking for the removal of Goenka.

While Zee managed to get an interim injunction in its favour in Bombay high court via a single-judge order in October 2021, the directive was set aside by a division bench of the same court when Invesco appealed against it in March 2022.

Despite the win, Invesco had opted to step aside and cut its stake in Zee, also supporting the media company in its proposed merger with Sony. In April last year, the fund offloaded 7.8% stake for Rs 2,092 crore in bulk deals, bringing it down to around 11%. By October 2022, Invesco had offloaded another 5.51% stake for Rs 1,396 crore in Zee, also in bulk deals.

And now the fund is completely out of the company, which analysts say will favour Zee as it looks to complete its proposed merger with Sony over the next few months.

In the last one month, Zee has settled its financial disputes with IndusInd Bank and the Indian Performing Rights Society, with Goenka paying Rs 50 lakh to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) last week to settle an insider trading case.