The founder of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Subhash Chandra, on Monday resigned as chairman of the company after the promoter group sold a majority of its pledged stake in the company to a clutch of marquee investors from India and overseas.
The board accepted Chandra’s resignation but is yet to appoint a new chairman. Chandra will continue to be a director on the board. The company also announced on the reconstitution of its board, following last week’s stake sale.
The company also reconstituted its board and appointed R Gopalan, Surendra Singh and Aparajita Jain as the three new independent directors. These three have replaced Niharika Vora, Sunil Sharma and Subodh Kumar on the board of Zee. The new board of the media and entertainment major will now have six independent directors and two members from the Essel Group.
The company said in a statement, “The reconstitution of the board was to strengthen and induct independent members with varied experiences to build value and provide a strong signal to the existing and new institutional investors who have recently reposed their faith in the intrinsic value of the Company, by investing Rs 4,770 crore.”
Last week, the promoters of Zee announced that they would sell 16.5% of his stake in Zee Entertainment in order to repay lenders. The debt-laden Essel Group had pledged over 90% promoter stake in Zee Entertainment. Earlier this year, Zee had sold 11% stake in Zee to Invesco Oppenheimer, which is now the largest shareholder in Zee while Subhash Chandra will retain close to 5% stake in the company.
The shares of Zee Entertainment closed at `344, down 4% from its previous close on the Nifty.
