INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
ZEE and SPNI agreed to merge on December 22, 2021
| Photo: Bloomberg2 min read Last Updated : Sep 14 2024 | 6:58 PM IST
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has allowed withdrawal of
its order approving the merger of Zee Entertainment and Sony Pictures Networks India and recalled its earlier order passed in this
regard.
The Mumbai bench of the NCLT had last week recalled its order passed on August 10, 2023, in which it had approved the merger of
Zee Entertainment with Sony Pictures Networks India.
The bench observed the parties have "mutually consented" to withdraw the scheme on
account of the settlement agreement and the board of directors has passed the resolutions to withdraw the scheme of
209 of 2022," said NCLT order, a copy of which was shared to bourses by Zee on Thursday.
Zee, which applied for withdrawal, submitted the
Composite Scheme of the Merger Cooperation Agreement executed to give effect to this scheme stands terminated and accordingly the closing
date has not occurred and the scheme has not attained any effectiveness.
Earlier on August 27, ZEE Entertainment and Sony Pictures
Networks India announced settling their six months long dispute related to the failed USD 10-billion merger and agreed to withdraw all
claims against each other.
As part of that, both had mutually agreed to withdraw all respective claims against each other in the ongoing
arbitration at the SIAC and all related legal proceedings initiated in the NCLT and other forums, a joint statement stated.
Both Zee and
Sony had claimed a termination fee of USD 90 million (around Rs 748.7 crore) from each other for not complying to the Merger Cooperation
Agreement (MCA) signed in December 2021.
In January this year, Sony had pulled out from the proposed USD 10.5-billion merger with ZEE
Entertainment Enterprises Ltd citing failure to meet certain "closing conditions" by the Indian firm.
ZEE and SPNI agreed to merge on
December 22, 2021.(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the
content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)First Published: Sep 14 2024 | 6:57 PMIST
