Sony-Zee merger under cloud after Sebi action

On Tuesday, Zee Ent’s stock saw an intraday fall of up to 6.5 percent after Sebi barred Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka from holding any positions in any listed  company.  In fact, a new hurdle has come in the way of Zee Entertainment and Sony Pictures merger.  On Monday evening Markets regulator SEBI passed an interim order barring former Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka from holding key positions in any listed company. Meanwhile, Zee, Chandra and Goenka have moved the Securties Appellate Tribunal agianst the order. The order, which came after a probe by SEBI, said that while holding key positions in Zee Entertainment, both of them misused their position for personal gain and siphoned off funds. SEBI has directed Zee Entertainment to place this order before the company’s board within 7 days. Along with this, 21 days time has also been given to Subhash Chandra and Puneet Goenka to submit their response. According to experts, this decision of SEBI may delay the Zee-Sony merger. SEBI said in its order that on September 4, 2018, Subhash Chandra had issued a letter of comfort or LoC in lieu of the loan taken from YES Bank on behalf of some group companies. Not only this, Sebi has also noticed misrepresentations related to receipt of funds in Zee’s annual report. Sebi said that Zee has given wrong information that the company has received funds from associate entities.

Tata group preparing to become battery export hub
Tata Group was in focus on Tuesday due to 3 updates. The first news is that Tata Group has set a target of breaking China’s monopoly in EV batteries..And for this, the group plans to manufacture batteries for auto and energy solutions at the lowest possible cost. Not only this, the group also plans to export batteries on the basis of low energy consumption and cheap labour. Tata Sons has announced an investment of Rs 13,000 crores for this battery cell manufacturing and is also in talks with the Gujarat government to set up a plant to keep operating costs low. In another news, Tata Motors’ owned Jaguar Land Rover plans an annual investment of 3 billion pounds while targeting revenue of over 30 billion pounds by FY26, according to an investor presentation by the company. Jaguar Land Rover expects to have revenue of over 28 billion pounds in FY24. Meanwhile, Tata Group’s high-growth businesses, including Indian Hotels, Tata Power, Trent and Tata Consumer, offered pay hikes between 16% to 60% to their CEOs and top executives. The board of Tata Sons also acknowledged the group’s highest growth in its history – to $97 billion in sales revenue in 2022-23.