SEBI finds ₹2000 crore accounting and funds divergence issue at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, say reports

livemint.com:

₹2,000 crore in the accounts of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Bloomberg reported. This comes as another setback for the beleaguered media firm, occurring within a month of the collapse of its merger with Sony Group Corp's India unit. As part of its investigation into Zee founders, SEBI has disclosed that approximately ₹2,000 crore ($241 million) may have been redirected from the company.

This amount is nearly ten times more than SEBI investigators initially estimated. The identified sum is not final and may undergo changes following SEBI's review of responses from company executives. The regulator has summoned senior officials, including founders Subhash Chandra, his son Punit Goenka, and certain board members, to provide explanations.

SEBI's spokesperson did not respond to email queries from Bloomberg and Reuters. Meanwhile, a Zee spokesperson, while declining to comment on the fund diversion, told Bloomberg via email that the company is actively cooperating with the market regulator's ongoing probe. These recent findings by SEBI compound challenges for Zee CEO Punit Goenka as he endeavours to reassure investors following the termination of the $10 billion merger plan with Sony.

The two-year-long transaction was halted in January, amid a prolonged disagreement over leadership of the new entity. The collapsed merger would have fortified Sony by accessing Zee's extensive content library in regional Indian languages, potentially improving Zee's financial health. Zee reported a 95 percent decline in full-year profit up to March 31 and a profit of 585.4 million rupees for the quarter ending December 31, missing analyst estimates.