What lies ahead for Zee-Sony merger? Karan Taurani answers

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

«The mergers between two entities and the matters related to Mr Goenka family only, not related to the merger. And now that they have got a very clean chit, NCLT approval without any kind of conditions around creditors or any condition around the SEBI SAT issue, I think the merger will eventually go through without him,» says Karan Taurani, Senior VP, Elara Securities.Just going as per your last note, you had said that there is not going to be too much of an adverse impact on the merger with respect to the SEBI order because Punit Goenka has already stepped down from the board. But just wanted to get in your thoughts on the fresh set of news.So, if you look at this I think the last time when SEBI SAT came up with the statement I think they had given a timelines of almost about five weeks to complete the process.

Now something would have come out in the probe or some time would have been needed even for the investigation to be completed which is why the timelines now are extended towards eight months. Now if you look at the current scenario, Mr Punit Goenka is not on the board, he has also stepped down from day-to-day activities and I do not foresee Sony is going to wait for eight months for this probe to end.

So, I think for now the merger will probably go through without him and once we see an outcome in terms of what is going to happen from his end, he might join back the company or they might have some terms with the Sony management. But for now I think it is very clear that over the next two months you will see the merged entity being formed and that is going to be without Mr Punit Goenka.So, for a minority shareholder what does this mean? I mean this technically means that the merger will not go through or in this