Yes Bank must decide if it is Dish TV investor or a lender: Subhash Chandra

Family's settlement offer is in Yes Bank's court, says Zee founder

Breaking his silence over the Essel group’s dispute with YES Bank, group patriarch Subhash Chandra said the bank should decide its role as a shareholder of Dish TV India or a lender so that the group can accordingly take steps to settle the pending issues with it.

Chandra said his family’s settlement offer was in YES Bank’s court, but it had not taken any steps yet to take the matter forward.

“We are willing to give control of Dish TV to YES Bank if the bank is interested in running its day-to-day operations as a shareholder. But if it’s a lender, then we are ready to negotiate to settle the account,” he told Business Standard in an interview.

After YES Bank seized the Chandra family’s pledged shares after a default, the family’s stake in Dish fell to 6 per cent. 

The bank now owns a 25.63 per cent stake, worth Rs 713 crore as of Tuesday, in the satellite TV broadcaster.

The bank claims that it extended loans of Rs 5,270 crore to 10 different Essel group entities between 2015 and 2018. Chandra, however, says the promoter entities of Essel owe Rs 4,200 crore to the bank, and that the lender has bunched several loans to other group companies, taking the total amount to Rs 5,270 crore.

“We have already paid back 91 per cent of our lenders, and we are ready to settle with YES Bank by paying back more than what the bank’s stake in Dish TV is worth,” Chandra said. “Our offer will be far better than other accounts where the bank has settled with a larger haircut.” Haircut is the amount banks forego to settle a default account.

In December, the shareholders of Dish TV voted to remove the promoter-nominated director on the company’s board. They also voted against the annual accounts of the company for the year ended March 2021.  

Chandra said the family sold stakes in Zee Entertainment Enterprises, the group’s crown jewel, to repay lenders. “In many cases, we have paid 80 per cent of the bank dues and I have promised the banks to pay extra if we make profits from our other businesses,” he said.

The Essel group fell on hard times after the promoter entities raised debt worth Rs 13,000 crore from several banks to invest in the infrastructure sector. As several of the infrastructure projects stalled, the investments turned bad and banks seized promoters’ pledged shares including in the flagship, Zee Entertainment Enterprises. As of now, the Chandra family owns only 4 per cent in Zee.

In December last year, Zee announced a merger with rival Sony Entertainment to create India’s biggest media company with a market share of 25 per cent. The merger proposal is currently pending with the Competition Commission of India (CCI). “The Zee, Sony merger is on schedule and is awaiting clearances,” Chandra said.

On future plans, Chandra said the group would focus on Zee Media Corporation, a news and infotainment entity, which has garnered 300 million unique visitors. “We are targeting one billion unique visitors for our news and infotainment business,” Chandra said.