Zee Ent slips over 3% on Invesco block deal buzz; stock recoups soon

The counter saw trades of around 124 million shares in the first couple of minutes of trade

Zee Entertainment shares slipped 3.4 per cent to a low of Rs 281.10 in the intra-day trades on the NSE on Thursday amid heavy volume. Till 9:30 AM, 124.5 million shares had changed hands on the NSE and BSE.

According to reports, Invesco Developing Markets, the largest shareholder of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, was looking to sell 7.8 per cent stake worth Rs 2,200 crore in the entertainment major via block deals on Thursday.

The stock, however, recoped losses and rebounded into the positive zone to touch a high of Rs 295. 

Invesco owned 18.8 per cent stake in Zee at the end of Q3FY22, and has supported the merger between Zee and Sony Entertainment. The Zee-Sony merger is currently pending at the Competition Commission of India.

In a statement, Invesco said the purpose of this transaction is to align these funds' exposures to Zee with other funds managed by the investment team and to achieve an aggregate ownership position in the company that is more in line with the investment team's portfolio construction approach. READ MORE

Invesco, which was against the deal previously, recently decided not to pursue the litigation calling for a shareholders' meet to remove Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Punit Goenka.

Meanwhile, other group stocks -- Zee Media and Zee Learn -- were up 4.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent each at Rs 18.40 and Rs 14.60, respectively.