Essel aims to repay lenders by Sept but plan unlikely to leave it unscathed

The steep falls in Zee provoked several lenders to dump over Rs 500 crore worth of pledged shares in panic

February 24 was Black Friday for the Essel Group, the media-to-infrastructure empire built by Subhash Chandra, when its listed companies lost over $2 billion. Flagship and cash cow Zee Entertainment Enterprises alone was hammered 26 per cent.

There were multiple provocations for the fall: allegations that one of its companies was being investigated (which was denied); and, more importantly, news that the promoters had pledged group company shares to borrow Rs 13,000 crore from non-banking financial companies, mutual funds and others to invest in  infrastructure projects that are in trouble. This includes up to 59 per cent of promoters shares