Zee Telefilms Plans To Divest Stake In Publishing Arm

In a major restructuring of the shareholding pattern of Zee Publishing, Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms Ltd will divest its stake in the publishing company, while Chandra and his family will come in as strategic investors in their individual capacities.

As a consequence of this restructuring, Zee Publishing will no longer be a subsidiary of ZTL and be a standalone company following its own independent path of growth.

During June-July Zee Publishing will also come out with some new launches in the form of magazines and periodicals.

"This move (ZTL divesting stake in Zee Publishing) will remove any doubts/issues in terms of regulations regarding restrictions on cross-media holdings," a statement from Zee Publishing, quoting operating partner Deepak Shourie, stated yesterday.

 

Shourie, however, will remain the operating partner of Zee Publishing taking care simultaneously of his other responsibilities in the capacity as chief executive of ZTL in charge of news and FM radio business.

As a result of the changes in the ownership, the publishing business will now get more focused attention, but will be a self-financing entity which will also look at possible mergers and acquisitions in the print medium.

Earlier, as a subsidiary of ZTL, people could have questioned Zee Publishing starting or acquiring a newspaper or a news magazine as foreign holding in print medium is barred as per a Cabinet note of 1955.

In the near future, if the need arises, the name of Zee Publishing too can be changed.

Last year, Chandra had worked out a business strategy which included spinning off of some of the business divisions such as new media or Internet-related activities and print and publication division into independent companies as subsidiaries and offering equity partnerships to senior executives in the ventures.

As part of this, he had roped in Deepak Shourie (who had resigned as The Hindustan Times executive president after a brief stint) as an equity partner and publisher of Zee Publishing.

Chandra has worked out a similar arrangement with ZTL's managing director Vijay Jindal, who had been given equity in E-Connect Ltd, an India-registered company, looking after Internet-related and new media businesses. Since then, Jindal has also become the vice-chairman and managing director of ZTL.