GECs
Bajoria on the Balaji trail?
MUMBAI: One of corporate India’s hungriest predators, Kolkata-based jute baron Arun Kumar Bajoria is reportedly on the trail again – and this time, he is believed to have set his sights on one of the biggest success stories in television – Balaji Telefilms.
Bajoria is reportedly consolidating his holding further in Balaji Telefilms. He had told news persons in September that he had picked up a near four per cent stake in the TV production house at Rs 66-68 purely as a strategic investment and would be looking to increase it if the share price went down by another Rs 10. Bajoria was not available for comment when contacted by indiantelevision.com.
However, according to senior industry sources, Balaji Telefilms had not received any intimation on the extent of Bajoria’s buying binge in the company, until late this afternoon.
Neither has the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) been informed about any market buying activity which may have resulted in the jute baron’s stake crossing the five per cent creeping acquisition limit.
The latest available shareholding pattern in the production house pegs the (Ekta) Kapoor family’s stake at 57.79 per cent. This means the possibility of a hostile takeover is remote. Institutional investors’ 12.83 per cent holdings in the company include foreign institutional investors’ (FIIs) stake of 9.36 per cent. While a tad less than 12 per cent is lying with the Indian public, private corporate bodies own 16.91 per cent stake in the company.
The Balaji Telefilms scrip closed today’s session with a gain of 6.6 per cent on the BSE after peaking at its intra day 52-week high of Rs 109.50 earlier in the day. Over 0.3 million shares to the tune of Rs 33.3 million have been traded on the counter on the BSE alone.
Meanwhile, Padmalaya Telefilms company secretary (in Hyderabad) Ram Kumar, told indiantelevision.com that media reports stating that Bajoria has also acquired a substantial stake in the Zee Group company are rumours and that the company has no information of Bajoria taking up a substantial stake.
Bajoria is known to surreptitiously takeover companies and had earned the title of ‘corporate raider’ three years ago when he had acquired a 15 per cent stake in Nusli Wadia’s Bombay Dyeing.
The good news for Balaji watchers is that ICICI Securities has issued a buy recommendation for the stock. Is the magic back at the Ekta Kapoor-Shobha Kapoor led production house? Observers believe the duo has ridden over the doubts that had crept out about the extent to which Balaji could sustain its programming on the top of the charts with channel partners such as Star and Sony.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
