News Broadcasting
Zee News seeks government clearance on foreign shareholding
MUMBAI: Zee News Ltd (ZNL) has moved the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to seek clearance on foreign shareholding, which would not exceed 26 per cent as per government norms for news ventures.
The company is seeking government clearance under a proposal wherein foreign promoters of Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) will be transferring their foreign holdings to an investment company in India.
As part of a restructuring, ZTL had proposed to spin off its news and regional channels into ZNL to comply with uplinking regulations on foreign holdings in news channels, which are capped at 26 per cent.
The FIPB application of Zee News specifies, “Issue of 42,467,291 equity share of the company to the foreign promoters of ZTL, that is M/s Delgrade Ltd and Lazarus Investment Ltd, which would be transferred to the Indian promoters of ZTL on allotment, that is to M/s Jayneer Capital Pvt Ltd.”
The foreign holding of promoters in Zee Telefilms is primarily through Delgrada Ltd, which has 19.98 per cent stake. Delgrada is an overseas corporate body (OCB) owned by the Zee Telefilms promoter Subhash Chandra. The balance 2.79 per cent is held by Lazarus Investments Ltd.
The shares to be issued to foreign financial investors (FIIs) in ZNL will have to fall within the 26 per cent cap also. The foreign shareholders will, thus, be given preference shares of equivalent value to bring it under limit. Along with this, the promoters’ foreign holding will be transferred to an investment vehicle (Jayneer Capital Pvt Ltd) in India.
Jayneer Capital Pvt Ltd is one of the Indian promoters of ZNL and holds 40 per cent equity stake in ZNL, while 25 per cent is held by another Indian entity, Churu Trading.
As per regulations, Indian shareholding of 51 per cent is mandatory in a TV news venture uplinking its channel from India. After the completion of the de-merger and transfer of shares, Indian promoters will be able to hold the mandated percentage in ZNL, an executive of Zee News admitted.
As per a plan submitted to the government, every 100 shares of Zee Telefilms would fetch 45 shares of Zee News. Additionally, for every 100 shares of Zee Telefilms held by FIIs, 1,781 preferential shares of Zee News would be allotted.
At the time of listing, the entire shareholding of FIIs and Zee Telefilms in Zee News would get transferred to Indian shareholders of Zee News. The company is looking at becoming a public company by November-end by which time routine clearances for the Zee Tele de-merger would have come from the Bombay High Court.
Zee News, which manages news and regional channels of the Zee group, is targeting a turnover of Rs 2.5 billion this fiscal.
Earlier, this year, the Zee Telefilms board approved splitting of its broadcasting business into three entities — news operations, broadcast and content creation and cable distribution. DTH service of Dish TV is undertaken by another Chandra company, ASC Enterprises.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
